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Comment by arethuza | Hacker News Reader

I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognise - but a couple of days back it was a scammer claiming to be from Amazon - said I had ordered an iPhone for £600 and was it a real order.

I was pretty suspicious but thought I would get them to authenticate their identity as someone really from Amazon by telling me the last thing I had really ordered was...

I must have stayed on the call for 20 minutes, eventually they ended up swearing at me - all the time I could hear other people in the same room trying the same lines on different people. I have no idea why I stayed on for so long....

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Even when you know it’s fake, the whole thing is very disconcerting. I received a scam call ostensibly from a local utility and filed an identity theft report with local police naming the utility as “victim”. The caller even told me where they (probably really) were. Police do nothing, scams continue until something breaks.

A few years back I got a call from a scammer selling a device that would help stop scam phone calls - that actually took me a while to realise it was a scam (this is like 15 years ago).

Would (the actual) Amazon even agree to provide this kind of information over the phone to someone?

is talking to amazon on the phone at all even actually possible?

That's the easiest way to spot a scam: "Hello this message is from Google customer service..."

Yes, and it’s the best way to get support too! They’re real helpful.

I get this kind of call about 5-15 times a day

I do not answer calls

A lot of them phone me and ask for my wife by name "Can I speak to XYZ" - I usually reply "No" and end the call. Actually, for the last few calls I've not even been saying the "No".

Maybe 3 or 4 of these a day <sigh>

You should not even respond to these. Responding gives them some valuable information about your phone number. Just junk it + report as spam.

I wonder, how this in affects modern software stack that have AI with the AI Call Screening which will ask questions, you can automatically identify certain dimensions: phone is active -- phone has a plan,-- phone is a Pixel or iPhone with a specific minimum model and OS ver ?

Then because of the leak side channel effect they can further future target calls such as coming from google about your problem with "your pixel 9 or 10?"

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