I don't get many of these anymore. Every time I do I pick up and harass them. Then I keep calling back for as long as the number works.

I accidentally called one back a few days ago and incoming robocalls have gone through the roof. I have no proof that that's why, but I won't rule it out.

On a more positive note, Hiya has been working really well identifying spam/robocalls, so I don't actually pick them up.

Anecdotally, I've noticed a decrease since a few months ago (my call blocker log shows 1 call in all of January) and I've been picking up, striking up a conversation for 10-15 seconds then continuing the same with hardcore insults in a relaxed, deadpan manner, as if we were still discussing their IT assistance/credit card "refund"/cruise/security system offer. If they start yelling I just hang up. Some people try to keep selling me their crap, that is funny; I've got quite a few stunned silences punctuated by huffs and puffs, and I made one scammer sob, that was great (I guess whatever I told him about his call center job was accidentally well targeted); so it's also great entertainment and takes very little time, you can have them on speakerphone and keep working/reading/working out/etc.

"Are your parents proud of what you do for a living?" is quite effective.

Anecdotally I've had a fairly large uptick in the frequency of spam calls lately... I don't think it's anything you've done

Same, although none today. I wonder if this lawsuit shut them up for now?

Causality is likely coincidental.

Robocalls generally seem to be going through the roof.

That's no more effective than replying to spam.

It is slightly more effective than replying to spam emails because you tie up their human capital dealing with you.

It's not a lot more effective though.

I like to think they put me on an actual do not call list since I tie up and annoy their operators for as long as possible. One time getting the same guy a dozen times before he finally gave up and from what I can guess just went on a long lunch lol.

It also drains their money since they pay per minute for the call the longer you can string them along.

That doesn't sound like a worthwhile use of time though. What would be cool is if we could transfer the call to a robo responder and have it be smart enough to act like a really dumb person.

You technically can! Meet Lenny.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RRhRImp6kKQ

Lenny rocks. The current record in our office is 13:47 - we couldn't believe it either.

Wonder if something like GPT-2 could be trained to do something like this?

It should also learn the caller's speech and slowly overtime change it's own voice to sound more and more like the caller. Eventually the caller would be talking to themself... same accent, cadence, vocabulary, etc. LOL

they have proper robocalls too.

"This is the IRS speaking" in a voice about as authoritative as Microsoft Sam.

I get several a day from spoofed numbers. How do you call them back?

It just depends on the scammer and the scam.

The SSN scam has a valid callback number.

but you're savvy to this attack. The majority of victims aren't

I have downloaded an app called RoboKiller and it has worked well so far. I used to get spam calls from Russia, India and Indonesia at 3 am in the morning and wake me up. After downloading the said app these calls have drastically even though once in a while a spam call gets through.

You mean, "unlisted?"

Sorry that was vague - Waiting for a call from an insurance company that's nationwide and I have no idea what number they'll be calling from, so it's not just a matter of screening for a certain area code, which is forcing me to answer and talk to scammers instead of just ignoring all incoming calls like usual.