Modern Phone Etiquette, or The Eternal War Against the Machines

[jducoeur]

NB: if you call me on the phone, please do not start with, "Hello there -- how are you doing today?" That innocuous-sounding greeting has been taken over by the latest generation of computer-driven recorded spam, with far higher sound quality and realism than I had heard until this year. So when I hear it, I just hang up -- I refuse to be polite to a computer that is taking up my time.

And speaking of phone spam: I'm not sure what the heck list I've gotten onto, but this month I've suddenly started getting a lot of new calls -- in Chinese. (I think -- it's certainly East Asian intonation, but I'm not an expert.) Anybody else getting this?

Comments

[writerkit]

I got one in Chinese, one in broken English, and one that was perfectly fine English but a terrible connection telling me that the police were coming for me and my house and phone were being monitored so please call them back, to which I cannot figure out the scam.

[cvirtue]

Yes, been getting them in Chinese (or similar) as well.

[pryder]

I have pretty much stopped answering the phone unless I have a specific reason to be expecting a call.

[wispfox]

Wait, you answer unexpected unknown numbers?

I don't, and haven't for years. :)

[jducoeur]

I know that it's chic not to, but honestly I get a *lot* of significant phone calls -- everything from notifications from the city about upcoming road closures to calls from my lawyers. Avoiding unknown phone numbers just isn't an option...

[drwex]

The Chinese phone scam is almost always in Mandarin and it's targeting immigrants with scare language, telling them things like the government is not going to renew their visas or is going to deport them despite having green cards (who EVER would do such things!) and the solution of course is to send the caller money to "fix" the "problem".

And like you I often have to take calls from unknown numbers because repair people, contractors, etc. I have a well-used "block" button.

[wispfox]

Dunno about chic, but it definitely helps my mental state.

I do understand getting a lot of calls you need to answer, so sympathy for the spam calls!

[artan]

I don't get any in Chinese yet, but also largely don't pick up for numbers I don't recognize and voicemail-screen.

The ones I get most often that I hate are the "the local authorities are coming to get you for unspecified crime! call us!" that actually leave voicemail.

[alexxkay]

Lately, it's the IRS for me, not locals.

[fenicedautun]

Over the weekend most of Liberty Boston office extensions got voicemails in Chinese. So that might just be a robocaller trying all valid numbers.

[elusiveat]

I've been getting the Chinese ones too. And yeah, they are Chinese.

[cellio]

I recently started getting notices of voicemail at work, all in Chinese. (Also, I have a work phone number? Not a physical phone, that's for sure. I think this is part of some IT shuffling after a corporate merger.)

So far, no Chinese to my cell phone -- still mostly credit-card and IRS scams there.

By the way, when I call somebody I always start by identifying myself. I hope that differentiates me from the robocalls. Not that I make many calls (or receive many legitimate ones). Also, I don't have your phone number so this is theoretical in your case. :-)