I cannot stand these spam calls any more.

Marighost@lemm.ee to Android@lemmy.world – 312 points –

(Picture alt text: a screenshot of my phone's call log, with numbers redacted (just in case). The phone numbers (except for one) are all spam calls)

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this, but I am at my limit with these.

Constantly throughout the day I get spam call after spam call. I constantly report them to Google (I've got a Pixel 5, if it matters), yet nothing changes. This has been happening for months.

These calls will also leave the exact same, completely silent, 4-second voicemails. I will block and report spam, but you know how it is. There's no way to turn voice mail notifications off, and I wouldn't necessarily want to, because I know I'd miss something genuine or important.

What do I do? Is there anything I can do, beyond changing numbers? Even then, I'm sure a new number would exist in some database somewhere and be victim to more spam calls. This is heinous.

Thanks for reading. I'm just so frustrated.

Edit: this got a lot more attention than I anticipated. I appreciate the suggestions for different spam blockers and settings! It's also nice knowing I'm not alone. Hopefully, at least in the US, we'll get some real legislation eventually that will kill these spam calls once and for all.

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The issue is lots of countries (including America) let scammers spoof a real life number.

So you get a spam call from a random local number block it because it was spam, but the scammers just use another number and all you've done is block a random number that's owned by an actual individual or will be soon.

It's all based on laws from decades ago and not accounting for modern tech

The phone companies could stop number spoofing if they wanted to, they just don't see the benefit in doing so.

Someone should set up a robocalling system with number spoofing to call phone company execs and law makers to annoy them into stopping it.

A couple weeks ago I got a random call from an 866 number whose caller id was Apex Tactical, as in the body cam and weapon gear manufacturer. I don’t have any involvement in or make any purchases in anything remotely related to them and it was kind of wild they didn’t leave a voicemail and I kind of just assumed it was a spoofed spam call but then that begs the question wtf why pick that company to impersonate lol

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This is a tactic that worked for me, but your mileage may vary. I used to get dozens of spam calls a day on both my work and personal numbers. I did all the things that you're supposed to do and they just kept coming. I also needed to answer unknown numbers on my work phone so I couldn't just block them.

So after a while, I started answering the calls and calling them back when I got silence. I made sure I could talk to a person/scammer as often as possible. In the beginning I would just ask them if they felt good about themselves trying to scam people out of their money. They would generally just hang up but one guy gave this long speech about how if you were that dumb you didn't deserve that much money and how he was living the American dream (although I did ask him if he was in American at which point he hung up on me). After that, I would just start trying to keep them on the phone as long as possible. My job is such that I can work and talk on the phone at the same time, so I made a word document that had a fake name, birth day, social security number, address, a fake person basically. Then I would put on my "old man" voice and just act stupid to keep them on the phone. I kept one guy on the phone for four hours as I pretended to be too inept to turn on my laptop to give him my IP address. He was quite upset when I told him I knew he was scamming me.

Anyway, I haven't gotten a scam call in like 6 months. I think scammers put me on their do not call list. Maybe worth a shot?

Pretty similar for me, almost disappointed I haven't gotten one in a while. It's funny to waste their time, and get them all worked up lol.

Yeah it was kinda fun. I figured ever minute I had them on the phone was a minute they weren't scamming old people with dementia out of their money, so at the very least I was doing something mildly good too.

I do love the idea of wasting their time! I've done it a couple of times, but nothing quite so extensive as what you do. Usually when I call robo call numbers back, I get "this number is disconnected," so I can't even annoy the hell out of them like they do to me. :/

Four hour guy I had a lot of clerical work to do at work that day and didn't need to talk on the phone at all so I just kept him going. Would go off on long made up stories related to what he was saying. Told him about my kids and their kids and my deceased wife. They guy told me that my card was used to purchase (among other expensive things) "$3,000 worth of Bitcoin" and I kept being like "what's a bite coin?" and he COULD. NOT. GET. PAST. me calling it bite coin instead of Bitcoin. He would correct me every time. Then I asked what that was and he told me it was a digital currency and I told him about my coin collection for like 8 minutes before he steered me back on topic. I only told him I was wasting his time because I was done with work.

I will say, one guy asked if I lived alone and I told him I do now because my wife of 47 years died two months ago and he said "Ahhh...that's sad..." and hung up on me. So at least that guy wasn't completely evil.

If you're not getting calls it's just coincidence. Scammers don't have a unified do not call register.

You're just wasting your time.

Arguably what he is doing is for good, because he is also wasting their time, not being able to scam actual victims.

Not really. If you really wanted to help your time would be better spent volunteering for an organisation that teaches tech literacy to people.

Also I don't really believe OPs claims. Sure OK occasionally you might get a scammer to talk for more than a few minutes but not often.

One spam call I asked the guy to stay on the line while I verify his number by running a route trace. He hung up and I stopped getting spam calls almost completely. Now I get a few that are auto-blocked but I still get robo-voicemails.

This has been effective for me, too, though I haven't put that much effort towards it. I lose interest and change my mind about wanting to be on the phone for very long, but I'll engage with them. Like question why they are asking for my name if they called claiming there was a warrant for me, or similar situations where they are asking for information that they should have if the call was legit. Their goal isn't to call people and annoy them, they want easy money from stupid people (and tbh, I don't have much sympathy for those dumb enough to fall for it).

If you slow them down in their system, they seem to have another system to help filter people like you out.

Yeah I've started doing the same and its almost like they maintain a list of us time wasters 😅 I'll typically play along as long as I can so they think I'm all game. After they rage quit I immediately call the number back from a second phone and attempt to play dumb like I got disconnected, typically with some other dumbass that just resets and starts the script over, so I get a free two-fer 😂

It has become a fun little ride every once in a while!

It's probably a coincidence. Systems like that would mark your number as active as soon as you called back, and therefore either valid for spam calls directly, or ready to resell to other spammers, so they get their money in either case.

Since you have a Pixel maybe try changing the call screening settings?

I just leave it on maximum. Too many spoofed local numbers. If it's someone important a d they're not in my contacts, they'll either make it through the screener or leave a message.

Silly question, but where in settings is this? I feel like I've had it set up but can't remember.

Open phone app, 3 dots at the top right, settings, call screen

Seems to be on, apparently... Thank you for showing me though!

I would make sure you have it on "maximum protection" to ensure it screens all unknown callers.

Personally I use Fossify phone to send all unknown callers to voicemail. Then disable my voicemail. It causes problems, but fewer problems than having my phone blowing up all day with spam calls.

Also the stock Pixel dialer makes it nearly impossible to decline calls because the button is at the bottom of the screen, but you have to swipe down to decline...

You can also just borrow someone else's phone and jam-pack it full of voicemails until it stops accepting them. Then leave a voicemail message asking them to text or email.

Thank you! I didn't know where to find that setting and I didn't know exactly what term to search in the settings to find it.

Where is this setting?

Open phone app, 3 dots at the top right, settings, call screen

So the solution is give Big Daddy G more control huh. How convenient for them.

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Greetings, friend. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. Use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay. Eternal happiness is only a dollar away.

(Sorry for your inconvenience, but this is all I can think of now. 😆)

You know what? I appreciate this reference. And if I don't laugh, I'll scream. So thanks!

Sometimes that's all you can do!

Screw telecoms for letting all this crap continue.

Yet Another Call Blocker

I've used it for years now. Very few calls make it through any more.

YACB the GOAT

Blacklist: *

Whitelist Contacts: On

Advanced Call Blocking Mode: On

Absolutely nothing gets through

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Would that work in OP's case, where the spammers just spoof a local number? You'd think that it would get around that, just by virtue of being an "unrated" number.

yes, you can set up custom blacklists, with wildcard support

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Use Carrion from F-Droid and make it your screening app. Numbers that call you have to go through a verification that is mandated in the US & Canada. Numbers that fail this handshake verification will be rejected.

Will this effect callers who's numbers I don't have that I need to take? I have business calls all the time where I don't know the number.

As long as its a legit number that uses a popular carrier that supports modern protocols they should come through. I'd test it out yourself if you have any concerns.

I usually get around 1 spam call per day, but sometimes I can get as much as 12 per day. I legitimately wonder why I even have a phone plan at this point and I know I'm not the only one who has considered that.

There was one time I got spam calls just one after another for a good 15 minutes in a row. Like as soon as I'd reject the call, another one would come in. I ended up just turning off my phone for an hour or so. We're really in a bad state with spam

I’ve had maybe 1 scam call in 5 year after turning on tmobiles blocking feature. Check with your carrier if they offer such a thing.

I legitimately wonder why I even have a phone plan at this point

I don't think you can get an exclusive data plan. Or disable phone calls. But I would if I could.

You can effectively block all calls using Yet Another Call Blocker.

Optionally send all calls to voicemail.

I don't see an option to block all calls.

This is a nice app but it has the same pitfalls as most other apps: it filters by phone number, which is absolutely pointless in the age of number spoofing.

Turn off notifications, turn on the service and advanced mode.

My phone never even rings. Ever. All calls are sent to google voice mail.

For numbers that make it through Yet Another Call Blocker, they get sent to my Google voice mail (phone doesn't even ring).

So then at most I have a notification of a call, and I can see it's 2 or 3 seconds, so I know it's BS.

If my phone rings, and I see an unknown number, I just decline. I'm at this level of trust.

Answering my phone is like answering my door.

If I'm not expecting you, I'm not answering.

Anyone important will leave a VM,email, or text to reach back out.

This crap is the only reason I need AI. Unknown call? Take it, AI call screener with infinite patience. Why doesn't this exist?

It does, my Pixel has call screening built-in and it works great. I think you can install Google Dialer on some other Android phones and use it

I don't just want it to screen the calls away. I want it to take the call, listen to them, then use an elderly senile voice to waste their time for hours. And even on Pixel I still have text spam coming through.

But then you won't be able to receive phone calls from other numbers while the phone engages in the fake conversation

The phone could just forward suspected spam calls to a separate number. I wouldn't expect the AI to run on your phone. Send it to a centralized server just for handling this stuff. If it turns out to be legit, you could still take it back, kinda like voicemail. Besides, who are these people getting multiple calls at once?

This is actually a feature on the Pixel 8. It can even hold for you.

Edit: Well, it can screen the call by listening to the audio for a moment. Making it waste their time might be possible... I can get it talk like a cowboy by just prompting it to do so... Maybe I can prompt it to waste telemarketer and scammers time too 🤔

You can literally see it in this screenshot screening calls.

Yeah, that's not what I want it to do. I want it to deliberately and maliciously waste spammers' time. Take the call. Talk to them. Act senile. Keep them talking to an AI as long as possible. Destroy their industry.

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Soo... One of you please make a soundboard app where at the push of a button I can send these telemarketer full on baby screaming sounds or play my own "response" to their ads.

Bad idea... responding to the call marks your number as "active" in their system and they'll spam you with even more calls. I found that out the hard way.

Or better yet, connect them to a voice chat ai that just wastes their time until they hang up. I wonder if something like that exists...

A few years ago I felt the same way. I installed the Should I Answer? app and even limited calls to people in my contacts to get it under control.

I'm on a Pixel too. I'm in the USA and, at some point, Google got their act together on screening calls here. Most spam is rejected outright and the remaining ones get screened by the phone itself. I haven't had spam call in a couple of years now! And I don't have to use Should I Answer? anymore.

The pixel automatic call screener is the best feature of the phone IMO. If its important/relevant whoever is calling will talk to the screener and I can choose to answer. Spam is either already filtered or just hangs up once screened.

Save all known callers to your address book. Set "block calls from unknown numbers" in the android caller settings. Done.

This is hard if you have to see doctors. They like to call from different variations of their numbers.

On Android you don't have to save the number, you can just block it. I'm not sure if this is true for all Android phones.

I know you can block numbers without adding them, but I mean to do the exact opposite. Save all of your actual contacts and block unknown ones straight away, or send them to mailbox where you leave a recording to email you instead.

Yeah I misunderstood what you said. Thanks for clarifying.

In my country hospitals and the like tend to call with hidden numbers, so it wouldn't work here.

you misunderstood. you save the ones you expect calls from and block all others by default.

Yeah I misunderstood what they said. Thanks for clarifying.

A screenshot of my phone's voicemail box. All of them are spam calls that leave 4-second voicemails.

Here's the voicemail log that I mentioned. It's just insane.

I don't even bother with voicemail anymore. They've completely taken it over.

What's real funny though is I got a new number and it hasn't gotten any spam calls at all, while my old one is still getting them.

I fixed that issue long ago by filling up my voicemail so no one can leave a voice message. Then have your voice mail tell people to send you a text.

Totally anecdotal but if you have the number connected with social media like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc if you delete your account or maybe even switch out to a different phone number, you will get less to no spam calls. I deleted my social media and after that I don't receive any calls. I only get calls that I'm supposed to get now.

Also, my phone number registered with bank and dmv is different so this might also be a contributing factor.

I dont know where you live but in Croatia (EU) there is a registar "Dont Call" that you can add your number to. They told me that phone service providers are sharing our numbers LOL unless you ask them not to. This registar should be level above providers so your number should be private no matter what. I was just going to apply to that

That's... not how that works.

Diallers just dial random numbers. They don't need a list of numbers to call.

They DGAF if you're on a do not call register.

In EU due to GDPR you do have the right to be forgot. I have asked those companies who have called me, to delete all information they have about me, and in return I have got the information needed to go through the process. That way there have been less spam calls

Could try my tactic

Change your phone number and give it to people only. Never businesses unless it's a trades service. Best buy and the lot get a dummy number. Good luck selling my information

Also online services get the dummy number.

Zero spam calls in two years

What do you 8f a website requires phone number for 2FA?

Haven't had anything outside my bank that needed that

I hace so many websites that require 2FA and don't support authenticator apps.

I have a policy - only those who should know my phone number is family and they are very strict about asking me before giving to anyone who asks. So, it's usually not given. Then for businesses and other places which require a phone number, I use a Google Voice number. From doctors, to banks, or other places. I rarely get the scam calls.

HOWEVER

I get around 6-15 SPAM text messages daily. All 100% Political for Trump, Biden, Harris, or whatever scammer tries to get me to support on my non-shared number. A lot try to guilt you into "donating" to them too! I feel bad because while I won't fall for it, I know many people already do. I have to use Google Messages to effectively block those automatically.

I have AT & T and complained to them about it to be told that I could change my number, but it would be $40.00 to do so. That's a big scam in itself and I refused.

I don't even get political texts anymore

All my spam texts are from "people" asking if I want to go golfing, or sending me a picture of a wine bottle. It's absurd.

There's an app called tasker that let's you set up some pretty deep automation on your phone. I've used this a set up a grey list on my phone.

If a call comes in from a saved contact, all is normal. If it's an unsaved number though, it doesn't ring and goes to voicemail as if I just didn't answer at all. If, however, they call back within two minutes, it will ring as per normal and I then know it's, likely, someone who actually needs me.

I set this up because my phone number gets passed around at work quite a bit. If someone really needs me, I always figure they'll call more than once or text after a missed call.

This seems a right strategy, I usually block all unknown number but I fear to lost some calls that are important.

Put your phone on do not disturb for anyone not in your contacts. I almost never get spam calls anymore because my phone just sends them all straight to voicemail and they seem to have figured out that they'll never get through to a real person. It took a few months, and I still had to clear out quite a few voicemails in that time but I didn't get notifications about them so I could just clear them out at the end of the day.

Do you know if there's a way to do this other than DND? I just set up a profile that's scheduled to be active 24/7 where only people in my contacts can call, but my problem is that it puts the DND icon in my status bar, so I lose the visual indicator when my phone is in a more restrictive DND profile, which I do use sometimes and also occasionally accidentally trigger.

I'm not sure. I never use the full dnd setting, so I haven't had to try any alternatives. I just know dnd seems to work better than apps that say they'll block spam.

Check your app store, there are a lot of spam blocker apps that can help with this. Some of them may be included with your phone plan depending on the carrier!

I use Google Fi, so I'll take a deep dive for anything there. Any app recommendations? I'm nervous to search through the store since there can be many not-so-good apps that would probably need some hefty permissions (access to calls, call logs, etc). Thank you, though!

I'm also on fi and have the exact same issue as you. Same 4 second silent message, all of it. Drives me crazy. The worst part is Google is filtering out the calls so my phone doesn't actually ring but I get the notification for the message. Probably 5-6 per day and I have no idea how to stop it. In fact I had one come through as I was typing this.

Do you have call screening turned on? I find that results in me getting much fewer spam calls than normal as the robots usually mark other machines as not-valid for scamming.

I love call screening and I'll never turn it off.

You could try Carrion from F-Droid. Theres also the national do not call registry to try out. I'm not sure if it worked but I no longer recieve 4-5 spam calls a day.

I use the one from my cell provider so sadly I can't give any great recommendations. I would look for ones with a lot of downloads and a high rating maybe? Just do a search for "call filter" and it should pull up some good results

OP has pixel and is in the +1 area code from the picture meaning they are in America. So I don't get why he/she is not using Google Call screen.

I still get spam calls, but my phone never rings or alerts me. The only way I find out is by occasionally opening call history. The assistant can recognize most spam automated messages and it automatically hangs up. For real spam callers; they mostly hang up when they realize they have to talk to a robot first.

If you have a pixel you can turn on call screening for unknown numbers. Ive been using it for a couple years now on my pixel and my phone hardly ever rings now, its fantastic

Phone > settings > call screen > automatically screen calls + maximum protection.

Sounds like an overcomplex and invasive solution for an easy problem. Just switch the number, obviously some strange people (and a lot) had access to it.

Then follow with best practices and never give out your phone number when possible. There are tons of free sms services you can use

You think switching your number is less complex than using call screen?

That would literally involve changing your number with most major web services you use including your bank BEFORE you get rid of your old number. Better hopr you don't forget one because your not gonna get that sms verification code to log back in.

Thats a fair point. But the real and simple problem is "your phone number was breached somewhere, change it". I never get spam calls or mails, people that are not careful do.

An app on android called "should i answer" is good for blocking spam

If the pixel 5 supports it, absolutely turn on assistant call screening. If a number is slightly suspected of being a spam call, it will send it to Google assistant who asks them who they are and why they're calling. This filters nearly all spam calls in my experience, while not preventing you from getting legitimate calls.

Even better, after using it a while I no longer get many spam calls, maybe 1-2 a week that gets quietly handled in the background.

There's a setting to screen call as many people mention.

But there's another setting tucked away somewhere else to block unknown numbers and that's helped me a lot as well.

Yeah, just block any unknown numbers. Who do you actually have calling you that you don't know?

If they are blocked they'll leave a message: "Call me". It's like no one has ever heard of screening calls with an answering machine.

Same here. It's always the same Medicare scam. And I just watched that special John Oliver did about human traffickers forcing people to work in their scam factories, so I wonder if it's part of that.

As soon as i finish buying my house im very seriously considering whitelisting my calls.

I got so tired of them that I actually answered one a few weeks ago. I was shocked that an actual person answered.

I asked to be taken off and she was very nice and they actually did it.

Haven't received one since.

You have the Pixel, use your assistant on the calls. It's good at screening them and they give up when they hit a robot talking to them.

You could try talking to your phone company about it. My wife had a problem where someone was spoofing her number to make the spam calls. So she'd get call backs from old ladies asking her who she is and what she wanted. But T-mobile shut down her number for like 24 hours, which was inconvenient for a day, but when it came back on the problem was resolved.

Who is your provider? If they have an online toggle for more spam detection/blocking, turn that on. Alternatively you could move to another provider who does a better job at handling spam calls.

T Mobile has an app called Scam Shield that seems to do a better job than Google. If a call is identified as a scam, your phone won't ring. You can report ones that get through. I installed this a few days ago, and it's much more manageable now. I get something like 20 scam calls a day. This kept 15 or so from ringing.

I have started asking callers various disheartening questions, like "Is this what you planned for in life?", "Does your family laugh at you?", "Do your friends have better jobs than yours?", "Are you an embarrassment to your parents?". Most hang up, but a good number get upset - I imagine because their parents really are embarrassed by them. One person, whom I asked if he was happy with his choices in life, said "I am in hell". My hope with these questions is for them to rethink a life of trying to cheat old people out of money.

Are they all from your home area code? I got an app that lets you block every number in a range (straight to voicemail)

They mostly are. Occasionally I'll get a few that are from the next area code over, even less occasionally I'll get them from completely different states.

It would be my luck that blocking a range of numbers would block something important.

Your contacts can call normally, anyone else has to leave a message if they want attention.

Usually the DIDs they use are from blocks where the first 3 numbers after the area code are different than the blocks that are handed out by telecoms to landlines and cellphones. You might be able to filter by those numbers as well.

Not in America. Dude, same. I get 2,3 spam calls a day, sometimes like 6. It's so annoying.

Of course nothing changes when reporting them to Google, your number is somewhere on the internet, change it.

same, i have google screen most of them and it still sucks

I stopped getting those once I got rid of my +1 number. For some reason even after 6 years my +31 doesn't get them.

I’ll just pick up the call and immediately mute my microphone. That way at least I don’t get the voicemail.

That still counts as an active number. Most providers these days have a spam blocking option, have you tried turning that on? I'm with tmo and get very few spam calls. I get the odd text offering to buy my house but I have my ways of dealing with them.

I used to pick up spam calls and go along for as long as I could. For at least 5 years now my number has been blacklisted in India, I've never gotten a single Indian spam call since. I used to get a car warranty call every few months but I'm pretty sure they black listed me as well. I got pretty deep into the hierarchy getting names, payment details, anything. But the car they called me about doesn't exist.

Your voicemail picking up the call still counts as an active number.

Where did I say anything about vm? I get very very few spam calls and androids dialer does a really good job of identifying the few calls that get through tmo as spam.

Here is my vm log, notice how few are actually there? I honestly don't remember if/when I ever cleared any out from this phone number. My old ass direct line is on GV and it's set to never ring.

The discussion was about letting it go to voicemail, I responded saying I pick it up, you said that counts as an active number. You didn’t mention vm, but that’s what the discussion started with.

I believe iOS has a built in feature to block spam calls, but I don’t use it. It already labels them as “Scam Likely”. If there’s anyone in the world named Scan Likely, I feel very bad for them.

This worked for me. Over time I got less and less calls and now I get none at all. I’m guessing I got marked as inactive eventually.

For what's worth, I registered for the FCC's do not call registry way back and it helped a bit - but once you're registered, if you get spam calls, you can report the numbers to the FCC for having called you despite being on the registry. YMMV but it might be worth a shot!

I thought it was just me! The fuckers have literally been filling my voicemail to the max and I have to delete it all every day.

Huh, that sucks, this is not what I have been experiencing when using the Google dialer though.

I remember everyone was shitting on the Google dialer over the MIUI dialer because the latter was able to record calls, I couldn't care less about a call recording feature, but to me the Google dialer is very superior due to having a proper spam blocking feature.

I also tried several spam blocker apps, but still Google's gave me the best experience.

Just disable the phone function on your pocket computer. It's just for boomers.

Totally unrelated, but I just want to let you know: the last security update for Pixel 5 was a few months ago. You should stop using that phone as soon as possible.

@ililiililiililiilili @Marighost Lineage or CalyxOS are better options than replacing a perfectly good phone.

I must admit I'm a bit afraid to modify my phone like that, just not something I'm used to. Plus, I'm afraid of how it'll work with my carrier (Google Fi). Might be worth researching, it seems.

Are there any alternative OS options for a Pixel 5 with a locked bootloader? Edit: I think carrier-locked is the more accurate term. The option to unlock the bootloader in developer options is greyed out.

If it's carrier locked and paid off then contact your carrier or visit their website about it. If it's Verizon then I think you screwed regardless.

Gotcha. Thanks for confirming I'm scewed. Its definitely a Verizon-specific Pixel 5 I bought used and I ran for a bit.

@ililiililiililiilili I think that is a dealbreaker for any 3rd party OS. Check with your cellular provider to see if they will unlock it.

Thanks! Will do! I have since bailed from Verizon, so that seems like a long shot.

@ililiililiililiilili I think*** they are required to unlock the phone if you don't owe them anything. I had them carrier unlock my last iPhone when I switched to Android so I could sell it at full value vs locked value. That's not quite the same as the bootloader. It might be worth asking though.

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