This is the way

ickplant@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1228 points –
99

Newly re-elected New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was talking to a supporter on his mobile phone when another call came in.

"I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't take it," Key told a New Zealand television station.

Only later did aides tell Key who was trying to reach him: President Obama.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/09/22/obama-john-key-new-zealand-phone-call/16057707/

Lmao can you imagine President Obama having a call go to voicemail?

just thinking logistically, I imagine that happened a lot. Anyway I expect a decent number of his calls were made by aides and he just took the phone after they got through to the right person.

Even if it said "President Obama" many people would think it's a prank.

True, but if you just got elected as the head of a US friendly nation, it probably wouldn't be quite so unbelievable.

Well to be fair I'd answer just to say "no you're not!"

Im surprised the aides from each side didnt do all the logistics of connecting with one another and the president wasnt just handed a phone with the call already connected through.

That's what I was thinking, surely it was an aide who was dialing who'd only hand the phone to Obama when it actually connected to Key

That was the aides from Obama's side calling 100%. The minister was newly elected, maybe fairly new to politics as a whole? Maybe he just doesn't like middlemen. Edit: **Re-**elected, I missed that. I guess the second option then.

Its a news site but the only place you can find the date of the article is in the URL. Sometimes I am baffled by the weird design decisions people are making.

It's called USA Today. That means you're only supposed to read the news that came out today.

Oh, so it happened today. Makes it a lot less interesting now that Obama is not a president and hasn't been in years.

Don't bother, if they can't leave a message, you didn't want to talk to them.

And if they leave a message, I won't listen to it. Text me instead.

I actually can’t make or receive phone calls because it’s too stressful and unpleasant, so probably don’t bother x

Can't leave a message if i don't set up my voicemail

My voicemails get transcribed to text, so I can just read them

And this is why I asked my provider to turn off voicemail.

I don’t want to talk to them. Whoever they are.

If only spam callers were unable to spoof phone numbers that'd be great.

I was called by my own phone number once. Nothing suspicious there.

Back in my day we used to just talk to ourselves in person.

You missed out, bro. It was you from the future calling to warn you of your dire fate and how to avoid it.

I would’ve known to leave a voicemail

You've never taken too many mushrooms and called yourself?

Heh that happened to me too! Very strange.

That’s true but they usually spoof some person I don’t know. So if I google it and it’s some Betty from East Bumfuck, I know not to pick up. Now, if they spoofed someone I know, that’s different.

My phone is good enough at blocking spam calls that when an unfamiliar number calls I answer, and it's usually a wrong number

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The thing is, there are legit reasons to want to spoof numbers. My use case is that if I'm not reachable via sip I send the call over the normal phone network and set cid to the calling number.

I guess a middle ground would be that you could spoof numbers to phone numbers you've registered and verified with your provider.

To be honest though, the scammers and spammers will always find a way round it and spoof anyway.

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I just make the G Assistant answer it

9 times out of 10 telling an AI voice who's calling and why is too hard for even a normal human to figure out so they hang up and now there's nothing to worry about!

Mr google, please add a "search this number online" button for incoming calls. Sometimes I miss a call because I'm slow typer

I want to be able to search the phone numbers in maps. Searching Google sucks because of all the algorithm gaming scam sites. I just want to know if this number is a local business I might actually want to talk to.

Does the USA not have an official phone registry website? Where I live you just go on there and look up any number, person or company you want. It's basically an online phonebook.

Not that I’ve found. There are plenty of ways to find a number of a business. But harder to find legitimate ways to find people’s numbers. And it’s almost impossible to reliably find the owner of a phone number.

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Ten of the last twelve incoming calls on my phone were scam numbers. I haven't had the ringer or vibrate turned on for my phone for months so I never notice them. My phone does a pretty good job of blocking them and an outstanding job blocking spam texts

I work for a phone company, it's pretty satisfying seeing all the hard work actually be useful for society.

I also want to know more like the previous commenter. Automatic screening that I had with an old pixel phone was the best thing Google ever did for me back with a pixel 3.

If you answer and it's a scam then they know you'll pick up the phone in the future.

Only if you say something. Pick up, say nothing, if it's a robot waiting to hear a voice it will hang up, if it's a real human you'll get a "hello?"

Holy shit I think a scammer company is using my phone number as a fake employee contact number.

This is the way

I just answer the phone with the greeting of someone who's not me.

This is exactly as it should be. I haven't changed my greeting since I started at my current job so it still says the previous employees name lol. Plus I left my desk phone in my previous cube so I don't actually have a phone at all.

I mix it up, scammers have an automated system that goes "vwoop" when you say "hello" so I'll answer as if I'm answering the phone from some fictional business of some sort.

The scammer will hang up and then call again. wash rinse repeat a few times and then I don't get any calls on my real phone number from scammers for awhile.

You know they share information with each other on facebook and other services owned by facebook. So all their scammer groups stay open, but if you say that there were never any WMDs in iraq on facebook, or if you question any official narrative about anything at all on facebook, or do any real journalism through facebook, your entire account will be erased from it.

meanwhile, scammers have hundreds if not thousands of groups on facebook that exist for the sole purpose of sharing victim's information with each other for a profit and facebook does absolutely nothing at all to put a stop to that.

I have the maximum AI call screening option on with my Pixel 8. Real people actually tell it who they are, machines and telemarketing pricks hang up immediately upon hearing the AI.

I keep a browser window open exclusively for Googling phone numbers. This is way more common than I realized.

Where do you look up numbers. I only find scam sites

Just type the number into google. If it doesn’t come up with a number from a business or you don’t recognize it, just ignore it. Most of the time I just ignore calls, and if it’s important enough, they will leave a voicemail or text me.

meanwhile Truecaller app

I used to use that for ages, but the constant ads made me uninstall it

Well I stopped using it as soon as I learned how it works. I even de registered from their website Unlisting number. But yeah I occasionally needs it , for that truecaller bot exist in telegram.

any links for the said bot? I'd like to stop using truecaller myself.

I literally did this the order day because a phone number called twice in 2 days and bypassed my Pixel's spam filter. All the sites for googling phone numbers are all scams it looks like. Anyone know a good one?

I'm kind of lucky on this front. I got my phone number when I lived in L.A. and later moved (back) to Indiana. My phone number is a California number. I basically know no one in California at this point who would call me on the phone if they wanted to get in touch. So if the area code isn't from Indiana, except in special circumstances, it most likely is a call I can ignore.

I have that exact same thing. Almost every spam call sellf identifies as a scam call

I'm never expecting an image from Twin Peaks: The Return. Let alone for something so banal.

I have to admit i lean on the Google call screening hard. In the last year or so I have only had one or two actually try talking to Google. They just hang up

Why Google it when Android tells you who's calling?

Android doesn't, I think this is a Pixel feature. Source: my junk ass Samsung

Certain Samsung's have Hiya integration for this kind of thing. In the dialler settings there might be an option for "Caller ID and Spam Protection".

'me searching for it online'. Try not to use the G-word

Without using it, can you tell me why? Is that how g**-gull tracks you online?

what if i don't use google. you want me to say i'll duck duck go it? i'll bing it? i'm kagiing it right now? yahooing? oh yeah i'll AOL it? you are silly. a silly man. stop being silly