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Recently got a US phone number (at&t), and the literal minute the SIM was in my phone I started getting spam texts and calls. Nobody even had the number yet. I

• vopi 4y ago
  For me, it has a been a very recent thing. A couple years ago, I would have had a handful a year. Now it wouldn't surprise me if I had a couple a day.
  • wil421 4y ago
    Same for me. There was some kind of d-day a couple years ago where it really started to happen.
  • prox 4y ago
    I stopped using phones all together since they are nothing but sources of stress, annoyance and frustration. Quality of life improved by a lot. People actually understand and my business is doing well.
• t-3 4y ago
  I never received any spam on my cell until the past few years - around the same time my state government made voter information available to political organizations to enable their begging. Now the cat's out of the bag and the info has doubtless been sold and shared with every scammer in the world.
• tastyfreeze 4y ago
  Typically it is a series of numbers. It takes virtually zero time for a spam bot to send to a whole block of numbers whether they are active or not.
• vsareto 4y ago
  >To me, it is baffling how all Americans have put up with this annoyance for decades! All is explained with a cursory glance at our political system
  • thfuran 4y ago
    Doesn't that just raise more questions? That's a whole lot more to put up with.
    • zrobotics 4y ago
      But what if the other team won? That explains most of the problems we have, there are really only 2 choices and people are increasingly partisan about them. Although for this specific issue, both parties are equally shitty, but as a US voter I can't signal anything about my displeasure with their telco regulations since it's effectively a binary choice and telco regs are wayyyy down on the platform.
• wil421 4y ago
  I can guarantee you had a number that was reused. When I had a couple different sims for work phones over the years I received 0 spam on one with a new area code. Spammers will enumerate all digits on an area code. The scams are different in Europe. I’ve had my debit card skimmed twice over the years in Europe and I check the card readers. One scammer took money out of a Philippines ATM. Europe also has a crazy amount of tourist scams I’ve never seen in the State. Fake fights in Rome to draw attention from pickpockets, taxis in Germany taking advantage of me, Gypsies with drugged babies and fake injuries, and various “official” helpers outside airports/train stations.
  • testfoobar 4y ago
    Tourist centers of London/Paris/Rome/Venice/etc. in the summer are becoming asymptotically closer to theme parks like Disneyland. Themed experiences, picture locations, vendors selling merchandise and junk food, families running through trying to "do everything." At least with Disney the workers aren't trying to scam you.
    • actionfromafar 4y ago
      The scamming part is over when you pass the gates :-)
      • ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
        Have you even looked at the prices of food and drink?!
  • Talanes 4y ago
    >Gypsies with drugged babies Pretty sure I've seen a local version of that around SF, or at least I used to pre-COVID.
    • azinman2 4y ago
      I’m not sure what either comment refers to. Can you explain?
• zikduruqe 4y ago
  It's not random, you phone number is part of a NPA-NXX-XXXX. NPA is a number plan area (area code) which is known. NXX is N=2 to 9, X=0 to 9, is an office code. XXXX is a station code, where X is 0 to 9.
• swalling 4y ago
  I can assure you that your number was recycled. In the last few years I got a new number from Verizon after moving from one state to another, in the hope that it would combat robocalls. Not only did I experience what you did, but received a number previously used by a plumber who apparently had trouble paying his car loan. I was getting frantic calls at all hours from people with plumbing problems, and from Honda threatening to repossess a car. Verizon and other carriers even admit to recycling numbers as soon as 6 months after they were last used. https://community.verizon.com/t5/Windows-Phone/How-Do-I-Check-If-Phone-has-Been-used-Before/td-p/333440#:~:text=We%20do%20have%20a%20limited,as%20quickly%20as%206%20months https://community.verizon.com/t5/Windows-Phone/How-Do-I-Chec....
  • Broken_Hippo 4y ago
    Verizon and other carriers even admit to recycling numbers as soon as 6 months after they were last used This has been standard for decades - it is a holdover from landlines. The companies only own a certain number of phone numbers. (Supposedly, when you change companies, 'ownership' of the number transfers to the new company). They've generally said that in more populous areas (or at least, areas with more phone numbers being actively used) that recycling numbers was the only way without changing the number format again. I didn't think this was exactly a secret - but I could have learned this working for GTE/Verizon a couple of decades ago.
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  • yurishimo 4y ago
    Your story reminds me of a similar one. I got my first cell phone around 2008 as a teenager. The previous owner also had problems paying her bills and that is probably why she ditched the number. I got calls for literally a decade until they figured out she wasn't going to answer on this number anymore. At first, I would hang up when I heard the robo-voice asking for her, but the calls didn't slow down and eventually stop until I waited on the line for a collections agent to pick up so I could politely tell them to pound sand and stop calling me. Even then it took another few years. Funnily enough, I recently moved out of the US and ported my number to Google Voice in case I want to come back in the next few years. My phone hardly rings with spam calls now.
• LooseMarmoset 4y ago
  Here's how it works in the U.S., and why it doesn't go away: * A scumsucking business decides to hawk some scam. They start by creating an LLC (a limited liability company) devoted to telecommunications, ostensibly to resell telephone service sort of like an MVNO would. This LLC is based in the U.S. They buy a range of phone numbers associated with the LLC. * The company then coordinates with an out-of-country call center, in places like the Bahamas, India, Pakistan, Mexico, etc. The call center receives and sends calls into the U.S. based on an assigned number from the LLC as a PBX (private branch exchange). As a PBX, these call centers can use a single ANI (automatic number identification) based on a US-based address (usually faked by the so-called telecommunications LLC), and the actual numbers behind it are hidden. PBX software allows you to override the number you see when your phone rings - that's why you get numbers on your phone completely unrelated to the actual call origin. * The LLC may "sell" some numbers to legitimate businesses so they can claim it's just abuse of their systems. * As people begin to complain about the scam calls, and the network operators that sell the numbers cut the offending numbers off the network (and this takes weeks at least) the LLC will simply cut off the old number, and issue a new number to the offshore call department. * Eventually, the network operator will refuse to issue new numbers to the LLC, so the LLC will close up shop. However, the owners usually have a new telecommunications LLC ready to start the process all over again. * The dirty secret here is that the major network operators (Verizon, ATT, etc) don't really care too much about these scam MVNOs/call centers, because they get paid, and paid well, and get to look like they're doing work to prevent scam calls while making money doing it. When these guys tell you "We can't see where the call is coming from" this is a straight-up lie, as any network operator call center employee can tell you.
  • JoBrad 4y ago
    Isn’t this what STIR/SHAKEN was supposed to address?
    • kjellsbells 4y ago
      Yes, but. SS makes a cryptographically based attestation about the origin of a call. For a user A on, say AT&T mobile calling a user B on Verizon, this is straightforward: the AT&T server can make a strong "type A" assertion: they know A, they control the access network that A is on, everything is copacetic. However there are other tiers of attestation that are less strong, and because telcos also do a screaming business in bulk transport of other people's calls, these calls still get connected. So for example user C in say, Telenor Pakistan calls user A on AT&T, but the call is carried across the world by some transit carrier, like Lumen or BICS. This happens all the time. Then all that ATT see is that BICS attest that they trust Telenor, but have no control over the source number C. It gets real murky real fast. On top of all this there are yet more complex cases, like American Express buying a block of phone numbers from one phone company but actually being connected to the global phone network by another. Or wanting to have those domestic numbers route offshore but still appear as US numbers when they call you stateside. Its a mess, and SS helps as best as it can, but I think the real solution requires a change in how telcos get paid, and route one another's traffic for money, and that is not changing anytime soon.
• winternett 4y ago
  Perhaps they could also mandate an update to the antiquated voice prompt voicemail systems that make deleting and managing voicemails so tedious and guy wrenching as well... T mobile voices literally adds a huge annoyance to the process of getting rid of scam voicemails with their ancient voicemail system... "Before hearing your new important message, wait and listen to these 6 messages that are marked for automatic deletion" Ugh...
  • _rs 4y ago
    I'm surprised not more phones support visual voicemail. It looks like some carriers including T-Mobile may have an Android app to add this feature, though?
    • winternett 4y ago
      There is an additional cost for the service... I don't want to give them any more money for simple voice mail services. I already pay them $75 a month... All they have to do is reconfigure the voice prompts honestly, but the keep the standard service difficult to encourage and force the extra money out of customers. :(
    • nikau 4y ago
      decent carriers just send you an audio message via RCS
• Scoundreller 4y ago
  Where in EU? Plenty of scam calls in France (as of a few years ago), but yeah, no spam texts.
  • Symbiote 4y ago
    As one example, my Danish and British numbers have had perhaps one scam call each in the last 5 years, and perhaps one scam SMS each year.
    • arlcode 4y ago
      Same with me in Germany. A handful of scam/spam calls over last few years and precisely 2 SMS. My parents get some more calls on their landline (~2/month) but I suspect they actually "agreed" to have them from those companies. It went down considerably since the law changed a few years ago to not limit the scope and validity of phone only contracts. At least in my bubble this is not unusual either. In fact the only people having problems are the few people who moved to the US.
• foobiekr 4y ago
  The US is targeted because it is large, generally wealthy (in the sense that a scammers will be willing to work for days to get an amount their victims will fall for), information about local communities is fully digitized and services (Walmart ir whatever) are fairly uniform, and - by far most importantly - culturally and linguistically dominant. The scam calls mostly come out of the Philippines, India and Pakistan because they have high familiarity with US culture and millions of people with sufficient English fluency. Almost none of the EU nations have more than two of these. It is very easy to understand the problem if you pause and think about it for a short time.