Got a second sim to trial coverage around my city. It’s not even been a full week and I am bombarded with spam calls and texts. Unsure if it is election related or just everyday spam.

  • Lexi Sneptaur
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    9617 days ago

    Your cell phone carrier is legally obligated to give you another number if you are being harassed, which this is definitely beyond any doubt harassment. Call them and be sure to use the words “I am being called constantly and harassed at my new number at all hours of the day. I am requesting a new phone number for free.” They will absolutely give you a new number based on that, free of charge.

  • @[email protected]
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    3217 days ago

    This kind of spam is luckily pretty rare in europe, I get maybe one or two spam calls a year.

    • @[email protected]
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      1117 days ago

      It only started this year for me (had this number for 15 years or so), and it’s mostly numbers from the UK and India for some reason (I’m in Germany).

    • hendrik
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      817 days ago

      They’re more frequent with landline phones. I suppose because calling a mobile phone is comparatively more expensive here in Europe. (And probably also because the US puts less effort into protecting it’s citizens and customers.)

  • @Lost_My_Mind
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    2117 days ago

    Just answer every phone call with “Hello, this is ham.” And then onwards, every single sentence you say…is about ham. But also completely unhelpful to the conversation.

    “Well, Hello Mr Ham. I’m just calling today to let you know about this great oppertunity from our next presidident, Donald Trump.”

    “Ham is sometimes salty”

    “Uhhhh…Well, Mr Trump is seeking donations from real american patriots like yourself”

    “Give me ham.”

    “Ham?”

    “HAM!!!”

    “I don’t understand, are you saying Ham, like the food?”

    “ALL THE HAM IN MY MOUTH!!!”

    “Ok…we can get you some ham. We just need a donation of $50.00 today.”

    “Ham runs all my descisions.”

    “I…don’t understand.”

    “Yes, this is ham. Can I cheese you? Right in the ham?”

    “Are you ok?”

    “Ham.”

    This should preferably go on for 10 hours.

  • @reddig33
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    917 days ago

    Check your cell service provider to see if they offer any spam blocking services. T-mobile has an app you can install that will block some of these calls for free.

    • @[email protected]
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      1117 days ago

      You don’t even need to install the App (or keep it installed), it’s a service they offer on their end.

  • @JelleWho
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    916 days ago

    Answer every call (without any words!) just the sound of dial-up tones. This will probably get you marked as bot and they will stop, it worked for me. But I also only had a few

  • @[email protected]
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    716 days ago

    Honestly. I’ve saved every number I call, like “Doctor Clinic” and all that, and I only respond to calls from unknown numbers if I’m expecting a call.

  • @[email protected]
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    617 days ago

    When I was getting a new line for some relatives, I found that when going through the web checkout process you could select your phone number out of 5 choices before completing the purchase. I thought that was pretty bad design as it shows which numbers are most likely going to be new. It would be pretty easy to scrape that page and create a spam list.

    Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the new number to start receiving spam.

  • Pantsofmagic
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    617 days ago

    This happened to me when I received a cell for work. I ended up fully silencing the phone and giving important co-workers my personal number instead. The spam calls have only recently started to slow down… I’ve had the number for 10 years.

    • ZathrasOP
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      317 days ago

      Yeah, I changed the ringtone and text to silent for all but known numbers.

      • darkstar
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        417 days ago

        Nah you really need to get a new number from your carrier…

  • @devilish666
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    517 days ago

    Just get Truecaller bro & set protection level to MAX

    • @jordanlund
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      717 days ago

      Election stuff, for me at least, has been more SMS than actual calls.

  • @[email protected]
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    17 days ago

    If it’s only been five days just call your carrier and ask for a new number.

    It’s not a big deal, it happens. You don’t need any “magic phrases”. Just be honest and tell them what’s going on.

    All you’ll need to do after is power your phone off and back on for the number change to register.

  • kindenough
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    417 days ago

    Your new phone number is someone elses discarded phone number.

  • Chemical Wonka
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    17 days ago

    Carriers need more number combinations to create phone numbers and every time a new plan is activate it generates a random number that was never used by anyone

  • @[email protected]
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    417 days ago

    This happened with all of our work phones. It died down over time of not answering, but it still happens.

    Honestly sticking with a known number is much better than trying to get something new. There’s a reason that number was available, and it’s probably because someone wanted the spam to stop.

  • Kalkaline
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    417 days ago

    There are carrier based services that do fuck all for spam calls, what you really need to get rid of them is Google Assistant call screening. Yes, Google is a giant evil corporation with anti-competitive monopolies and “AI” that will lead to the eventual destruction of the Internet we know and love, but their call screener is top notch. It answers the call and the spammers have to talk to a robot to get through to you. That’s cut down my spam call volume dramatically. And if it flags someone accidentally they just say who they are and I can decide to answer.