Like everyone else these days, I'm plagued by bullshit phone calls. 
I now ignore unrecognized callers, letting them go to voice mail*, occasionally answering just to have a little fun**.
I'm totally familiar with spoofing, but something that's never made sense to me is when the spoofing scammer's info looks like this:
I've answered many of these, and nearly all of them claim to be 'XYZ Company working in your neighborhood' and wanting to do some job--typically a big-dollar job, like roofing, adding a sunroom, or pouring a new driveway.
What stumps me is this: if they're shady enough to spoof their caller ID info, even -if- XYZ Company actually exists, -and- the caller really represents them, why on earth would I trust them to do a high cost job on my house?! You're not honest enough to show me your real name and number, but you want me to trust you with a costly job?
As for spoofed numbers, check this one out:
* I've been tweaking the message they hear. It's caused my number of daily bullshit calls to drop from 20+ to ≈5. My message says they must leave their name and number if they want to talk to us, and that calling back repeatedly won't help--so they might as well delete my number.
** When the mood strikes, I answer--then have some fun. Like when they tell me that my 'IP address has been compromised' and my computer [they assume I'm a window$ user, with one computer--in fact, I have half a dozen computers, all Linux] is going to be held hostage. I play totally clueless: "Oh no! Really?! That sounds terrible!" I ask questions a clueless person might ask--and keep asking. When I'm bored, I tell them they're full of shit and ought to be ashamed *CLICK*...
I now ignore unrecognized callers, letting them go to voice mail*, occasionally answering just to have a little fun**.
I'm totally familiar with spoofing, but something that's never made sense to me is when the spoofing scammer's info looks like this:
I've answered many of these, and nearly all of them claim to be 'XYZ Company working in your neighborhood' and wanting to do some job--typically a big-dollar job, like roofing, adding a sunroom, or pouring a new driveway.
What stumps me is this: if they're shady enough to spoof their caller ID info, even -if- XYZ Company actually exists, -and- the caller really represents them, why on earth would I trust them to do a high cost job on my house?! You're not honest enough to show me your real name and number, but you want me to trust you with a costly job?
As for spoofed numbers, check this one out:
* I've been tweaking the message they hear. It's caused my number of daily bullshit calls to drop from 20+ to ≈5. My message says they must leave their name and number if they want to talk to us, and that calling back repeatedly won't help--so they might as well delete my number.
** When the mood strikes, I answer--then have some fun. Like when they tell me that my 'IP address has been compromised' and my computer [they assume I'm a window$ user, with one computer--in fact, I have half a dozen computers, all Linux] is going to be held hostage. I play totally clueless: "Oh no! Really?! That sounds terrible!" I ask questions a clueless person might ask--and keep asking. When I'm bored, I tell them they're full of shit and ought to be ashamed *CLICK*...
