Great news everyone! I’ve just been offered a position to remotely train an AI and I can make up to $6000 a day!

Yeah, right.

I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone who randomly instant messaged me. I like to play dumb with these people and then occasionally throw some obscure questions at them and watch them squirm, or just toss subtle insults in my replies.

Anyone else get a kick out of messing with these scammers? Any particular shenanigans you like to throw at them, out any good stories that have come from it?

  • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
    1·
    10 days ago

    Yea I won’t even speak until I hear someone on the other end. Even then I disguise my voice until I’m certain it’s a legit caller.

    • seathru@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      You purposely pick up and sit in silence? Not even a “Yo”, “Sup”, or “Aye”?

      I wondered why people have been doing that when I call them at work. Sucks to be them, they’ve been waiting 2 weeks to 2 months for an appointment. I just hang up and move on to the next. If they didn’t want to talk they should have let it go to voicemail.

      • tequinhu@lemmy.world
        1·
        10 days ago

        I do because in general one of the following scenarios happen:

        1. A person is on the other side and when they notice the call went through they say hello (at which point I always reply regaedless of being scam/unexpected call/etc)
        2. A robot is on the other side and automatically starts blabbering gibberish (usually it is instant hang-up when I hear this)
        3. A robot is on the other side and waits for a signal, hanging up in around 3-5 seconds (since I was silent)

        But to be fair if it was ever a human in scenario 3 and I missed an important call, I wouldn’t know (however I don’t think that ever happened)

        Also, the burden of initiating conversation should be on the active caller side, not on the passice receiver

        And lastly, I heard thar if you answer the robots, your number gets flagged as real (instead of other robot), making the scammers call you more often (I’m agnostic in regards to this statement)

        • seathru@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          3·
          10 days ago

          Also, the burden of initiating conversation should be on the active caller side, not on the passice receiver

          As an active caller, unless there is a ton of background noise, I may or may not get any indication that the person I’m calling has actually picked up. So I’m just going to sit there until they say something or hang up.

          • tequinhu@lemmy.world
            1·
            10 days ago

            Ahh, fair enough, I always can tell when somebody picked up because the timely beeps stop (and also somehow I know that the silence from the background is different from the silence before it)

      • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.worldOP
        0·
        10 days ago

        Now that you mention it, I think I’ve noticed that too. Is it like the phone version of the Gen Z stare?

        • seathru@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          1·
          10 days ago

          the Gen Z stare

          That’s just an effective tactic. I’m way older than gen z and figured out a long time ago that unless a reply is absolutely necessary, just staying quiet and staring will get a transactional conversation to it’s point and over much quicker.