The Skeptics Guide #944 - Aug 12 2023 (Ad Free)
Added 2023-08-12 16:27:40 +0000 UTC5-10 Year: Loch Ness; News Items: Depression Does Not Cause Cancer, Hidden Undersea World, AI vs Robo Calls, Cement Supercapacitor; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: More on EVs, RFK Jr on Tik Tok; Science or Fiction
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I was joking about the Rickroll, but there could be a defense going forward. If all numbers were answered in a way that was difficult for an auto-dialer to detect, everything would be marked as a live number, and the lists of live numbers scammers collect could become useless.
The Illuminaughty
2023-09-06 16:43:56 +0000 UTCUnassigned phone numbers are directed to system called the "Automatic Intercept System" (AIS.) Until the late 1960's/early 70's, this job was performed by people (Intercept Operators). The AIS has a code for each number, and produces a voice response. Typically, this is "The number you have dialed is not a working number. Please consult your directory or dial again if you think you have reached this number incorrectly." (It was really easy to misdial on a rotary dial phone!) The messaged could also refer to a temporary disconnection (e.g. a summer house when you called in the winter) or a number disconnected due to an equipment problem (downed phone lines), or disconnected for non-payment. (If the message just said "The number you have dialed has been disconnected" and nothing more, that probably meant the customer didn't pay their bill, but they couldn't actually say that because they might get sued.) If it said "...temporarily disconnected" then it was probably for some other reason. A new feature in about 1975 (one of the first projects I worked on) was "referrals": The message you would hear was something like "The number you have dialed, , has been changed. The new number is " where the old and new numbers were customized for the individual customer. After several months, the message would change to the general unassigned number message, though you could pay to extend the intercept referral. (If you changed your number because of harassing calls, they would normally not include a referral at all.) Shortly after that, the AIS could repeat back the number dialed, making it easier to tell if you had misdialed or someone had given you the wrong number. The message would be "The number you have dialed, , is not a working number..." This was really cool, as it was one of the first adaptive computerized voices ever. When I discovered this feature by accident, I spent a few minutes deliberately dialing wrong numbers until I accidentally dialed the police station in a neighboring town. Whoops! When full number portability was introduced (about 20 years ago), AIS is no longer as useful as it once was (if you moved, you could just bring your old number with you) and is even less useful with cell phones. Most phone companies have reduced it to just a standardized "Not a working number" message. So what would be the message that would trick a spammer into thinking they had reached a real working number? "Leave a message at the tone" and then just discard whatever was received? How would a legitimate caller know they had dialed incorrectly? They would just think the person they called was ghosting them. I think what would be more useful would be the opposite. Have your answering machine or voicemail produce the " The number you have dialed is not a working number" message, just like AIS, followed by a few seconds pause and then the real "Hi, this is Buzz. Please leave your message after the beep." Spammers don't want to tie up their lines on useless calls, so they would hang up after the the " " and put the number on their dead numbers list, but your friends and family would know to wait. But what would really be useful would be for the phone companies to implement STIR/SHAKEN for land lines, and not just for cell numbers, which they are currently dragging their feet on.
Buzz Parsec
2023-09-06 16:32:19 +0000 UTCI think there should be a default ‘answer’ on unassigned phone numbers, so the scammers think they’re all hits. We could play ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ to them all. If the scammer’s system is recording their calls to harvest personal data, their storage could be full of Rick-Rolls.
The Illuminaughty
2023-08-16 06:53:28 +0000 UTCThank you, Cara! The real question is WHY health care costs are higher here than just about anywhere else. The reason is the single payer health care that they have about anywhere else. We desperately need that here.
Ted Apelt
2023-08-12 18:59:09 +0000 UTCI once worked for an opinion survey company that used random digit dialing.
Ted Apelt
2023-08-12 17:52:27 +0000 UTC
