Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by baochan 2974 days ago
I basically protect my phone number like I would my social security number. I was getting 5+ spam calls a day. Ended up changing provider and phone number to get away from them. I haven't added my new number to the Do Not Call list (none of these calls were legitimate businesses; just scammers with spoofed caller IDs) and have resisted giving my new number to anyone. Pretty much just my bank and a few friends have my real number, everywhere else (where they need a phone number associated to an account or for a retail store bonus card) I just use my old number. I think of the Do Not Call list as a public list of phone numbers guaranteed to be valid - not worth the risk. I think maybe adding it to my resume on job sites got the number out there as well.
1 comments

Does this actually do anything? A computer that can dial all phone numbers in the US is not hard anymore. (the computer will probably get all numbers in North America, but what do scammers care?)
In the last year I've only gotten 2 spam phone calls. So either Google Fi is doing a better job at blocking them than Verizon was, or the scammers that targeted me stick to known numbers. Either way I'm not taking my chances. It was seriously frustrating being on their victim list.