Spam calls

[Bangkok Barry]

I've recently begun receiving daily spam phone call, which may or may not be due to AIS giving numbers out or it may or may not be a bot that just dials number after number.

 

Is there a way of blocking these calls, perhaps by only accepting calls from numbers in my contacts?

[CharlieH]

Yes dial AIS call centre, 1175, choose the item on the voice menu that stop Ads etc.

 

This is also available on other networks, call your relative centres for advice.

 

 

 

 

 

[scubascuba3]

Go into phone history, usually can long press the number then block it

[The Hammer2021]

I have been getting suspicious  calls in Thai which I believe are connected to fraud. I both block that number and classify it as fraud  in my HHD, a Samsung S10.

I also received a potential fraudulent SMS on my UK sim card and did exactly  the same.

Such spam etc can be reported to various  fraud watch schemes including ones run  by UK NSY and the FBI and there are others such as 'scam watch'

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Go into phone history, usually can long press the number then block it

They are onto that and always use similar but different numbers.

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Yes dial AIS call centre, 1175, choose the item on the voice menu that stop Ads etc.

 

This is also available on other networks, call your relative centres for advice.

 

 

 

 

 

I get ads from AIS for call or internet deals and I'm ok with that. Now and again they are useful, such as being able to carry over credit for six months for 2 baht a month. In the periods that offer isn't available and because I hardly ever use my phone as the people I knew here are either dead or have left the country for good, then I transfer any credit left at expiry date to my wife's number.

[scubascuba3]

8 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

They are onto that and always use similar but different numbers.

block them each time, no big deal, I've probably had 3 in a year

[Batty]

It is likely to get worse. Voice Blasting (as it's known in marketing) is only just taking off in Thailand. Right now the data lists (phone numbers) are expensive but as time goes on the lists will be brokered, sold, rented, each deal cheaper than the last until eventually every sh1tty direct sales outfit in Thailand will be blasting out calls. I used to buy and sell lists in the UK. Late nineties it would cost 100 pounds per thousand numbers. By 2015 you could buy a few million numbers for a few hundred pounds.

 

It dosent bother me too much, my phone is nearly always on silent for calls. I only use messenger and whatsApp day to day. If I do see it ring I sometimes answer and sing a stupid sing about smelly vaginas or something. I know - I am 12 ????

[smutcakes]

I get calls a couple of times a month... just put the phone down, no drama. 

[Liverpool Lou]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:20 PM, Bangkok Barry said:

I've recently begun receiving daily spam phone call ...

 

Is there a way of blocking these calls

They will always be from a mobile number or what appears to be an overseas number, if you don't recognise the mobile number or you're not expecting an international call, just reject it.    If it's anything important, from someone you should have answered, they'll message you.

[bluejets]

4 hours ago, smutcakes said:

I get calls a couple of times a month... just put the phone down, no drama. 

Exactly....no way to stop this <deleted>.

Aus has had "no call registers" for donkey's years, never works.

If I answer and there is a delay on the other end, hang up.

If I answer and it says, I'm from xyz and there is a problem with your computer, hang up.

On and On....... hang up.

[IAMHERE]

I didn't get the robo calls until after I'd "signed in" at the mall for covid-19.

[Purdey]

My Samsung has the option to block calls not in your contacts. Risky if you get friends who changed they phones. It also has an option to block spam and spam calls. AIS doesn't help much as (I believe) they make money from selling this info.

[flbkk]

When i applied to do 90 day report online, ut failed, but i started to get gambling spam texts, also got them when covid first started and we had to register to go in places. 

[Golden Triangle]

I always answer, let it run for a few minutes, their money not mine, then cancel the call & then block it. ????

[Johnnyngai]

I talked to them and wasted their time, after about 20 times, they stopped calling me. 

[Pmbkk]

 

I can help - what's your number  ????

[brianthainess]

3 hours ago, Johnnyngai said:

I talked to them and wasted their time, after about 20 times, they stopped calling me. 

There's a guy in the US who does this, on YouTube he keeps them on for ages puts on different voices and even hacks in to their computers.

[brianthainess]

Last week when trying to phone a bank in the UK +44179........... a Thai answered? it happened twice ? they even rang back again a few times showing that number, no english spoken and those long silences that Thais seem to do, put my missus on, she said not Thai but I'm sure it was ????????????? very strange. It didn't seem like a scam though.

[Chomper Higgot]

Set your phone to do not disturb, then select your contact list or the people you normally get calls from as exceptions to the do not disturb.

 

 

[mtls2005]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:20 PM, Bangkok Barry said:

Is there a way of blocking these calls, perhaps by only accepting calls from numbers in my contacts?

Phone make and model?

 

Android version? 9, 10, 11, 12?

 

https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/6325463?hl=en

 

On 5/6/2022 at 1:20 PM, Bangkok Barry said:

Is there a way of blocking these calls, perhaps by only accepting calls from numbers in my contacts?

https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/3459196?hl=en

 

 

 

I'm on Android 12, the SMS spam filter works well, 95% hit rate. My in-bound voice call spam filter is still "learning" but is now flagging calls.

 

For all other calls I let them ring through to voicemail. thais freak out with voicemail, for some reason. Based on the voicemails, most are wrong numbers.

[Sydebolle]

Apart from blocking it through your phone provider there is another interesting trick. Tell the caller to stay on the line and not go away as you're so interested in what they have to say. 
Then just put the phone to the side and carry what you've been doing. I had callers from all over the planet's call centres, the most patient one stayed online for staggering 48 minutes. After the second or third attempt ...... silence and I have not been called ever again. 
With your 'stay online' please you're burning the time of the caller who, in turn, have to call as many as they can to sell whatever stuff they want you to buy. 48 minutes waiting for nothing ....... go figure! 

[LarrySR]

2 hours ago, brianthainess said:

There's a guy in the US who does this, on YouTube he keeps them on for ages puts on different voices and even hacks in to their computers.

I watch the Malcom Merlyn YouTube channel. He is on a mission to harass and destroy scamming call centers. Sometimes he can gain control of their network and download a virus. 
Other times he launches his call flooder that phones them from randomized numbers hundred of times per minute until they shut down their phone system. 
Lots of other nasty tricks he pulls off too. 

[Greenside]

So said the DTAC customer support operator this evening when I called to report a call my wife received today.

 

At about 3:30 this afternoon she answered a call which purported to be from the main Post Office in Bangkok saying that her number was on a package of nine suspected fake passports addressed to a Myanmar name in Chiang Rai and asking what she knew about it.  They then started to request personal details from her and pretended to connect the call to a police officer at which point she ended it as quickly as possible (probably because by this time I was leaping up and down in front of her making wrap signals).  The call was in Thai but I could tell the way it was heading and have no doubt that before long some payment would be required to make the "problem" go away.  The caller ID confirmed that it was a scam, and a pretty inept one at that since the number was unfeasibly long and from a non existent country code: +69716833614317 (mods: it's ok, it doesn't connect to anything).

I have only posted here to share the DTAC warning that all mobile operators were seeing a lot of scam calls at the moment.  Report them to your service provider who should pass it onto the police as even if you avoid becoming a victim, it's still a rather unsettling experience especially for older people.

 

Coincidentally, yesterday I saw a new Mark Rober You Tube video following up the famous Glitter Bomb series where he exposed the the US end of what turns out to be a huge network of scam call centres working with apparent impunity.  The latest episode involves targeting four of the call centres and bringing the whole network much unwelcome attention.  He ends by asking viewers to share it, in particular with people they consider vulnerable to this kind of heartless robbery that seems to have become an international 24/7 business.  See Glitter Bomb Payback here

Edited May 11, 2022 by Greenside

[kekalot]

On 5/7/2022 at 5:52 PM, IAMHERE said:

I didn't get the robo calls until after I'd "signed in" at the mall for covid-19.

I started getting cold calls after giving my phone number to immigration when doing an extension out of province (didn't have Immigration office in mine before)

I know it came from there cause they knew my full name and acted like i was from the different province.

 

 very sneaky and it sucks but this is likely the answer.

[scubascuba3]

That other thread just closed, someone mentioned receiving calls from abroad, never answer those calls as your network will charge you an International rate

[Thailand]

Had one from Haiti amongst others. Not answered, blocked as required.