I am so angry about this whole "Chinese voicemail" thing.

[crazyflyingdonut]

Okay, well, technically, I was always angry about the whole "Chinese voicemail" thing that has been appearing on the news lately.

 

I've known about this "Chinese voicemail" thing for a couple of months now. These are Chinese people from the country of China trying to scam Chinese foreigners that are currently living in America for their money. They've been spreading like wildfire.

 

I always thought to myself, "I will dread the day I get a voicemail like that".

 

Earlier today, I got a voicemail. I listened to it, and... low and behold! It was entirely in Chinese!

 

Here is a video.

 

 

[Potatoguy]

So I wasn't the only one that got these goddamn calls...

 

Weirdly enough, they say they're from California, where I onced lived at.

[crazyflyingdonut]

Just now, Potatoguy said:

So I wasn't the only one that got these goddamn calls...

I've actually known about them for a little while now (it seems to be a new scam), and I knew that one day, one day, I was probably gonna get one. My brain was right, because a couple months later (today) I got one.

 

There's no point in trying to get someone to translate it, they all probably say "Hey, you owe us money. Pay us now, or suffer the consequences.".

[geo]

For the past 4 months I've gotten a pretty emphatic Latin dude calling from various numbers with a different message each day usually about: The devil has been following you, press one, press one, press one now. That women has sent the devil after you and your only salvation is to press one now, press one, press one, press one. You've done your best to keep that devil from your life. Press the numerical number one now, press number one now, press number one now.

 

He's awesome and each message is fresh and about the devil. The problem is he's just spam... that calls at 9 - 11 at night sometimes.

[crazyflyingdonut]

2 minutes ago, geo said:

Press the numerical number one now, press number one now, press number one now.

6

[crazyflyingdonut]

Just now, mistersector said:

There's no way to lock out scammers from abusing the phone system, so waste their time to prevent them from scamming others.  Look up "anti-scammer" on youtube for some great examples of phone scammers getting anti-scammed.

But how am I going to waste their time... IN CHINESE? I don't even know a single word of Chinese!

[Doomkid]

We get them here in Australia as well. Very annoying.

 

Usually these are bots using some text-to-speech thing, never gotten one from an actual person.

[Jello]

44 minutes ago, geo said:

For the past 4 months I've gotten a pretty emphatic Latin dude calling from various numbers with a different message each day usually about: The devil has been following you, press one, press one, press one now. That women has sent the devil after you and your only salvation is to press one now, press one, press one, press one. You've done your best to keep that devil from your life. Press the numerical number one now, press number one now, press number one now.

 

He's awesome and each message is fresh and about the devil. The problem is he's just spam... that calls at 9 - 11 at night sometimes.

That sounds interesting; sometimes I really do enjoy the more creative spam emails I get. It's obvious they put some work in to it. However, he has to realize he's leaving a voicemail right? You aren't calling them and going through an automated process to get to a live representative. Pressing one won't do anything. So while the creativity is there, I'm curious about how the scam actually works.

 

I'm still getting the occasional email from some Russian (Or Eastern European, I really can't judge) guy that says he has video of me watching porn. Wants me to send him $1200 worth of bitcoins; which wouldn't even be close to buying a single bitcoin. I'm assuming he bought a list of stolen email addresses and passwords, because the one he keeps sending me, I haven't used in quite a while. Might've been from the Linkedin hack, but I've deleted my Linkedin account anyway. And I don't think I've ever used it for Gmail. But I will give him credit for being rather creative with his wording; definitely more verbose and grammatically correct than the old Nigerian Prince scams of yesteryear. 

 

Oh, and I don't have a camera on my computer.

 

Actually I think it was Rockstargames that was hacked, I think I used the email address he's sending it to, and that password on it. And it was hacked by a Russian about a year ago. I updated everything, changed the password, enabled two-step verification. But I should really double check that. And update the password again.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Jello

[VanaheimRanger]

I sometimes get vms informing me that there is a warrant for my arrest and I should send $5000 to a PO Box to keep from being arrested.  Those are pretty hilarious.

[wolfmcbeard]

I get the ones asking me to renew the extended warranty on the Dodge Caliber I don't own.

[VanaheimRanger]

Just now, wolfmcbeard said:

I get the ones asking me to renew the extended warranty on the Dodge Caliber I don't own.

I haven't had one of those in some time.

[wolfmcbeard]

I used to get student loan calls but I guess the scammers realized I never went to college.

[jerrysheppy]

2 hours ago, geo said:

For the past 4 months I've gotten a pretty emphatic Latin dude calling from various numbers with a different message each day usually about: The devil has been following you, press one, press one, press one now. That women has sent the devil after you and your only salvation is to press one now, press one, press one, press one. You've done your best to keep that devil from your life. Press the numerical number one now, press number one now, press number one now.

 

He's awesome and each message is fresh and about the devil. The problem is he's just spam... that calls at 9 - 11 at night sometimes.

 

clearly he's telling you to bring up the berserk fist so you can punch the shit out of the demons

[Cruduxy Pegg]

Why even open any email\voice mail from anyone who never contacted you before and their very first impression is that of a scammer? Report+Forward to authorities instantly if you think is a life threat instead.

[Bushpig2dope]

Whys it such a big deal? We get telemarketers everyday in Australia

[GarrettChan]

It's funny, I got these calls/voicemails not only in California, but also in China... It seems they like to increase to their range in order to get better "rewards", lol.

[Doom_Dude]

Never had a voice mail scammer. I used to get these fake Microsoft calls from a doofus saying there's something wrong with my computer. The last time I had one of those I put the phone near the radio and cranked it up and then I went back to doing whatever. The one before that I kept saying 'what' so the guy kept repeating himself until he gave up. They haven't called since. I was all set to demand to speak with Bill Gates the next time they called, but they took me off their list I guess.

[Jello]

2 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

Never had a voice mail scammer. I used to get these fake Microsoft calls from a doofus saying there's something wrong with my computer. The last time I had one of those I put the phone near the radio and cranked it up and then I went back to doing whatever. The one before that I kept saying 'what' so the guy kept repeating himself until he gave up. They haven't called since. I was all set to demand to speak with Bill Gates the next time they called, but they took me off their list I guess.

I'm pretty sure if Bill Gates needed to speak with you, he would do so through telepathy.

[MrGlide]

how do you guys get all of these? I'v had my number for quite some time and no one ever bothers me.

[Bushpig2dope]

2 hours ago, MrGlide said:

how do you guys get all of these? I'v had my number for quite some time and no one ever bothers me.

Mobile is way more safe then house phones in my experience 

[geo]

4 hours ago, Bushpig2dope said:

Mobile is way more safe then house phones in my experience 

That used to be true, but now I just don't get any telemarketers to my land line. Seems like only land line calls I ever get are for political surveys. Then again, that's just my experience.

[wolfmcbeard]

*phone rings at 5:09pm here*
Me: "Hello?"
Computer talking to me over the phone: "Congratulations, you're eligable for a free Royal Carib"....
Me: *click*
Me: *post on the DW forums in an appropriate topic about the call*

Once or twice a day, I get some kind of call, too bad I can't block them, they always call from a different number.
This one came from California.

[wheresthebeef]

Used to get 10+ robo calls a day all last year, almost all were from my area code and even had the same first three digits as my own phone. Actually had someone leave a voice mail telling me to stop calling them all the time (obviously the callers are getting them too and its showing my number).

Lately its area codes from another state over so its way easier to ignore them, plus theres a lot less in general.

[CyberDreams]

Since i have a government phone (aka free phone) i always get random calls throughout all hours. I use my phone as an alarm clock though so i usually keep it on all the time, besides restarting it once in a while. I never answer the calls anymore though (unless i recognize the number) and i hardly check my voicemails. I just don't care enough haha!

 

Also my phone is complete shit. Slow and useless. Internet freezes up if i even open it. I know i shouldn't complain since its free, but if the government is giving out these types of phones to people, i think that should at least be a usable phone...I mean my old Motorola Razr which is what i had for about 10 years before this shitty so called "smart phone" was faster than this (albeit it wasn't a smart phone). But with only 2GB's of storage and about 512mb RAM it's just slow as all hell.

 

Anyways, i've never heard anything about these "Chinese voicemails" but like i said i rarely check my voicemails. I do get calls randomly though but they've been less frequent as of lately. I'm sure they were "robo calls" or w/e as i used to answer them and i would either hear nothing or just scam type shit. So i stopped answering and caring.

[wolfmcbeard]

I had a govt Blackberry for a while, the number of scam call i got was at least 10+ a day, I even got scam texts but those were rare, as for internet on that thing, I was lucky to even pull up google, but I could watch YT on it albeit at the worst resolution I had ever seen after five minutes of loading.
I paid $30 for my current phone that theoretically has 2bg RAM and 8GB storage, but also 6GB of bloatware and worse service than the old Blackberry.

[elend]

Read this yesterday, a little background about those chinese cold calls: http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003718/how-ai-powered-voice-bots-flooded-chinas-telemarketing-industry

[Jason]

Mesa doesn't have phone. Mesa doesn't get calls.

[Bushpig2dope]

1 minute ago, TheMegaKid said:

Mesa doesn't have phone. Mesa doesn't get calls.

Not having a phone in this day and age is really silly. No offense but you must be REALLY disconnected 

[Jello]

On 3/23/2019 at 12:14 AM, CyberDreams said:

Since i have a government phone (aka free phone) i always get random calls throughout all hours. I use my phone as an alarm clock though so i usually keep it on all the time, besides restarting it once in a while. I never answer the calls anymore though (unless i recognize the number) and i hardly check my voicemails. I just don't care enough haha!

 

Also my phone is complete shit. Slow and useless. Internet freezes up if i even open it. I know i shouldn't complain since its free, but if the government is giving out these types of phones to people, i think that should at least be a usable phone...I mean my old Motorola Razr which is what i had for about 10 years before this shitty so called "smart phone" was faster than this (albeit it wasn't a smart phone). But with only 2GB's of storage and about 512mb RAM it's just slow as all hell.

 

Anyways, i've never heard anything about these "Chinese voicemails" but like i said i rarely check my voicemails. I do get calls randomly though but they've been less frequent as of lately. I'm sure they were "robo calls" or w/e as i used to answer them and i would either hear nothing or just scam type shit. So i stopped answering and caring.

You can get a pretty decent BLU smartphone for $150 or less that can do anything an iphone or Samsung can do. But yeah, don't complain about your phone if it was given to you for "free". Other people have to pay for those government phones. 

[CyberDreams]

7 minutes ago, Jello said:

You can get a pretty decent BLU smartphone for $150 or less that can do anything an iphone or Samsung can do. But yeah, don't complain about your phone if it was given to you for "free". Other people have to pay for those government phones. 

 

You're right. I was just stating that if you are eligible for a free government phone then i think that it should at least be a usable phone. It uses about 80% of its memory constantly due to the applications (i deleted/disabled most of the bloatware but it needs some in order to run) and low amount of RAM that the phone has. I think people should at least be able to get a somewhat usable phone. I don't even watch video's on it nor do i go on the internet so that's not the issue i was pointing out. I wouldn't expect a free phone to be able to do that very fast anyways but when you can't even answer calls or messages because the phone itself is so slow, then you know you have an issue. 

 

It's not powerful enough to be a "smartphone" yet it tries to be. Anyway's i'll have to check out what those BLU smartphones are though. Thanks for the tip :)