Newly re-elected New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was talking to a supporter on his mobile phone when another call came in.
“I didn’t recognize the number, so I didn’t take it,” Key told a New Zealand television station.
Only later did aides tell Key who was trying to reach him: President Obama.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/09/22/obama-john-key-new-zealand-phone-call/16057707/
Lmao can you imagine President Obama having a call go to voicemail?
just thinking logistically, I imagine that happened a lot. Anyway I expect a decent number of his calls were made by aides and he just took the phone after they got through to the right person.
Even if it said “President Obama” many people would think it’s a prank.
True, but if you just got elected as the head of a US friendly nation, it probably wouldn’t be quite so unbelievable.
Well to be fair I’d answer just to say “no you’re not!”
Im surprised the aides from each side didnt do all the logistics of connecting with one another and the president wasnt just handed a phone with the call already connected through.
That’s what I was thinking, surely it was an aide who was dialing who’d only hand the phone to Obama when it actually connected to Key
That was the aides from Obama’s side calling 100%. The minister was newly elected, maybe fairly new to politics as a whole? Maybe he just doesn’t like middlemen. Edit: **Re-**elected, I missed that. I guess the second option then.
Its a news site but the only place you can find the date of the article is in the URL. Sometimes I am baffled by the weird design decisions people are making.
It’s called USA Today. That means you’re only supposed to read the news that came out today.
Oh, so it happened today. Makes it a lot less interesting now that Obama is not a president and hasn’t been in years.
It says it right under the headline, no? Or maybe that’s only on the mobile layout or something.
Do you ever get the feeling you’re part of an A/B test?
I guess I should start answering… what if it’s Obama?
Definitely don’t ghost Obama. He’ll drone strike your house.
Don’t bother, if they can’t leave a message, you didn’t want to talk to them.
And if they leave a message, I won’t listen to it. Text me instead.
I actually can’t make or receive phone calls because it’s too stressful and unpleasant, so probably don’t bother x
And if they text me, I won’t read it. Just don’t bother.
Nah, you gotta loop back around. “If it was important, they would’ve called.”
Can’t leave a message if i don’t set up my voicemail
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And this is why I asked my provider to turn off voicemail.
I don’t want to talk to them. Whoever they are.
If only spam callers were unable to spoof phone numbers that’d be great.
I was called by my own phone number once. Nothing suspicious there.
Back in my day we used to just talk to ourselves in person.
You missed out, bro. It was you from the future calling to warn you of your dire fate and how to avoid it.
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Man, I wish I could get a side quest shucks
Avoid?
Oh…
I wouldn’t call myself… I’d send an email.
If I got an email from myself that wasn’t signed with my gpg key I wouldn’t trust it.
You’ve never taken too many mushrooms and called yourself?
Heh that happened to me too! Very strange.
That’s true but they usually spoof some person I don’t know. So if I google it and it’s some Betty from East Bumfuck, I know not to pick up. Now, if they spoofed someone I know, that’s different.
My phone is good enough at blocking spam calls that when an unfamiliar number calls I answer, and it’s usually a wrong number
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The thing is, there are legit reasons to want to spoof numbers. My use case is that if I’m not reachable via sip I send the call over the normal phone network and set cid to the calling number.
I guess a middle ground would be that you could spoof numbers to phone numbers you’ve registered and verified with your provider.
To be honest though, the scammers and spammers will always find a way round it and spoof anyway.
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How would one do this?
Move to the US, basically.
Then no.
Works in the UK (at least on a Google pixel) as well but not sure about other countries, is reliant on a Google account+Google services which are kinda privacy invasive
Mr google, please add a “search this number online” button for incoming calls. Sometimes I miss a call because I’m slow typer
I want to be able to search the phone numbers in maps. Searching Google sucks because of all the algorithm gaming scam sites. I just want to know if this number is a local business I might actually want to talk to.
Does the USA not have an official phone registry website? Where I live you just go on there and look up any number, person or company you want. It’s basically an online phonebook.
Not that I’ve found. There are plenty of ways to find a number of a business. But harder to find legitimate ways to find people’s numbers. And it’s almost impossible to reliably find the owner of a phone number.
I think hiya does this.
Samsung phones use their service to identify incoming callers.
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Yeah it’s not super accurate. Similar to googling the number.
Ten of the last twelve incoming calls on my phone were scam numbers. I haven’t had the ringer or vibrate turned on for my phone for months so I never notice them. My phone does a pretty good job of blocking them and an outstanding job blocking spam texts
I work for a phone company, it’s pretty satisfying seeing all the hard work actually be useful for society.
Elaborate?
I also want to know more like the previous commenter. Automatic screening that I had with an old pixel phone was the best thing Google ever did for me back with a pixel 3.
If you answer and it’s a scam then they know you’ll pick up the phone in the future.
Only if you say something. Pick up, say nothing, if it’s a robot waiting to hear a voice it will hang up, if it’s a real human you’ll get a “hello?”
I fucking love not answering my phone. It makes me feel powerful like god or better
Holy shit I think a scammer company is using my phone number as a fake employee contact number.
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way
That’s the way
uh-huh uh-huh
I like it
uh-huh uh-huhThat’s the way
uh-huh uh-huh
I like it
uh-huh uh-huh
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This is exactly as it should be. I haven’t changed my greeting since I started at my current job so it still says the previous employees name lol. Plus I left my desk phone in my previous cube so I don’t actually have a phone at all.
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I have the maximum AI call screening option on with my Pixel 8. Real people actually tell it who they are, machines and telemarketing pricks hang up immediately upon hearing the AI.
I keep a browser window open exclusively for Googling phone numbers. This is way more common than I realized.
Where do you look up numbers. I only find scam sites
Just type the number into google. If it doesn’t come up with a number from a business or you don’t recognize it, just ignore it. Most of the time I just ignore calls, and if it’s important enough, they will leave a voicemail or text me.
Do you habe Skype, Doc?
Ich habe das Skype jajajaj
I’m kind of lucky on this front. I got my phone number when I lived in L.A. and later moved (back) to Indiana. My phone number is a California number. I basically know no one in California at this point who would call me on the phone if they wanted to get in touch. So if the area code isn’t from Indiana, except in special circumstances, it most likely is a call I can ignore.
I have that exact same thing. Almost every spam call sellf identifies as a scam call
