Eight. Eight calls in the span of 2 1/2 business days have been punted and silenced by this little checkbox on my phone settings screen.
Ignore everything else, this is the single greatest feature of iOS 13.
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Nice. I’ve been tempted to turn that on, but because I’m a primary contact for our Cub Scout Pack, I sometimes get calls from folks who aren’t in my contacts. But with as bad as the problem has become lately, I’m thinking about listing my Google Voice number for situations like that. It has an option to require callers to record their name if their number isn’t in my Google contacts, and scammers rarely follow the instructions on the recording, so their calls get punted, mostly.
I know Android is a little different from iOS, because you can select your own dialer, but the default dialers I’ve seen / had the last 2 or 3 versions had the contact list restriction option available.
I turned it on yesterday morning. I almost immediately later joined a conference call for work and (as is my usual) put on my ‘better’ travel-friendly headphones and had the conference bridge call my phone… Which was immediately dropped by this feature. Had to call in manually like some sort of animal and then add the Bridge number to my Contacts so I could be on the 3+ conference calls a week I do these days. (Which is a pretty managable number.)
It’s mostly a good feature, though.
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About half my department uses Google Voice mainly to provide some redirection for work calls. Big problem is texts don’t get passed through, I guess?
We were in a meeting about on-call issues and I was literally installing GV on my iPhone when the boss said, “And I don’t know if we should be using GV…” (There were a couple issues where it broke for people, and no one noticed.)
I haven’t had a problem with texts. When I use Craigslist or similar, I always use my Voice number. I can send texts from a computer browser, or the phone app, and incoming messages hit both of those plus I get an email. Works for me!
Maybe they get it later, or it loses some info: I have some of my coworker’s private cell numbers so we can text when working on stuff or whatever, but a few get weirdly delayed if GVoice is involved.
We took a look at this email and the links. They do eventually take you to the actual Aramex site, but it is a redirect that happens after they harvest your credentials. The ? followed by the random string of letters after the website name is apparently redirect coding, according to our cyber-security instructor. He may be using this email as an example in his classes.
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Ahhh, very very sneaky. Thanks for the feedback.
Glad I could provide material for the class. Do they offer online courses btw?
They can do diddly squat with that Aramex account, since it is an incomplete profile, and I also have notified Aramex about that. Will follow up on Monday as it is now a weekend. Will be a real hoot if Aramex terminate that profile and they try to use it.
I also gots an email from Instagram, but have changed the password on that specific profile, and will be implementing 2FA later today, just in case this is also credential harvesting.
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@Nabiki - the credential harvesting, do they harvest only aramex credentials, or all of your credentials?
They start by harvesting your login to that site. Since many people use the same password on many sites, they then try all of the usual suspects in order to get more.
Edit: Unfortunately, Empire College doesn’t offer online classes. It would mess with our accreditation.
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Another good from the Legal section of Not Always Right:
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I got one last week where the Indian scammer really tried. I answered the phone in Japanese, and he knew a tiny amount of Japanese. He eventually got tired of it and… click 
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Maybe if you can give me a general outlay of their script, I can probably whip up a few responses in Afrikaans and you can play it back to them?
I like that! In Japanese, they usually don’t last past, “Hello, may I ask who is calling?”
“Who are you?” would be a good one too.
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Haha! Give me a list of responses and I’ll do them one by one as an MP3 and label them accordingly (when I gots the time).
Should be real fun too 
Bonus - I have a German colleague in Austria, will ask him to do a few recordings as well (should he want to do so).
Oh, this sounds like fun. Start with:
Hello? May I ask who’s calling?
Who is this?
Go away, you horrible person.
If you’ve got an Asterisk rig, there’s also Lenny.
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Lenny sounds like the spawn of Satan
So, Like, If Get Scammed Does That Make Me, Like, More Popular?
Comeuppance, Liars/Scammers, Phone Scam, Pranks, USA, Virginia | Legal | September 29, 2019
(I have had the weekend from Hell itself, so I am miserable on a Monday night when this gem of a telemarketing scam comes through. For context, I am in the bathroom with horrible cramps when I hear the phone ring and my son brings me the phone. Also, I have my laptop on my lap, and it is definitely not an Apple product, as we are an Apple-free home due to budget.)
Me: “Hello?” using an outrageous valley girl voice
Scammer: with a thick accent “Hello, ma’am, I am calling from Apple Support to inform you that your iCloud account has been compromised.”
Me: “O-M-G!”
(Yes, you got that right; I went SUPER valley girl!)
Scammer: “How many Apple devices do you own?”
Me: “Three!”
Scammer: “And what kind are they?”
(He is speaking slowly like I am the airhead I am pretending to b.)
Me: “An iPhone X, a laptop, and uh… an Apple watch.”
Scammer: “Well, ma’am, it would seem your account is signalling from many places. Yes, someone in Russia, Germany, and other places have accessed your account. Do you have family from there that could have accessed the account?”
Me: “Noooo…”
Scammer: huffs “Well, ma’am, have you shared your account with anyone?”
Me: “NOOOOOOO…”
Scammer: “Well, ma’am, I am going to give you a website to go to. What browser do you use?”
Me: even more excited and outrageous voice “Safariiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”
Scammer: huffs LOUDER “If you will go and type in this address.” proceeds to give me a complex website to go to while attempting to phonetically spell it to me “Ma’am, have you typed it in?”
Me: stifling a giggle “Yesssssss.”
Scammer: huffs “What does it say?”
Me: “1MATOO7.”
Scammer: pauses “What? What did you say?”
Me: “1MATOO7.”
Scammer: “Ma’am, did you go away from the website?”
Me: “Noooo! This is what came up!”
Scammer: “Ma’am, you need to type that correctly. I do not understand how you are seeing this message.”
Me: bursts into laughter because he is clueless and dropping into my real voice with a Southern drawl “Dude, I’m just f****** with you. I’m a candidate for a PhD in military history, and there ain’t s*** in this house that’s an Apple product! You have a good day, sweetie.”
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