Points to ponder

[tangor]

If a telemarketer calls, hand the phone to your 3 year old and tell her "It's Santa."

The little toe is specifically designed to geolocate furniture in low-light conditions.

Husbands are the best people to share your secrets with. They won't tell anyone because they aren't even listening.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Popeye's Chicken was fried in Olive Oil?

I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon.
I'll let you know.

[thecoalman]

My new trick (stole it from youtube poster) is to just answer yes to everything when telemarketer calls.

telemarketer: Sir we have a special offer on insurance, are you interested?
me: Yes
telemarketer: Excellent, I only need to gather some information.
me: Yes
telemarketer: I'm going to need your bank account number, social security number, credit card information and drivers license number.
me: Yes
telemarketer: Can you give me your SS number.
me: Yes
telemarketer: Sorry, I need your SS number to proceed.
me: Yes

I think most of them suspect what is going on right around the third or fourth yes but they don't want to let it go because they are still hoping it's a live one. Usually around the eighth yes you get to learn some Indian expletives..

The little toe is specifically designed to geolocate furniture in low-light conditions.

You can always cut it off along with the other 3 small toes, the big toe you need to run.

[LifeinAsia]

me: Yes

Funny, but the "yes scam" is alive and well [states.aarp.org].

[NickMNS]

Re: Yes scam article.
Wow that was bad...

Is the "Say Yes" Scam Real?

The only attempt to answer this question in the article is with this statement:

While many people report that they are getting calls like these followed by a hang up, we have yet to encounter any victims.

Great job, so you wrote an article pretending to know an answer to a question to which you really have no idea, or knowledge about. Brilliant!

What should I do? Avoid answering calls from unknown numbers.

Is that the best advice they could come up with? Really?

How about answer questions with an affirmative statement.
Question: "Can you hear me?"
Answer: "I can hear you."

Question: "Is your name Nick"
Answer: "My name is Nick"

And don't forget...

FORWARD TO A FRIEND:
Share this alert with your family and friends so they know how to spot the common strategies scammers use and have the tools they need to defend themselves against their tricks.

Great let's spread false information, that provides poor advice to everyone we know. I'm surprised it didn't end with a statement like "If you don't forward this to your friends within 1 hour you will have bad luck"

Good job AARP of Utah.

Yes!

Now that I have avoided the underlying question that this article pre-supposes but never answers, and doesn't even bother to ask. Can a simple "yes" statement in your voice provide sufficient authentication at a financial institution to allow a malicious actor gain access to your account? I would guess that it is not sufficient and not even necessary. If a malicious actor has sufficient access to your credentials to get to a point in the authentication process where one would require a "yes" answer, it would seem very unlikely that having access to a recording of "yes" in your voice would be preventing them from gaining access. It is not like a recording that lasts less than 1 second could be used to differentiate anything. Essentially any "yes" spoken by any person would be sufficient to pass that gate. So a recorded "yes" is not necessary and it certainly isn't sufficient.

A reporter could certainly ask this question to several financial institutions, and get a definitive answer. Obviously the reported that wrote the AARP article couldn't be bothered.

[ronin]

Re: Spam telephone calls / robocalls

In 2001, I'd have picked up my mobile phone and answered it whenever it rang.

Today, my mobile rarely rings. On the rare occasion it does ring, most of the time I don't even look at it, never mind answer it.

If either of us needs to telecommunicate something, mrs. ronin and I will either text or message the other.

Communications with my employer are very occasionally a video call, but much more usually a message or an email.

In the last twenty years (in my experience) asynchronous text-based telecommunication has almost completely replaced synchronous voice-based telecommunication.

Which means... anyone voice-calling is almost certainly up to no good.*

* Or it's my Mum