Seems like they've massively ramped up in the past week or so.
Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
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Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#2The FTC has sent out a warning about these calls targeting the Chinese community pretending to be the embassy.
"The Federal Trade Commission warned this week that mobile spam calls are now targeting the Chinese community in the US, with the robocaller pretending to be from the Chinese Embassy. The messages range from asking the recipient to pick up a package or document from a Chinese Consulate office and offering to exchange yuan to dollars, to the Embassy investigating a fraud and requiring personal information to avoid deportation.
The FTC believes these calls are targeting Chinese immigrants or callers with Chinese last names, but in recent weeks, the practice has reached numbers across the US regardless of who the number is registered to. Like other spam calls, the incoming number appear to be similar to the recipient’s own phone number, or spoofs the Chinese Embassy’s real phone number which begins with (212) 244. In addition to calls, the FTC warns that similar scams may also be targeting users via WeChat"
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/22/17267970/ftc-robot-scam-c...
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#3Got a number that they’re calling from? I can check our (Nomorobo) database and see if there’s anything coming through.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#4Apparently, they are ramping up because they’re working, unfortunately: millions of dollars have been scammed from mostly older Chinese immigrants over the past few months as a result of these calls.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#5I had the fascinating experience of sitting in on a high school English class during my time in Beijing. One of the common assignments was to practice speaking by calling American phone numbers that students in the intro programming classes had scraped from the internet. With exams coming up it's possible that students are making phone calls on their own to get practice.
But seriously, what kind of question is this?
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#6I have a 415 number and began receiving these a few weeks ago.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#7Do you have a NYC number? Or is this happening across the US? I've been getting them for a couple of months now and there was just a post on the NYC subreddit the other day talking about it. I thought I was the only one, and since I don't speak Mandarin, I assumed someone just accidentally gave my number to a Chinese business of some sort.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#8Do you have a NYC number? Or is this happening across the US? I've been getting them for a couple of months now and there was just a post on the NYC subreddit the other day talking about it. I thought I was the only one, and since I don't speak Mandarin, I assumed someone just accidentally gave my number to a Chinese business of some sort.
Not OP, but I received one of these calls the other day.
Residing in Toronto, Ontario.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#9Do you have a NYC number? Or is this happening across the US? I've been getting them for a couple of months now and there was just a post on the NYC subreddit the other day talking about it. I thought I was the only one, and since I don't speak Mandarin, I assumed someone just accidentally gave my number to a Chinese business of some sort.
Is it always from the same number? I bet we (Nomorobo) have some recordings that I can dig up.
Re: Ask HN: Chinese spam-calls, anyone know what's going on?
#10I have a 415 number and began receiving these a few weeks ago.
This was happening in SF in November, 2017.
https://sanfranciscopolice.org/article/sfpd-issues-warning-t...
Does anyone else find it troubling that scammers and spammers using spoofed calling numbers are doing to the voice phone system what spammers did to email, and before that, to NNTP? (The "Green Card" spam was 24 years ago.)