‘Can you hear me?' Don't answer that!

The same applies to the callers who will be selling your "lead" (sic!) to four solar companies, and want you to consent to waiving the TCPA and TSR. "Uh huh," "yup," and "OK" will get one by 99% of the time.  And since the initial call was illegal, and because they used a fake name like "Solar Solutions," and a spoofed number, and probably a fake caller name, too, your position down the road is that you had a legitimate right to know who was actually calling.  I've yet to hear of a lawsuit where the "consent" was upheld, i.e., since the first call was illegal, the second call is also illegal.

I'm glad I will never have to worry about anyone tricking me into saying yes and attempt to use it for some scam. I have music playing in the room where the landline phone is and it would be picked up in the background, so they would have  a lot of work trying to edit it out.

But I never say yes in any case. My answers are generally "who's calling", "hold on", "can I take a message" or give me a number to call back". I can't recall a time that I've ever said "yes" to anyone I didn't know, and until now, I've never given it any thought of someone using it for a malicious purpose. I will now spread the word about this to everyone I know.

After a little looking to see what kind of scam people might have fallen for, I found that despite all the News coverage about this, there has yet to be an actual reported scam victim. The link to the CBS News in the OP has issued an update to Snopes about Urban Legends:
http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/

I am curious as to how a scam could be used from a simple "yes" over the phone, since anyone disputing something someone claims you said yes to would of course have to prove it and an edited audio can be easily discovered if it was indeed edited. I hope it is just an urban legend and there are no methods to pull a scam like this, but stay aware of the possibility some crafty scammer could find some new way to scam you using your own words against you.

The "if the first call illegal, the second call is also illegal" statement is somewhat analogous to the "fruit of the poisonous tree" evidence exclusion based upon the 4th Amendment right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures, where an improper search n seizure leads to law enforcement not being able to use the evidence obtained by the illegal search.

I don't answer any calls I don't recognize any more, but lets just say that if I were to pick up and say the magic word 'Yes', how are they going to get the money out of me? LOL

No wait!, I guess I can call back and give them my card details, right?!

I suggest you read the 22 pages of posts in this forum thread.
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-32d1c28414560c5 ... ur-copier-calls
Need the Model Number off Your Copier Calls

I just read thru all 22 pages, whew! and I only seen a brief discussion (pg13) on the idea about saying 'yes' from Nimrod and William (you ?) I don't understand what it was you tried to point out  to Randy. That thread is about scammers getting copier serial numbers to trick people into paying for toner/ink they never ordered. I didn't see where anyone actually fell for it though, mostly exaggerated stories and joking around.

I recently got a call on my cell phone and they asked for Joe and I told them they had the wrong number.  They repeated my phone number and asked if that was correct.  Without thinking, I said, "yes."  He said that he must have written the number down wrong. How many times has this happened innocently over the years.   After hearing the story on the news about the new scam, I realize now that I should have asked him, "What number are you trying to call," if I said anything at all to him.  Some wrong numbers are just that, wrong numbers, but in this day and age, it's a real shame that you can't say the word "yes" at all in a conversation without it being used against you.   I think they take advantage of kind, polite people, like the elderly who are respectful, in this scam.  I don't have an active credit card, but will watch my statements in case my "yes" costs me something.
Is there anything that I can do other than watch my statements for extra charges?  I can't memorize every number, I try to edit legitimate calls when they come in to show who they are if the caller ID doesn't (contractors working on my house, etc.).  Whenever my insurance  or mortgage company calls (I forget which), it just shows as a code (and not the same code) not the company name, so it's really hard to know what to do.  Things like this scam really make me mad.  I would never authorize any charges over the phone.  Is there a way to document that to protect consumers?

Not always an option. Some of us have to answer all incoming calls so advice like this is helpful.

This exact subject was on our local news this morning.  I've noticed that the news channels are starting to alert you about scams a lot more than they used to.

Maybe amend the advice to include "when at all possible." Some people HAVE to answer all incoming calls.

HEY ! I posted that because I had been up all night and needed to hit the hay.
Yes, that thread is about copier serial numbers, but that scam is a subset of business-to-business scams that have happened over the years. When I worked as a volunteer at a small non-profit arts organization in the late 1980s, their new office manager (recent college graduate) got tricked by one of those scams.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-release ... mall-businesses
FTC Stops Deceptive Office Supply Scam That Targeted Small Businesses and Nonprofits
July 31, 2014

"Those who questioned the invoices were often pressured into paying by the defendants’ claiming that they had audio recordings verifying the order (which they failed to produce) or stating they would accept a “discounted” price as payment in full."

==== These days, it is trivial to record phone calls and edit the recordings.

I understand. I am retired from the "Phone Company" so these days I enjoy my luxury of not answering.

Ah, someone else noticed the forced consent part of the solar panel sales script which I endured a couple weeks ago. The little English-deficient goober gave a pass to my other snarky responses to "qualification", but would not let go until I consented to a future sales call "in case you aahh leested ahn do-not-call list". So their own script admits indirectly that these freaks were out of TSR compliance in the first place.

My defense thinking at the time echoed yours. It seemed clear that without my granting consent I had no chance at gaining "actionable intelligence". That call was among others from obviously spoofed numbers, and the low-tier rep was evasive when not flatly lying about the business location.