‘Can you hear me?' Don't answer that!

I ignore the phone if I don't recognize who is calling.  After that I go here or reverse lookup the number on my phone.  They are junk calls 99.8% of the time.

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Just don't tell everyone to do it your way, and I won't tell you to do it mine.

But you get to tell everyone to do it your way. Got it. You see, if you read here, there are others like me that try to answer and get information/etc. There's value in posting that info here, and with complaints to the FTC. I want to encourage those that are so inclined and not have them being shouted down by the "call blocking" crowd.  Call blocking doesn't get better info to the FTC, or actually any complaints to the FTC. And without those complaints, the FTC can't even think about beginning an investigation. Helping them helps everyone.

It's like this, Randy....

Let's say DaFox is an evil Fox....

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My robospammingdialer manages to call your number and you pick up.
It switches over to me and begins recording the call and saves your number.
I say, "Hi, I'm a Fox, can you hear me OK?"
You say "Yes"
I then go into some random pitch for something, of which you are not interested in, and you hang up.
When the line goes dead, I speak into the mic, "Do you authorized the $25.00 a week reoccurring charge for Premium Phone Horoscope Messaging?", then tap playback on the recording of you saying "Yes".
I then save that edited audio file, convert it into print, create an invoice from my offshore/unreachable/unknown Horoscope service to your phone provider via your phone number.
If you do not already have safeguards in place to prevent this type of "Phone Fee Slamming" scam, your provider starts sending my service the fee each week and bills you for it.
If your are not paying attention, you may not see this on your bills for some time.
If you protest against your phone carrier, they tell you that you have to settle with the billing service, me.... and good luck getting a hold of me on that.
If your carrier comes to me to reverse the moneys, I send them a print of your edited conversion, along with the audio clip, to "prove" you did OK these charges.
If you keep pressing to get back you money, I send back messages and letters claiming I will sue you for everything you have in hopes it will scare you off.... but really, I'm not afraid, because you won't be able to find me to sue me back.
As it then becomes a dispute between you and a third party service provider, a lot of phone companies will back out as a go between, leaving you to be the one to do the leg work getting back your money.
As I'm outside of your country, your government and law enforcement can't legally help or are unable to help do to how hidden I am.
At this point, as I have effectively stolen several if not many more weeks of fees from you, and many other suckers, I "vanish" and start the scam all over again under a different offshore/unreachable/unknown service and have fun trying to track me down to get back your money.

So, as you can see, it is unfortunately fairly easy to steal money from someone when all they did was say "Yes" to "Can you hear me now?"

calls repeatedly the business/work line, always starts with "Oh, I seem to have a little problem with my headset", and then tries to engage you into conversation, if you say "Hello?" she tries to pretend can't hear you, so you can say "Yes" when she asks you if you can hear her now, or something like that. SCAM! Also mentioned you are receiving this call because you stayed previously at one of our resorts, since this is a business line, nobody stayed at their resorts using THIS phone they call at :)  trying to scam you any way they know!

Your efforts to ferret out the actual identity of the caller is most appreciated. Thank you

I don't think that the current wave of "can you hear me" calls is connected to the "don't say yes" toner scam of  a while back. I just got another of these calls today, and the giggly "oops I was having a headset problem" chick is definitely a recording that was not the least bit interested in if I said yes or not (I just kept saying "Hello."), and it went ahead anyway with it's robo-spiel of "free cruise" scammery anyway, could not be interrupted.

My feeling is the current wave was just some genius's bright idea of a new way to get a human answer-indication response from people who can smell a telemarketing call from the first sentence, and would ordinarily hang up before said first sentence was over with. The punchline is; the publicity from press and agencies who (probably erroneously) assumed the old "verbal approval" recording editing scam, has probably sabotaged whatever gain might have been had by this less nefarious strategy.

Meanwhile, Snopes has asked asked the BBC, the FTC, and the Consumer Federation of America: "Are there any documented cases of people being victimized in this ["yes" editing] manner?", and as of yet has not got a response from any of them. They classify it as "Unproven".

IMHO, I don't think "yes" editing shenanigans are involved in this go-round. But, the calls I've gotten are definitely a scam.
For more on that Google: free cruise scam

I think it's just latest "new-old" news. Or maybe it's "Fake" news. Show image ▶ People need something to talk about.

"Alternative telemarketing"

Unfortunately, you're right. There is a lot of "You don't get to say anything, but I get to lie all I want" kind of attitude around here. (I'm not calling anyone a liar.... I'm just creating a stark description of the dichotomy.) Unfortunately, a lot of the bullies cling to really sad or astoundingly foolish ideas and are incapable of examining them in the light of reality.

Answer/Don't answer? I'm actually on BOTH sides of that argument. Sometimes, life seems a bit overwhelming, and dealing with one more robocall, or one more pushy insurance appointment setter is just too much, at the moment. I don't answer. At other times, for other reasons, I let it go to technology, and if they leave a message, or don't leave a message, it's fine.

The reality, though, is if nobody ever answers their phone -- 800Notes becomes useless. There will soon be no source of valid information about any callers which fail to leave messages, if nobody answers the phone to engage with them, and try to get information. So, when I have time and am in a mood to deal with "whatever," I answer the phone.

As a result, I can strongly recommend that other people do the same. (This is not telling anyone what to do; it is just sharing information.) I have discovered  -- in the personal experience of me, alone -- answering the phone and pressing the right button, or saying, "Put me on your internal do not call list." actually results in no more calls from that particular source. It's common sense. They are in business to make money; not to merely harass people. Even if it's a scam, they're not stupid enough to keep calling someone who's onto them! They know there will be no money, at that number.

Maybe other people have had experiences which make them believe something else. One idea some are fond of is that, by answering the phone, you verify that yours is a working number. What? Big deal. Every call to every number verifies a working number, if the phone company recording does not come on, saying "Not a working number." There's no benefit in creating a list of working numbers. There's no need for anyone to answer.

ok, I get it. I use Verizon and they have "Bill Block" which blocks any of that from even happening.  I just assumed all carriers have such an option built-in too.

Mostly, it's best to contact your provider and find out.
Some may be default protection, some may be opt-in, and others may be fee based (I would consider a different carrier in that case).
Terms used, including but not limited too:

• Bill Block
• Slam Blocking
• Cram Blocking
• Premium Messaging/Services Blocking
• Service Switching Blocking
• Account Control
• Freeze Account

I got one of those "having trouble with my headset" calls. It included a bit of a giggle. I'm certain that it did not solicit an answer and was just, as you say, an attempt to make me think the voice was live rather than recorded.

I've received several of the "can you hear me" calls. I'm not so certain that they are all trying to record an answer for future mixing. The first time, I said something, and the message went on. Since then, I've been silent, and after a few seconds the "can you hear me" repeats, and then it hangs up. So I think this is both an attempt to make me think the call was live, and a sort of voice response system that is set up to detect whether there's actually a person listening to it, perhaps to avoid leaving evidence trails on voicemail.

On one of these calls, I gave it enough answers to make it continue for a while. It became obvious that all it wanted was to hear a voice. Perhaps any noise would have been enough, but I didn't try non-voice noises. Example (not an exact trascript):

Computer: First, are you between the ages of 18 and 65?
Me: This is a recording, right?
Computer: Great! Now, do you currently have a home security system?
Me: This is a recording, right?
Computer: In that case, I'd like to tell you ...

If I'd been giving sensible answers, I could have been fooled into thinking I was talking with a person. Next time I might try reciting Jabberwocky.

I did not think of that and I have never made payment by phone for anything. I do use pay pal on occasion but I use a VPN along with Avast (bank mode VPN to do that. Never use any public internet. Hopefully now people will be aware of this scam and not fall for it. All the radio tv and newspapers have been sounding off warning people about this latest scam.

I always plat this LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5e-2KmOnWA

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The 'Yes Scam' or 'Can you hear me?' scam says they record you saying yes and hang up afterwards. Then use the recording to charge you or open accounts anywhere.

Could you open an account  or charge something to a phone number by simply saying yes and nothing else? Try it and see for yourself how that goes!
I think it is very irresponsible for anyone to help spread this "yes" Rumor, without first investigating and understanding any possibilities towards its validity.

Ask yourself this:

• What scam scenario wouldn't work with a simple yes from the scammer them self, that could only work with a recording of your voice?
• How would a caller know who answered, it could be your wife/husband/mom/dad or anyone who answered your phone and said 'yes' that gets recorded.
• What legitimate company would allow anyone to charge a client's phone or open an account with only a recording of someone saying yes?
• Why would scammers spend the extra time and effort on something that is simply pointless and a waste of time? Scammers could simply record voices from the internet or even passing on the street of anyone saying yes, if they really had a scam that required a recorded 'yes', as that would be much more efficient than making hundreds of calls everyday for a simple yes.

The Yes Scam is merely a rumor and unproven to have any validity that it could work. There may be scams where you agreed to something unwittingly and got recorded, but they need much more than a simple recording of a voice saying yes.
Saying 'yes' alone has no impact  on pulling a scam, since a scammer could just as easily say 'yes' themselves. They wouldn't know its you or some family member who answered your phone, so recording a 'yes' is pretty redundant.