The more I thought of this one today, the more I was convinced that he was referring to all the political robocalls coming up; it seems rather early for that, but what do I know . . . I don’t answer any of ’em anyway.
Janis farted, as indicated by the musical note. Even after all these years, she likes to maintain a bit of decorum around Arlo. So she took out her phone and looked at it, pretending the little melodic toot was a call. Arlos sees through this, of course, but he thinks it’s cute. The behaviour will become more common in the coming months as in the fall, they begin to eat more hearty fare: baked beans, chili, lentil soup, cabbage rolls, squash, bubble & squeak, etc. These foods tend to give Janis gas.
If it’s political robocalls, why “in coming months”? If it’s election-related, they’ll be gong on for almost fourteen more months.
Besides, political robocalls are a tiny percentage, even during election season.
Therefore, my explanation is correct.
CIDUB, ‘in coming months’ because they’ll be more common than in the last couple of months and ‘in coming years’ sounds like the calling season will be longer than it it’s reasonable to fear it will be?
getting once a year calls from acquaintances as Christmas approaches?
I’ve already gotten two political robocalls in September vs 1 non-political spammer. And no, I don’t answer, but they sometimes leave voice mail. I’ve also gotten political spam text messages already.
I seem to get nothing BUT annoying spam calls, and it does seem to getting worse.
Pumpkin-spice scented, naturally (so to speak).
(the comment above was in response to Singapore Bill’s ‘splanation)
I had my phone on ‘normal’ for about two hours yesterday (instead of ‘silent’) and I received five or six spam calls and EIGHT text messages (I can receive texts, but not reply). It’s a pity that a means of communication has become a means of non-communication.
“If it’s political robocalls, why “in coming months”?”
Because they’ll peak during the leadup to the primaries, until the D’s pick their candidate, then there will be a relative low, then they’ll ramp up in the leadup to the general election.
Oregon has mail-in voting for all elections. It’s possible for the political parties, and other interested parties, to buy a list of people who haven’t yet returned a ballot. They get calls; while all but the stupidest or poorest organizations don’t bother calling people who’ve already turned in a ballot. So, I used to drop off a ballot on the morning of the first day the elections office would take it.
@Andréa: It’s not supposed to smell like roses, you know.
Lucky Canada – only FIVE WEEKS of electioneering . . .
Political campaigns are exempt from the Do Not Call List laws. So we’re going to be getting a lot more robocalls in the next few months no matter how good our anti-spam systems are (and even the good ones let through two or three spammers a week for me).
(And yeah, I figured this one would end up on CIDU.)
CIDUB, (I like that!),
If you live in a solidly Red or Blue location, you don’t get many robocalls. If you live Purple, it’s endless.
Adding to above, I mean *political* robocalls. The other 15 a day are pretty regular no matter what the season.
I should think those living in WI, FL, MI and PA would get the most, these being considered ‘swing states’ (from what I’ve seen in FL, not too many are doing much swinging, except from their zimmerframes). So I would be getting ’em, no matter which of the two states I was in – WI (previously) or FL (presently).
I can’t remember the last time I got a political robocall — they were apparently crowded out by calls about my auto warrantee and student loan — but since I stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, I’m unaware of the most current trends.
“If you live in a solidly Red or Blue location, you don’t get many robocalls. ”
I beg to differ. A big determinant seemed to be how long you’ve had the same number, regardless of where you could be found.
“since I stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, I’m unaware of the most current trends.”
The stupid robocalls don’t distinguish when they’re talking to voicemail, so you get a recording of the last part of the message.
As mentioned elsewhere, I don’t have a cell phone. At home, I get some calls (I think the frequency has declined but without keeping stats it’s hard to say). I don’t answer and they rarely leave messages. I actually was hoping for one because I got a new phone and wanted to check the call-screening capability.
The old phone used to have the speaker go live while it answered and you would hear the outgoing message and any response, usually a hang-up. The new one just displays ANSWERING during the outgoing message and is supposed to play any recording as it happens.
For a few weeks, the only message I got was while I was out. I finally got one the other day and all seems well.
I don’t think of “in coming months” to mean “for the next fourteen months.” Fourteen months is more “for the foreseeable future.”
Hmmm … is it legal for me to dial numbers at random and make a political pitch?
Would it be legal for me to call up ten friends and tell them to do this for an hour a day after first calling up ten of their friends to tell them to do it?
If we all manage to tie up the lines this way the robocalls won’t get through and the problem will go away.
Every time the subject comes up, I am truly amazed (and disgusted) by how pervasive the robocall problem has become in America. When my brother disconnected his landline phone (over two years ago), I thought it was an isolated incident, but the frequencies reported above make it clear that everyone over there is suffering from this scourge. For comparison, the number of landline robocalls that we have received here in the past ten years is 0 (zero). I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen at all in Germany, but it is very rare, and offenders are prosecuted.
The U.S. telephone companies have no incentive to correct the problem: they cash in on the crooks making the calls, and by selling caller ID and other ineffectual defense mechanisms to the victims. The only way that things will change is when enough voters get so fed up that they elect people willing to enact some sensible data privacy laws(*). Unfortunately, most Americans have given up, and are “combatting” the problem by yielding to the oppressors, either by abandoning their telephones entirely, or depending on various prescreening techniques.
P.S. (*) – Germany had such a law even before the European GDPR went into effect, but it’s better than just a “law”: it’s a clause in the German constitution.
It seems to me that my policy of never answering the phone is having an effect. I’ve been in my office room for about three hours, and no calls so far. Even when I get one, they generally do not leave a message. In the past month, I have received only one “real” message. There was also a case where the caller disconnected in a way that didn’t, so I heard the “beep beep beep if you’d like to make a call . . .”
Weekends are [still] call-free for me, but they make up for it during the week.
” I thought it was an isolated incident, but the frequencies reported above make it clear that everyone over there is suffering from this scourge.”
I’m going to run for President on a single plank of sending Seal Team 6 after spammers (of all flavors). Send me an email about boner pills, hear a chopper overhead while they breach your door. Inject a fake virus detection into a webpage I visit? You won’t even hear them coming. Call me to offer me a new, lower rate on my credit cards? They’ll never find your body.
I expect the rate of widows of former oil ministers making calls to American citizens to drop substantially.
That’s it. That’s my only issue. I’ll save kaiju control for my second term.
I read recently (don’t ask me where) that spammers not only know if you answer, they know how long you listened before hanging up. So I’ve been hanging up really fast, but that doesn’t seem to discourage them.
During the 2018 election I received several text messages from a congressman trying to get me to vote for him.
I would not vote him as he is an idiot and also from the party other than the one I belong to. (Being polite and not mentioning which).
But what was really upsetting about these text messages was he was not my congressman. He was not a congressman in the same county as me. He was not even a congressman in the same area code as me.
Finally called up and screamed at a poor employee of his.
I suppose I could have the SEALs announce “sorry to bother you at home like this!” before the blow off the doors.
Because Hubby & I still have the same phone numbers we had in WI, with the 262 area code, we often receive robo calls/texts from WI candidates. And none from FL candidates.
Spammers often provide falsified return phone numbers from your own area code, believing that this will increase the likelihood of your picking up, even though you don’t recognize the number. For me, it works the opposite way, because there’s nobody who calls me for legit reasons from my old area code.
Same here, except I often get spam calls from my exact exchange: which is them trying to be TOO clever, since the only people I know with that exchange are myself, my wife, and my sons.
“For me, it works the opposite way, because there’s nobody who calls me for legit reasons from my old area code.”
EXACTLY!!
Well, it varies depending on how many people call you and whether or not they still live in the same area code. I stayed where I was to progress to empty nest, and now my kid is grown up, married, and now living in a THIRD state (neither the one I started in nor the one I now reside in).
It’s a family legacy. My dad was raised in Seattle, of his three sisters, one relocated to Massachusetts, one relocated to Alaska, and one lived in California, although she worked as an international flight attendant (back when they were still called “stewardesses”) and dad landed in Oregon, before eventually retiring to Arizona. Both he AND my sister have been considering living outside the U.S. for lower cost-of-living.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The more I thought of this one today, the more I was convinced that he was referring to all the political robocalls coming up; it seems rather early for that, but what do I know . . . I don’t answer any of ’em anyway.
Janis farted, as indicated by the musical note. Even after all these years, she likes to maintain a bit of decorum around Arlo. So she took out her phone and looked at it, pretending the little melodic toot was a call. Arlos sees through this, of course, but he thinks it’s cute. The behaviour will become more common in the coming months as in the fall, they begin to eat more hearty fare: baked beans, chili, lentil soup, cabbage rolls, squash, bubble & squeak, etc. These foods tend to give Janis gas.
If it’s political robocalls, why “in coming months”? If it’s election-related, they’ll be gong on for almost fourteen more months.
Besides, political robocalls are a tiny percentage, even during election season.
Therefore, my explanation is correct.
CIDUB, ‘in coming months’ because they’ll be more common than in the last couple of months and ‘in coming years’ sounds like the calling season will be longer than it it’s reasonable to fear it will be?
getting once a year calls from acquaintances as Christmas approaches?
I’ve already gotten two political robocalls in September vs 1 non-political spammer. And no, I don’t answer, but they sometimes leave voice mail. I’ve also gotten political spam text messages already.
I seem to get nothing BUT annoying spam calls, and it does seem to getting worse.
Pumpkin-spice scented, naturally (so to speak).
(the comment above was in response to Singapore Bill’s ‘splanation)
I had my phone on ‘normal’ for about two hours yesterday (instead of ‘silent’) and I received five or six spam calls and EIGHT text messages (I can receive texts, but not reply). It’s a pity that a means of communication has become a means of non-communication.
“If it’s political robocalls, why “in coming months”?”
Because they’ll peak during the leadup to the primaries, until the D’s pick their candidate, then there will be a relative low, then they’ll ramp up in the leadup to the general election.
Oregon has mail-in voting for all elections. It’s possible for the political parties, and other interested parties, to buy a list of people who haven’t yet returned a ballot. They get calls; while all but the stupidest or poorest organizations don’t bother calling people who’ve already turned in a ballot. So, I used to drop off a ballot on the morning of the first day the elections office would take it.
@Andréa: It’s not supposed to smell like roses, you know.
Lucky Canada – only FIVE WEEKS of electioneering . . .
Political campaigns are exempt from the Do Not Call List laws. So we’re going to be getting a lot more robocalls in the next few months no matter how good our anti-spam systems are (and even the good ones let through two or three spammers a week for me).
(And yeah, I figured this one would end up on CIDU.)
CIDUB, (I like that!),
If you live in a solidly Red or Blue location, you don’t get many robocalls. If you live Purple, it’s endless.
Adding to above, I mean *political* robocalls. The other 15 a day are pretty regular no matter what the season.
I should think those living in WI, FL, MI and PA would get the most, these being considered ‘swing states’ (from what I’ve seen in FL, not too many are doing much swinging, except from their zimmerframes). So I would be getting ’em, no matter which of the two states I was in – WI (previously) or FL (presently).
I can’t remember the last time I got a political robocall — they were apparently crowded out by calls about my auto warrantee and student loan — but since I stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, I’m unaware of the most current trends.
“If you live in a solidly Red or Blue location, you don’t get many robocalls. ”
I beg to differ. A big determinant seemed to be how long you’ve had the same number, regardless of where you could be found.
“since I stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, I’m unaware of the most current trends.”
The stupid robocalls don’t distinguish when they’re talking to voicemail, so you get a recording of the last part of the message.
As mentioned elsewhere, I don’t have a cell phone. At home, I get some calls (I think the frequency has declined but without keeping stats it’s hard to say). I don’t answer and they rarely leave messages. I actually was hoping for one because I got a new phone and wanted to check the call-screening capability.
The old phone used to have the speaker go live while it answered and you would hear the outgoing message and any response, usually a hang-up. The new one just displays ANSWERING during the outgoing message and is supposed to play any recording as it happens.
For a few weeks, the only message I got was while I was out. I finally got one the other day and all seems well.
I don’t think of “in coming months” to mean “for the next fourteen months.” Fourteen months is more “for the foreseeable future.”
Hmmm … is it legal for me to dial numbers at random and make a political pitch?
Would it be legal for me to call up ten friends and tell them to do this for an hour a day after first calling up ten of their friends to tell them to do it?
If we all manage to tie up the lines this way the robocalls won’t get through and the problem will go away.
Every time the subject comes up, I am truly amazed (and disgusted) by how pervasive the robocall problem has become in America. When my brother disconnected his landline phone (over two years ago), I thought it was an isolated incident, but the frequencies reported above make it clear that everyone over there is suffering from this scourge. For comparison, the number of landline robocalls that we have received here in the past ten years is 0 (zero). I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen at all in Germany, but it is very rare, and offenders are prosecuted.
The U.S. telephone companies have no incentive to correct the problem: they cash in on the crooks making the calls, and by selling caller ID and other ineffectual defense mechanisms to the victims. The only way that things will change is when enough voters get so fed up that they elect people willing to enact some sensible data privacy laws(*). Unfortunately, most Americans have given up, and are “combatting” the problem by yielding to the oppressors, either by abandoning their telephones entirely, or depending on various prescreening techniques.
P.S. (*) – Germany had such a law even before the European GDPR went into effect, but it’s better than just a “law”: it’s a clause in the German constitution.
It seems to me that my policy of never answering the phone is having an effect. I’ve been in my office room for about three hours, and no calls so far. Even when I get one, they generally do not leave a message. In the past month, I have received only one “real” message. There was also a case where the caller disconnected in a way that didn’t, so I heard the “beep beep beep if you’d like to make a call . . .”
Weekends are [still] call-free for me, but they make up for it during the week.
” I thought it was an isolated incident, but the frequencies reported above make it clear that everyone over there is suffering from this scourge.”
I’m going to run for President on a single plank of sending Seal Team 6 after spammers (of all flavors). Send me an email about boner pills, hear a chopper overhead while they breach your door. Inject a fake virus detection into a webpage I visit? You won’t even hear them coming. Call me to offer me a new, lower rate on my credit cards? They’ll never find your body.
I expect the rate of widows of former oil ministers making calls to American citizens to drop substantially.
That’s it. That’s my only issue. I’ll save kaiju control for my second term.
I read recently (don’t ask me where) that spammers not only know if you answer, they know how long you listened before hanging up. So I’ve been hanging up really fast, but that doesn’t seem to discourage them.
During the 2018 election I received several text messages from a congressman trying to get me to vote for him.
I would not vote him as he is an idiot and also from the party other than the one I belong to. (Being polite and not mentioning which).
But what was really upsetting about these text messages was he was not my congressman. He was not a congressman in the same county as me. He was not even a congressman in the same area code as me.
Finally called up and screamed at a poor employee of his.
I suppose I could have the SEALs announce “sorry to bother you at home like this!” before the blow off the doors.
Because Hubby & I still have the same phone numbers we had in WI, with the 262 area code, we often receive robo calls/texts from WI candidates. And none from FL candidates.
Spammers often provide falsified return phone numbers from your own area code, believing that this will increase the likelihood of your picking up, even though you don’t recognize the number. For me, it works the opposite way, because there’s nobody who calls me for legit reasons from my old area code.
Same here, except I often get spam calls from my exact exchange: which is them trying to be TOO clever, since the only people I know with that exchange are myself, my wife, and my sons.
“For me, it works the opposite way, because there’s nobody who calls me for legit reasons from my old area code.”
EXACTLY!!
Well, it varies depending on how many people call you and whether or not they still live in the same area code. I stayed where I was to progress to empty nest, and now my kid is grown up, married, and now living in a THIRD state (neither the one I started in nor the one I now reside in).
It’s a family legacy. My dad was raised in Seattle, of his three sisters, one relocated to Massachusetts, one relocated to Alaska, and one lived in California, although she worked as an international flight attendant (back when they were still called “stewardesses”) and dad landed in Oregon, before eventually retiring to Arizona. Both he AND my sister have been considering living outside the U.S. for lower cost-of-living.