I'm in the UK, and I used to receive 2-3 spam calls per year. About five years ago, something changed (not my phone number) and I haven't had a single spam call since.
I remember back when I lived in the US, I got daily spam calls. I never get spam calls in Europe. I wonder why that is and if that's still the case (lived there between 2014 and 2018)
It seems to me like such a uniquely American problem for some reason. I've gotten maybe a single spam call in my life in the UK, most people I asked also say they either never got one or got very few. But you go on HN and it seems like people get a deluge of spam calls all the time.
Isn't it because local calls are free in America, but they've never really been free here. Also I do get spam calls in the UK occasionally. Maybe once every couple of months.
Also they're more obvious because they're always from a landline number, and barely anyone uses landlines anymore. In America landline and mobile numbers are mixed so you can't tell (as far as I know).
As a counterpoint, I've lived in the U.K. most of my life and very rarely get spam calls (maybe ~5 a year). When I do it's almost always people trying to sell stuff / services to my startup.
Or NZ. I think I maybe get a spam call maybe once a year, or less. I haven't changed my phone number for the last 16 years, so I'm sure I'm on all the lists I could be on at this point. Why is this a problem in the US and not elsewhere?
You’re just lucky. I was too. Then my number got on some spam list and now I’m receiving a few calls a month (which is still something many Americans would consider great, I’m sure) - from random locations all over Europe. The spammer is effectively unreachable by local regulations.
Does someone know how this is so different in Europe, are there some technical measures perhaps? As far as I remember, I haven't received a single spam call in ten years. Apart from a couple of calls from weird countries that I didn't answer, but that's it.
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