What's up with the endless Robocalls some numbers are subjected to?

[airborne]

I got a bunch of MTN Pi esims to take advantage of their R1 for 20GB of data deal and I switch between then regularly as they get used up and I noticed a few minutes after switching to a different number the robocalls start and carry on throughout the day. If you answer the call it gets hung up after a second or two.

How do they even know the number just became active on the network and what is actually going on here?

Often these numbers also get debt collection notices via sms but not all so it can't just be debit collection agencies initiating these robocalls.
The previous owner of one number owes Standard bank quite a large amount of money and they would call relentlessly every single day, no matter how many times I told them the number had a new owner they'd call again, sometimes multiple times a day, the one agent explained the system auto dials the number and then they are assigned to take the call if it is answered.

 

[airborne]

On an iPhone can I set all incoming calls to be blocked on just one of the sims?

 

[Cius]

There are two types of people. The first type have a number for life. I have had my number for about 25 years now. I do get spam calls but it goes in cycles. Sometimes its a lot, other times almost never. Currently quit thank goodness.

Then there are people who are dodging debt collection. They get a new number very very often. The poor schmucks who get their number after them are SOL. I know cause I got a work number like that once. Endless calls over many years trying to get hold of a mr Smit in regards to his Edgars account etc.

It is one of the main reasons I am a big fan of enforced number for life.

 

[Rickster]

When you get an unexpected spam call, always answer it and then mute your mic immediately.

 

[Gordon_R]

There are two types of people. The first type have a number for life. I have had my number for about 25 years now. I do get spam calls but it goes in cycles. Sometimes its a lot, other times almost never. Currently quit thank goodness.

Then there are people who are dodging debt collection. They get a new number very very often. The poor schmucks who get their number after them are SOL. I know cause I got a work number like that once. Endless calls over many years trying to get hold of a mr Smit in regards to his Edgars account etc.

It is one of the main reasons I am a big fan of enforced number for life.

I fall into the first category. I also got a 2nd SIM recently, while upgrading my phone. I was astonished at first that it received zero spam calls, though a handful of spam SMS. I can only attribute these to the ISP, since nobody else knows about that SIM. It's nice to have a 'clean' SIM, so I will hold on to it. P.S. I wonder if the ISPs have sets of cleaner SIMs, and issue those to more valued customers?

 

[Smiggles]

Just use call screening.

 

[Fulcrum29]

I re-enrolled my numbers into the opt-out database, and I have been relatively clean. Telecoms, banking, and Telkom do not seem to honour that opt-out database. I don't receive any more insurance calls.

I do receive scam calls and scam messages.

Oh, and political messaging. I have never subscribed to the DA or FF+ and they both message me. The DA also calls me, robotic reminders to vote. I also receive emails. Where they harvested that, I dunno.

 

[airborne]

I fall into the first category. I also got a 2nd SIM recently, while upgrading my phone. I was astonished at first that it received zero spam calls, though a handful of spam SMS. I can only attribute these to the ISP, since nobody else knows about that SIM. It's nice to have a 'clean' SIM, so I will hold on to it. P.S. I wonder if the ISPs have sets of cleaner SIMs, and issue those to more valued customers?

I wonder how many new numbers are issued vs recycled numbers?
Surely we couldn't have used up all the number combinations in a population of 65 million people, even if each used 5 numbers, there should be billions of combinations or maybe my maths is out?

 

[Gordon_R]

I wonder how many new numbers are issued vs recycled numbers?
Surely we couldn't have used up all the number combinations in a population of 65 million people, even if each used 5 numbers, there should be billions of combinations or maybe my maths is out?

In theory less than a billion, but in practice we passed the recycling point years ago! The problem is that most of the number prefixes were reserved for use by Telkom (01, 02, etc), and only a few were available for mobile providers (06, 07, or 08). FYI, I got a temporary SIM last December, and by June it had already been recycled due to lack of use for 90 days...

Google says that the limit of active lines, and number of SIMs per customer is incredible:

South Africa has between 117 million and 127 million active cellular mobile connections.

Vodacom: Default limit of 100 SIM cards per customer (can be increased upon request).
Telkom: Limit of 20 SIM cards (or 10 if registering with a passport).
MTN: Default limit of 10 SIM cards per customer (can be increased via the RICA Help Desk).