Why scam calls are silent or hang up when you answer

The most common cause: automatic dialers

Many call centers use predictive dialers. These machines call several people for each worker who is free. When more people answer than there are workers, some calls are left with no one on the line.

The FTC says abandoned calls often come from predictive dialers. Its Telemarketing Sales Rule says a telemarketer must connect you to a person within two seconds after you finish saying hello. No more than three percent of answered calls can miss that mark, and those must play a recorded message with the seller's name and phone number.

So a call that stays silent is breaking the rule. It may be a sloppy telemarketer or a scammer, since scammers don't follow these rules.

Other reasons a call goes quiet

Not every silent call is a scam. A weak signal can drop a call, and some are just wrong numbers.

The FTC says caller ID is easy to fake. A silent call that looks local may come from anywhere, and the number shown may not belong to whoever called.

What if I answered?

Official advice focuses on what you do next. The FTC says pressing numbers to talk to someone or get off a list will probably only lead to more robocalls. The California Attorney General says pressing 1 often just tells bad actors to keep calling an active number. So hang up without pressing anything.

What to do about silent calls

A few small habits help.

• If no one speaks after a moment, hang up.
• Don't press any buttons, even if a recording offers to take you off a list.
• Let numbers you don't know go to voicemail. A real caller can leave a message.
• Block a number that keeps calling.
• Report repeated calls to the FTC at DoNotCall.gov or ReportFraud.ftc.gov, with the number on your caller ID, any callback number you were given, and the date and time.

Phone features that can help

On recent versions of iOS, go to Settings, then Apps, then Phone, and find Screen Unknown Callers. Ask Reason for Calling has the phone ask unknown callers why they're calling before it rings. Silence sends them to voicemail. Calls from your contacts aren't screened. Apple notes calls aren't screened while roaming.

On Google Pixel phones, Call Screen can answer unknown callers, and in some countries, including the US, it can screen automatically and hang up on spam. Google says contacts aren't screened and not all spam can be detected. Other Android phones and carriers have their own tools, which vary.

How Nexus handles it

With Nexus, numbers on the spam list are refused, and most callers you don't know are asked who they are before your phone rings. For most of those calls, an automated assistant picks up to the dead air, not you. It asks who's calling and why, and callers are told the call is being screened and may be transcribed. Anthropic's Claude reads what the caller says to decide.

Real callers are put through or leave a voicemail turned into text you can read. Calls with no caller ID are refused. A number caught as spam on more than one member's line is blocked for everyone, along with numbers from public FTC complaints. Only the number is shared, never what was said. Your contacts always ring.

Nexus works on Android and iPhone. You keep your own number and carrier. More about how it works is on the About page.

Nexus is invite-only. The price is on the wait list page, and you can cancel yourself any time.

Common questions

Sources

• FTC: Robocalls
• FTC: Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule (call abandonment)
• California Attorney General: AI-generated scams are widespread and tricky to spot
• Apple Support: Manage unknown callers on iPhone
• Google Phone app Help: Screen your calls before you answer them