Come home to find a message left on the answering machine, figured it was another offer for a “little or no cost back brace”. Imagine my surprise when I hear a message entirely in Chinese. Caller ID shows ‘Chicago IL’. Just about the oddest phone call I’ve ever received.

Not unusual. I once got a voicemail of the same.

I believe they are scammers trying to hit Chinese immigrants trying to convince them that their papers are expired or going to expire or something like that. At least that's what I heard.

I get them now and then on my voicemail at work. I don't know what they're about, after ni hao I have no idea what she's saying.

I got that phone call today and answered it live. Pressed 9 and it hung up.

I get them everyonce a while, it's a scam and if you happen to have a chinese sounding last name (i.e. Lee, Young, ...etc) even if you're not Chinese, you may get hit.

Well maybe we should start a service where your phone is answered in Chinese, and at the end a message in really bad broken English says to leave a message, no more sales calls or scammers...no habla english. You could listen on speaker phone and if its a call you want you answer it. I'll be humble and only take 0.5 cents for every call using this service. Fight fire...use a flame thrower!

Try answering the phone saying “Chung King Egg Roll Express Chinese Restaurant” and see what happens.

Sum Ting Wong!

Answer it in your best Deadwood Wu expressions.

With my hearing all the messages on my machine sound like Chinese.
I don't know why I bother with it.

Bob

Wait....



You still have an answering machine? For a land line?

Is it a rotary phone, or do you just pick up and ask the exchange operator to connect you?

^^^

quote:

Originally posted by ShneaSIG:

Is it a rotary phone, or do you just pick up and ask the exchange operator to connect you?

My exwife would get a bunch of scam calls and mail in chinese even though she's white.

And when meeting work place proximity associates for the first time, they always expect her to be chinese based on her last name. Same with teachers at school since our kids look mostly asian.

Anyways, I had some door-to-door bible sales people show up at my door one day and i used the "don't speaka engrish" line on them and the bastards actually started speaking to me in Taishanese which is not a common dialect but the one I grew up speaking. We call it hilbilly cantonese. I just told them, "Ya got me" and slammed the door on them.

Sorry, Chowser, that just made me laugh and snort!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

One ringy dingy. Two ringy . . .

Preying on immigration fears. I used to get them a lot. A few even spoofed the number of the Chinese consulate.

They called me, I said I didn't have the ticket, he yelled "No Shirtee!" & hung up on me.

My Son lives in Long Beach, CA his scam calls are in Chinese and Cambodian. The family gets many scam calls on their cell phones not just land line.

Evidently the scammers use the demographics of the area code to target scams.

It might be worth your while to pay someone to translate it for you. It might be an esquire who is willing to send you $20 million your way.