So .. if he could receive a call ... couldn't he make a call to someone he knows?
I remember reading about this. He was actually lost, in that he strayed from his trail and didn't immediately know how to return.
Rescuers were alerted because a family member had reported him missing after he didn't arrive home on time.
As the story goes, to the best of my recollection, the "lost" individual went for a hike and said they would be back before sundown. When they got lost, they obviously missed that deadline. They were biding their time in the forest until daybreak to try to find the trail to get back because it was too dark to look for it. So while he was "lost" it was mainly because the sun had gone down. He didn't feel like he was in any danger, and wasn't at any risk of immediately being harmed or killed; AFAIK they were reasonably familiar with that forest and they were more than capable of surviving in those conditions; so he had no motivation to seek help.
TL;DR: guy didn't feel like he needed help.
Article about it: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hiker-lost-24-hours-ignored-rescuers-calls-because-they-didn-n1282381
What's more likely is that in his panic he wasn't thinking quite straight. It's very common for people to make decisions that seem silly in retrospect in situations like this.
He was probably afraid to call for help due to the insane prices the search and rescue folks charge. Might have wanted to wait another day or two to be sure he was really lost before calling for help.
If it's important, they'll leave a message. Otherwise it's just another scam anyway
“Hey, sorry to bother you, was just wondering if you were dead. Please call back at your earliest convenience.”
Yeah right, as if I'm dumb enough to fall for that one!
Hopefully you're not applying for a job haha
Jokes on them I'm too lazy to set up my voice-mail
As someone who does not answer unknown numbers I am laughing and also cringing
If I pick up, then they know its a real number and I get added to a hundred more lists. Its taken me years of diligently ignoring the world to get to the point where i only get a couple of spam calls a day. I might not answer, either.
I have 2 numbers, my direct cell that only family and close friends know, and my business line that I give out like candy. Business line is simply a virtual line that goes to an auto attendant that I this is si and so from whatever company, dial 1 to ring my cell or dial 2 to leave a voicemail. If you don’t hit a number it hangs up after 30 seconds. No more spam. Of course, some REALLY dumb clients think I’m sending them straight to voicemail because they don’t listen, but that’s it’s own kind of filter that I also appreciate
What service is that?
So, basically a phone CAPTCHA?
I always answer, and I still only occasionally get spam calls. I wonder whether I'm just very lucky or if wasting their time consistently gets you put on lists of a different kind.
What about voicemail?
It has nothing to do with social fear, every fucking call on my personal and work phone is a scam.
Get that shit under control and then maybe I'll answer my cell phone once in awhile lol
Though if I was really lost I think I'd be answering every call tbh.
If you live in a supported country, (but only US have the automatic screening feature) I suggest getting a Pixel phone and use the call screening features.
https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/9118387?hl=en
I'm currently using a Samsung phone and it has a similar feature but the screening can only be done manually and Bixby's voice is miles behind Google Assistant's.
This has the making of a hilarious movie. Trying to convince the car warranty guy to save your ass from wild animals.
I wish people texted after failing to call me. I don't answer calls from unknown numbers either but if you know me then text me so I know it's not a spam number
I agree, but I still have this idea that it's rude to text people unless you have gotten permission first. I think it's a relic from the 2000s-2010s when not everyone's phone had texting and if you did text them they could get charged by their phone provider. Obviously nowadays that's much less of a concern, but still feels like a social grey area for some reason
Yeah, that's an archaic mindset. Most people would rather get a text these days.
My elder relatives trying to send a text:
Yeah, but then you'd get a text from that unknown number asking you to call them back without saying who they are, either 👌 Source: I know people.
The telephone network is practically useless because we don't have any authentication to it anymore.
When the phone company had to do something to physically connect a wire to a building, it was sufficient. But that I can download any number of apps that lets me war dial an entire continent pretending to be just anyone? Yeah the phone network isn't secure enough for the average user.
It never really was secure. You could always set the Caller ID on an outgoing PRI trunk to whatever you wanted with any of the phone systems in the last half century. It isn't validated.
I remember this article... He went for a hike and didn't tell his roommates when he would be back. He didn't answer their calls (I'm assuming he needed some time alone), and was gone for more than 24 hours so they reported him missing. He just wanted some time away from his roommates and they put him the the national news.
Sounds like some people I'd need some time away from too lmao. Good to have people that care tho.
For real.
‘Unknown’ or ‘Suspected Spam’ yeah, I guess I’ll just die.
If you don't, the spammers win.
Has signal.
Doesn't open map app.
In what imaginary world you're living that you have data in the middle of nowhere?
You should have GPS without any service at all. You might need data for the map to load, depends on the app. If you’re lucky and the app automatically cached it when you had signal, or you manually downloaded the offline map, then you could navigate home in airplane mode.
All of this is moot because I think I remember reading the rest of this story. The hiker wasn’t really lost, they simply went on a hike without telling anyone, and ignored calls during that time because they were trying to unplug.
ever been to Alps?
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Yeah, the problem is i would have them in contacts listed under " rescue me!" And they'd call me from a number that's not the one they gave me.
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A lot of places call customers from some completely random numbers, not the official one. Very annoying.
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if you want me to actually respond to you, leave a message. doesn't everybody know this at this point?
Death to America
Should have sent an email, come on now...
"Help I'm dying please send rescue".
Well that's an odd email from January.
The IT Crowd - Series 1 - Episode 2: Fire!
Something similar, if less life threatening, happened to me. My car had been stollen a while back and I avoided the random call from an area code 50+ miles away. Turns out it had been the cops from that area telling my they found my (stripped) vehicle. Impound lot ended up getting the car AND overnight parking fees. Absolute racket.
Wait..is it real? Lol
Yeah, but it was a couple of years ago
Why would he answer? They were probably trying to reach him about his car's extended warranty.
This could be me lol
It is funny to be lost where you have cell service though.
Or lost when your phone has GPS even without cell service.
Totally relatable
I'd do this.
Because of capitlaism everything has to be ground into the finest point with the sharpest edge to make money. So the ability to talk to anyone on earth whenever you want has been reduced from a marvel scifi authors used to dream about to its current state were is an annoyance used to make your life worse whenever possible. It would be trivially easy to make like just a little bit better but that isn't good for the gdp so people in risk of death can only assume the system is out to harm them
