A “Yes” Answer To “Can You Hear Me” Phone Call May Scam You. Beware.

If you hear a voice saying “Can You Hear Me” over an incoming call on your mobile device or land phone, don’t say “Yes.” A simple “Yes” can make you victim of scam. This is the newest sophisticated racket that involves tricking into saying yes to sign you for stuff you have not ordered.

This indicates chatbots or automated conversational agents could play a large role in future in interacting with humans. This could also be considered as the future of scammers and telemarketers as natural-speech technology is advancing at faster speed and it would be difficult to understand whether we are speaking with a machine. The voices will sound more sociable.

Professor of computer science at UC Santa Cruz, Marilyn Walker, said stuff is coming together in such a way that is close to artificial intelligence.

Walker has decades of experience in natural language processing.

Even though the newly “Can You Hear Me” scam is far away from the level of technical achievement, but it is at least a sneaky way to manipulate people.

Professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, Dan Weld, said people won’t understand initially it’s a robocall until it will be too late, until he will be cheated, until he will a victim of scam.

Police departments lately have warned people not to give affirmative answer to any such phone call as the voice can be edited to make it seem you have given permission for a purchase of a product or any other transaction.

Not much complaint have been received of losses, but lately a man in Washington reported to have got billed for about $100.

Experts believe the “Yes” voice could also be used to deny refunds of any previous complain by consumers.

Better Business Bureau warns people not to answer yes if a phone call asks “Can You Hear Me,” just hang up.

Walker said with advancement of technology the telemarketers and scammers will be embracing it to dupe people into thinking to be speaking with a real person.

So, be very careful when the next time your phone rings and there’s a brief silence after you say “hello” at first. The silence will break shortly with a woman’s voice who says, “Oh, hi there!… I’m sorry, I was having a little trouble with my headset!… Can you hear me!”

Share your experience with fellow readers if your phone asked the same after ringing.