Not if you’re an app developer on their platform, they make outbound calls to you. I’m sure there are other situations as well.

If the consequences for letting that call go to voicemail are any less severe than full account takeover by a script kiddie, you're still better off never picking up.

Google in particular is famous for making it impossible to contact a human. If Google calls you, before picking up, consider whether you truly believe you're lucky enough to be one of a handful of people in the world to ever get human support from them.

I've spoken on the phone with humans in Google support. (You, too, can do this, just pay them enough.) However, they called me after I filed a support case and specifically requested a call, and they started off by mentioning the number of the case I had filed.

If you ever get a cold call from "Google Support", it's basically guaranteed to be a scam.

After I got Google Glass in 2013 as one of 8,000 "Explorers" I was given a support telephone number that was always quickly answered by a Google employee knowledgeable about Glass.

Becoming an SME on a Google product - now that's job security

You still always assume an incoming call is a scam no matter what. Hang up, look up, call back, in that order.

Very occasionally you might be making some poor customer support person's job harder, but the vast majority of the time you'll be hanging up on a scammer. You can be polite about it, but firm and brief. "It's my policy to always call back no matter what, nothing personal."

The problem is verifying which number is correct. In most cases it's pretty easy. Bank? Call the number on a debit card. Google? Good luck even finding their number.

But I do agree with you. They can leave a message and a way to contact back if its important and I can take my time doing research. The urgency part is what's caught so many high profile people off guard.

For what purpose do they make these calls?

> The caller's accent (wtf)

You don't have to pretend to be confused.

The industry of Indian scam call centers is not a crazy conspiracy invented by racists.

> The industry of Indian scam call centers was not invented by crazy racists.

Nor was the industry of Indian legitimate call centers.

You cannot glean any useful signal of legitimacy from the caller's accent.

That's the WTF.

Almost all scam calls originate in India. It's absolutely an indicator.

Almost all murderers are men, therefore if you see a man he’s probably a murderer.

It’s not an indicator.

Good morning, sir.

Your second sentence doesn't follow from the first, for the same reason as the Bayes medical test paradox.

I don't care if it's a scam or a call center, I hate both.

Agreed, but irrelevant to the thread at hand.

The accent of the caller is not a useful signal.

The very fact that they called you is a pretty good indication that you do not want to talk to them. 99% strength.

As if official Indian tech support is not a scam..

I've talked to some terribly unqualified Indian support folks. And I talked to some really talented ones who saved me a lot of time and headaches.

Support quality is a function of cost, which is a function of customer value.

Low-margin businesses will hire low-cost support on whatever continent it's available.

So worst case, it's a scam. Best case, it's some useless cutrate support or sales call. Sounds like this is absolutely an indicator not to bother.

The best indication not to bother answering is that they called you.

Doesn't matter how familiar their accent sounds.

They are not calling for your benefit.

No need to get xenophobic about it.

High-margin businesses too. Useless, powerless customer support is the default. Most of the time, even in person.

Low-margin businesses always have bad support, and there's nothing you can do about it.

High-margin businesses usually have passable or good support. If your vendor of choice does not, you have chosen the wrong vendor and should switch. There are other options that do a better job.

However, now we have AI, so you shouldn't assume the call is safe if the accent matches either...

I do this for any inbound call, unless the caller id is someone in my contacts it can go to voicemail. If it's important they either leave a voicemail or keep trying, for repeated calls I will answer but with skepticism.

If they are in my contacts I will recognise their voice.

I regularly get phone calls from Google because I helped a friend with their ad account once. No matter how many times I tell them not to call they eventually find a new number to call me from. They are legit calls. Google just won't take no for an answer.