Have an AI answer your phone and waste scammers' time
Fed up with scam calls, a developer diverted his mobile to a Telnyx number where an OpenAI live voice agent answers. A classifier labels each call as spam, scam or genuine and steers the bot: scammers get strung along, sales calls get a polite no, and real callers get a message taken. He can steer the bot from Telegram mid-call.
Source
szert on Hacker News · 2026-10-18 · Project link
Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-18.
What they did
Fed up with scam calls, a developer diverted his mobile to a Telnyx number where an OpenAI live voice agent answers. A classifier labels each call as spam, scam or genuine and steers the bot: scammers get strung along, sales calls get a polite no, and real callers get a message taken. He can steer the bot from Telegram mid-call.
Result (as claimed)
All his calls now go to the bot; recordings and a try-to-scam-it demo are public.
Tools they used
Cost: Pricing depends on the tools you pick; check each official pricing page.
Set it up
Define the job
Say exactly what you want done and what the agent may and may not do on your behalf.
Share only what is needed
Give OpenAI the minimum files or access required. Avoid sharing passwords in chat when a safer login flow exists.
Review the plan
Ask the agent to show its plan or draft before it acts, and approve each step that has real consequences.
Check the result
Confirm the outcome yourself (order placed, request sent, document understood) and keep a record.
Copy the full setup prompt
Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code. Goal: Have an AI answer your phone and waste scammers' time What the original author did: Fed up with scam calls, a developer diverted his mobile to a Telnyx number where an OpenAI live voice agent answers. A classifier labels each call as spam, scam or genuine and steers the bot: scammers get strung along, sales calls get a polite no, and real callers get a message taken. He can steer the bot from Telegram mid-call. Reported result (as claimed by the author): All his calls now go to the bot; recordings and a try-to-scam-it demo are public. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50140472 Tools they used: OpenAI, Telnyx, Telegram Category: Personal & life Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Codex. Goal: Have an AI answer your phone and waste scammers' time What the original author did: Fed up with scam calls, a developer diverted his mobile to a Telnyx number where an OpenAI live voice agent answers. A classifier labels each call as spam, scam or genuine and steers the bot: scammers get strung along, sales calls get a polite no, and real callers get a message taken. He can steer the bot from Telegram mid-call. Reported result (as claimed by the author): All his calls now go to the bot; recordings and a try-to-scam-it demo are public. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50140472 Tools they used: OpenAI, Telnyx, Telegram Category: Personal & life Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Grok Bot. Goal: Have an AI answer your phone and waste scammers' time What the original author did: Fed up with scam calls, a developer diverted his mobile to a Telnyx number where an OpenAI live voice agent answers. A classifier labels each call as spam, scam or genuine and steers the bot: scammers get strung along, sales calls get a polite no, and real callers get a message taken. He can steer the bot from Telegram mid-call. Reported result (as claimed by the author): All his calls now go to the bot; recordings and a try-to-scam-it demo are public. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50140472 Tools they used: OpenAI, Telnyx, Telegram Category: Personal & life Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
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Guides for this use case
How to control coding agents from your phone ยท How to build AI agents that make and answer phone calls
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