Something strange has been happening with my phone for years. I thought I fixed the problem, but it keeps coming back. Years ago, I purchased a SIM-only plan through Visible, Verizon’s low-cost sibling. $25 a month gets me unlimited calls, texts and a decent amount of data… and lots of spam calls and messages looking for someone named Andrew.
Given Visible is all digital without calling a number, it’s a pain to fight with a customer service chatbot to fix it. I tried before, and it said the number is in my name, but I’m not convinced. I still get more messages a month from people trying to reach Andrew.
These messages almost always have something to do with a home business project. Weird, I know.
It’s one of those life management tasks that just never gets done because I can just ignore these messages – it’s the perfect job for a personal AI agent like Meta Muse. I want to make sure my name is formally listed as the number owner because I don’t want people to think i am this elusive Andrew.
I tried using Meta Muse as my personal shopper, which was fun, but I ran into an issue at checkout. Let’s see how it can handle such an annoying task without calling a number. One AI agent against another.
Set up Meta Muse with the assignment
I opened the Muse app and started a new conversation, instead of recording my previous chat with the AI agent. Keeping tasks and chats separate prevents context overload and helps Muse stay focused on the specific goal. Just hit the new page chat button.
Here’s how I instructed it: “I’m a Visible customer on the $25 per month plan. I often get calls and texts looking for someone named Andrew. I think he was the previous owner of my number. It’s no coincidence because every time someone comes out, they always ask for Andrew. I contacted Visible, and it said I own the number, but can you check the website, etc.
I have also uploaded an example of a text I received.
This was Muse’s response:
Meta / Screenshot from CNETI told Muse to talk to the Visible chatbot, look up my number online and find it anywhere Andrew refers. Within seconds it found a link where my number appeared on a data broker page.
Meta / Screenshot from CNETBut Muse couldn’t get through because Visible blocks bot visits. Muse suggested changing my number (No) and making some changes to my phone to minimize unknown senders and entertain unknown callers. This wasn’t super helpful either, as I often get work calls from numbers I don’t have saved.
I told Muse I didn’t want to change my number. It advised me to claim the number as this may encourage spam calls directed at me instead of Andrew.
It said that Andrew’s data will die at some point.
Meta / Screenshot from CNETI had to take over the browser to chat Muse with Visible. That took forever, so Muse came up with a solution via the guest option. This took a good 10 minutes, which I spent cleaning the kitchen. But there was no luck.
“Quick honest update,” Muse told me, “I got into the Visible guest chat, but their send button wouldn’t submit my message, and then their help pages temporarily blocked me.”
It advised me to paste the following chat into my Visible app: “My number is recycled – I get spam calls and texts every month for ‘Andrew’, the previous owner. I don’t want to change my number. What are my options? Do you offer spam/scam protection, and how do I turn it on? Can I report the number as recycled?”
Of course, such advice could be provided to me by a regular AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini. The advantage of using an AI agent like Muse is that it should do all of this for me.
But with many of these websites blocking AI agents, it makes autonomous task completion a challenge. I tried to take over the browser again but got a 403 forbidden error.
Meta / Screenshot from CNETMuse told me that the 403 error is a dead end and that my browser takeover didn’t change the network address, which was annoying. Muse said it’s the bot protection that’s the problem, not Muse. It drafted a message to send to Visible Chat manually, via a live agent.
Screenshot by Amanda Smith/CNETWhile I was talking to Visible, Muse gave me a link that showed Andrew and my number. What is interesting is that the last reported date was when I owned the number.
When I did a quick manual search on my phone number, the top two websites referenced Andrew. I asked Muse how to update this, and it gave me good advice on how to request suppression or removal of records from WhitePages and FastBackgroundCheck, but no immediate resolution.
Muse said this would clean up the public record, but the messages came from old marketing lists, so it said I would continue to report those as junk. Screw the broker again, so it should resolve in time.
I tried it via WhitePages, but quickly hit a road block. It wouldn’t let me click Next.
I couldn’t follow the second instruction because I don’t have Andrew’s email address. It advised me to use my email (no thanks) or call the number.
In another browser, I escalated to Visible “advanced” support. His instruction was to keep the browser open for 4 to 24 hours.
At this point I gave up.
The verdict on Meta Muse for this task
I wouldn’t say this was Muse’s fault specifically. It seems that most websites have mechanisms in place to block all bots. Most AI agents would struggle to complete this autonomously. For me, in this situation, Muse still feels like a regular chatbot, giving guidance for me to follow.
Even though I understand the issue better – spammers using old data – it still didn’t fix the problem. I hope Visible comes up with a solution and if so, this was still time well spent. Without testing Muse to see if it could do it for me, I wouldn’t have prioritized this task.
So, that’s a win, I guess.
See full bio