An appeal has to be "properly made." For most live ball appeals (e.g. runner left early on a caught fly ball) everybody in the park knows that the defense is making a live ball appeal (even if they don't know it is called that). So, the key in both of your examples is whether YOU know that the defense is making an appeal. If there is doubt, then the defense needs to indicate somehow that they are making an appeal.
ASA does not recognize the accidental appeal (e.g. defender with the ball happens to walk across a base missed or left early).
Verbal ONLY is not a proper live ball appeal, but it can clarify that the defense is making an appeal. If the defense tries to make a verbal appeal while the ball is live, they cannot be tipped off, since they already are making an appeal, and they have (presumably) just tipped off the offense. Before you can declare the ball dead, the offense needs to have completed their advance / retreat, etc., so if the defense just tipped off the offense and the runner attempts to retreat to touch the base missed or left early, you need to allow them to complete that before you kill the ball.
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Tom
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