Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 332 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#291

Post by joshka »

brerlapn wrote: post #287
paulie_a wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so annoyed by spam calls that I called my carrier and asked if I could block Texas and Florida. Apparently you cannot.

The Hiya app lets you block calls that start with a particular string. It looks like the app allows for blocking just an area code. The only downside is that numbers being blocked by Hiya will sometimes start to ring for like a quarter of a second before the blocking takes effect - still better than having them ring through. I have the area code and exchange for both of the numbers that ring to my phone automatically…

From the looks of screenshots from the iOS app, it looks like this app doesn't do this.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiya-caller-id-spam-blocker/...

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#292

Post by chaoticmass »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #62

My name is James, I work for Community Phone, a nationwide cell phone company. Show of hands: if we opened up this feature for you to control this filter for yourself or your loved ones, holding all else constant (price and coverage), would that be sufficient to cause a switch to try out an alternate provider?

Yes.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#293

Post by wittedhaddock »

C4K3 wrote: post #278
wittedhaddock wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Most people people just sign up for our $25 plan for unlimited talk and text with 1 fast gigabyte of data, and overage 100mbs for $1 + sales taxes

Your website doesn't list the overage price for the $25 plan, only the two other plans.

Thanks. Yeah our website doesn't do us justice :)

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#294

Post by magduf »

ryanlol wrote: post #280
magduf wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a spammer going to figure out phone numbers of people on my list from social media? I don't know about you, but I don't have my Facebook friends publicly viewable. And that's an awful lot of work just to cold-call someone to try to sell them insurance or whatever.

With a handy-dandy facebook bug that allows them to scrape such data at scale? This has happened multiple times before, at least two separate incidents have made the news.

This doesn't seem like a reliable way of running a business: just hoping that you can exploit a bug in Facebook (which will surely be fixed before long) so you can grab people's friends, try to figure out their phone numbers, then spoof them, then cold-call them trying to sell them crap insurance.

I'm sorry, this just sounds far-fetched to me. History seems to have shown that when hurdles are just a little too high, the spammers just don't bother.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#295

Post by smt88 »

wittedhaddock wrote: post #256
smt88 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Android + Google resolved my problems with spam calls.

Awesome! How long did it take to solve, and for how many years did you have the problem before solving it?

Android just started doing a good job of blocking them one day. I didn't do anything.

I had tried Hiya and Jolly Roger Telephone Co, but neither was good enough to be worth the bugs and loss of privacy.

I had the problem intermittently for years, but it becamw awful (like 6+ spam calls a day) for two weeks before Google apparently fixed it.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#296

Post by smt88 »

tones411 wrote: post #217
smt88 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Android + Google resolved my problems with spam calls.

Can you elaborate?

Spam call filtering is built in to Android now.

https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/3459196?hl=en

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#297

Post by wittedhaddock »

umvi wrote: post #286
wittedhaddock wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can I borrow your copy? I will pay shipping to and fro' :)

Sure! But honestly, it will probably be cheaper for you to just buy it from Amazon for $8. Or, read it for free using Overdrive (if you have a Kindle/ereader).

But this way I get to bug you about my discoveries and compare interpretations with yours... the knowledge comes with instruction hehe

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#298

Post by paulie_a »

brerlapn wrote: post #287
paulie_a wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so annoyed by spam calls that I called my carrier and asked if I could block Texas and Florida. Apparently you cannot.

The Hiya app lets you block calls that start with a particular string. It looks like the app allows for blocking just an area code. The only downside is that numbers being blocked by Hiya will sometimes start to ring for like a quarter of a second before the blocking takes effect - still better than having them ring through. I have the area code and exchange for both of the numbers that ring to my phone automatically…

The thing that pisses me off is that the numbers are either faked or stolen. The people actually making the call on those numbers need to be arrested and charged with a felony. I don't care if they are some low level telemarketing drone. They are already scammers and are committing hundreds of felonies a day. Put them in prison.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#299

Post by jdeibele »

james_niro wrote: post #277

One IPhone you can turn Do Not Disturb option and only allow calls from your contact list. All other calls will be muted. Also, I do not answers numbers which I do not recognize and send it to voicemail, If they don’t leave voicemail I will add that number to my block list.

I tried this on my iPhone but the problem is, it seems to block all text notifications. I get way more texts from friends and family than I do phone calls. If it worked for texts the same way, that would be perfect.

I'm probably going to look into the silent ring tone for unknown numbers because that will get me closest to what I want.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#300

Post by ryanlol »

magduf wrote: post #294
ryanlol wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a handy-dandy facebook bug that allows them to scrape such data at scale? This has happened multiple times before, at least two separate incidents have made the news.

This doesn't seem like a reliable way of running a business: just hoping that you can exploit a bug in Facebook (which will surely be fixed before long) so you can grab people's friends, try to figure out their phone numbers, then spoof them, then cold-call them trying to sell them crap insurance. I'm sorry, this just sounds far-fetched to me. History seems to have shown that when hurdles are just a little too high,…

Why just facebook? Spammers have been exploiting bugs like this in everything for years. The data gets scraped and then sold and resold.
Post reply on HN