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

Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 227 posts

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#81

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

glasz wrote: post #20
extrapickles wrote: post #4

The article doesn't describe how the technology works. Due to the slow speed (100 voicemail/min) its likely what they are doing is initiating a call far enough for the phone system to busy out your phone, then very quickly placing a second call that the phone system sends straight to voicemail as your phone is busy. Once this call starts to hit voicemail, the original call is dropped. I doubt phone companies let peop…

i am working on an application that sends calls straight to voicemail. there's "an api" for that in germany, meaning you put special codes between area code and number.

How do you sleep at night?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#82

Post by ForHackernews »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #35
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as it's a fairly consistently timed window (and I assume it is), it doesn't matter if it's just a few milliseconds. On a related note, I'm still surprised to find that telephone operators haven't fixed the scenario "someone calls me and I just miss it, I call them back while they're trying to call me for the second time, and we both get a busy signal". As a naive outsider, seems like it wouldn't take much to…

>As a naive outsider, seems like it wouldn't take much to just connect those two calls. Who would you charge for the call?

Both of them, obviously. ;)

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#83

Post by mgbmtl »

ngoldbaum wrote: post #67
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46

Anyone else in a situation where you're receiving robocalls ten times a day? Hard to believe, but I can show screenshots as proof. I just counted. It's four times per day, like clockwork. Then there are various other robocalls that come in every couple days. So sometimes it's 4 per day, sometimes it's up to 7. It's mildly annoying, but is there any other option than to just ignore it or keep blocking the endless new…

For a long time now I've received many many more robocalls than real calls. It makes me want to turn off the phone features of my phone.

I did! You can do that with most providers. If they don't explicitly offer it, just tell them you want to switch to an tablet/iPad plan. I pay $15/month for a 3 GB data-only plan and $1/month for a VoIP number that routes SMS to email/app (voip.ms), for those 2 people I know who still use SMS.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#84

Post by analog31 »

extrapickles wrote: post #4

The article doesn't describe how the technology works. Due to the slow speed (100 voicemail/min) its likely what they are doing is initiating a call far enough for the phone system to busy out your phone, then very quickly placing a second call that the phone system sends straight to voicemail as your phone is busy. Once this call starts to hit voicemail, the original call is dropped. I doubt phone companies let peop…

That could reasonably be regarded as wire fraud, a la prank calling.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#85

Post by derimagia »

anon182429 wrote: post #80
derimagia wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.. and why does that allow them to spam you? Just because you can avoid it by changing numbers? You could make that same argument for a restraining order -- "Oh you can just move, so why would we legally protect you?". Absurd.

I think the problems with receiving a voicemail message and requiring a serious legal protection because you could be murdered or physically harmed by a specific person and not even close to the same order of magnitude.

Although I see where you are coming from, restraining orders aren't just for stalking/threats/abuse. It'a also for harassment, which I would definitely say telemarketers do.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#86

Post by clamprecht »

crooked-v wrote: post #51

> The Republican National Committee, which is in favor of ringless voice mail, goes as far as to argue that prohibiting direct-to-voice-mail messages may be a violation of free speech. Absurd. The right to free speech does not include forcing others to listen to you.

Anyone who's read one free speech case knows that commercial speech has less protection than, say, political speech.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#87

Post by glasz »

qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #81
glasz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i am working on an application that sends calls straight to voicemail. there's "an api" for that in germany, meaning you put special codes between area code and number.

How do you sleep at night?

it's ok.

but the issue is randomly calling ppl. not the call itself. at least in germany random/cold calls are forbidden so you can only call people who agreed to it prior.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#88

Post by pasbesoin »

crooked-v wrote: post #51

> The Republican National Committee, which is in favor of ringless voice mail, goes as far as to argue that prohibiting direct-to-voice-mail messages may be a violation of free speech. Absurd. The right to free speech does not include forcing others to listen to you.

It also doesn't including using a private commercial service that I am paying for.

The stench of hypocrisy is more than subtle, here.

As always, follow the money.

P.S. Here's what I expect from carriers, if this goes through: A clear, easy to use, and permanent switch to turn this off on my account. (Yes, government emergency situations -- genuine ones -- excepted.)

If this really is a "free market" or something arguably comperable -- their basis for arguing for the elimination of a whole bunch of regulation -- then someone should offer this "off switch" as a feature in response to the obvious demand for it.

If they don't? One more nail in the argument that they do not represent anything like a free market nor real competition.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#89

Post by thescribe »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46

Anyone else in a situation where you're receiving robocalls ten times a day? Hard to believe, but I can show screenshots as proof. I just counted. It's four times per day, like clockwork. Then there are various other robocalls that come in every couple days. So sometimes it's 4 per day, sometimes it's up to 7. It's mildly annoying, but is there any other option than to just ignore it or keep blocking the endless new…

I've gone as far as reporting the numbers to my state AG, but it clearly hasn't stopped them. I get them constantly. I used to hang up right away but these days I try to keep the robot on the line as long as possible to make it less cost effective to call me.

Do we need the equivalent of Fail2Ban for phone numbers? Some app that allows you to flag calls, and past some threshold the whole network bans the number?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#90

Post by tombrossman »

Animats wrote: post #29
tomjen3 wrote: post #24

>“responsible marketing.” The only responsible marketing is a nose around your fucking head. If I want your services I will contact you. Got it?

"noose", probably.

First thing I thought of was these annoying Afrin ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSZOWggCa-E

Imagine telemarketers were forced to wear that all day, I'm OK with that instead of a noose.

Post reply on HN