Ringless voice mails from telemarketers • Hacker News Board

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#111

Post by ziszis » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 9:50 PM UTC

bediger4000 wrote: post #53

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 get about 4 "Card Services" or "Google Marketing" or some such robocalls a day, too. The Verizon customer service rep suggested "just blocking the number" after expressing shock and awe that robocalls happen, and he had never heard of such a thing! I suggest at least leaving the robocall running until it hangs up. Any given organization has to have a finite number of outgoing lines, and IVR/VRU's, so keeping them o…

Most of the call spam blocking solutions suffer from needing to trust Caller ID. Spoofing caller ID is now trivial and used by spammers [1] There are some work arounds to this like "audio fingerprinting".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#112

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 9:55 PM UTC

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 used to get one or two robocalls a month, but over the past 2-3 months I've been getting multiple nearly every single day.

What's really interesting is that I'm seeing a lot of spoofed numbers from my same area code, and even from the same branch (i.e., the next four digits). My guess is that the robocallers have found that people are more likely to pick up when the call might be coming from next door.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#113

Post by r00fus » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 9:57 PM UTC

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #77

In a way, this is a huge relief. I never listen to voice mails, so not having to be bothered by my phone ringing for something unimportant saves me a bit of time and anxiety. Now I just have to worry about people I know, phone interviews, and debt collectors (who seem to be harassing me less often via phone these days).

How about just disabling VM?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#114

Post by kolencherry » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #106

thescribe wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

As far as I know, they just spoof the originating number. This makes reporting the numbers useless, as well as any kind of blacklisting. Imagine if you could send spam emails from any arbitrary IP address or domain you wanted to. Blacklisting would be meaningless in that case.

The spoofing happens frequently and it's incredibly frustrating if you are the unfortunate person whose number gets spoofed.

My number got spoofed by a robo-dialer who called the ENTIRE +1 469 prefix. I received dozens of calls a day from angry people who got called.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#115

Post by philovivero » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:04 PM UTC

pasbesoin wrote: post #88

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 argu…

How many nails do you need in that coffin? I don't even see a coffin anymore. I just see a bunch of nail heads in the shape of a coffin.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#116

Post by chrsstrm » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:18 PM UTC

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…

The spam call filter is arguably one of the best benefits of using a Google Voice number. My spam call and voicemail folder is full of SEO, payday loan, and other outright scam messages. Just activate the filter and you never see these calls unless you go into the spam interface on the Voice site. You can manually add a number to your spam block but most calls are auto-blocked against a list of known offenders.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#117

Post by jameshart » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:26 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #74

delinka wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Permission from the carrier to dump an audio file directly into your voicemail box.

If that's the mechanism and this takes off, there'll be a strong incentive for one carrier to offer spam-free voice mail and either steal all the customers or cause the entire industry to fall in line.

But the carrier who provides the service to advertisers to target messages and directly load them into subscriber inboxes can charge their subscribers lower prices because they have another customer, so your hypothetical ethical carrier will lose out to them. Hell, if they can open up the ad sales channel enough they could probably give away calling for free, just like a proper modern internet business.

Does the existence of ad-funded free search engines mean the market naturally ought to produce spam-free search engines that steal all the customers?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#118

Post by coding123 » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:36 PM UTC

Marriots is a company that should probably be bombed into oblivion. I signed up for a free night at a hotel. Ever since, I have probably received 2000 calls over the years from them. I think it's not just them but affiliates and other scammy/scummy businesses. If anyone is out there, please please do not ever pay Marriots a single penny. They need to go under.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#119

Post by coding123 » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:37 PM UTC

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'm at the point where I'm going to start telling places my Skype ID and let them figure out how to contact me. We don't need our phone numbers any more.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#120

Post by Gaelan » Sat, Jun 03, 2017, 10:42 PM UTC

khedoros1 wrote: post #109

mgbmtl wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> for those 2 people I know who still use SMS. Interesting. I think I use SMS for more people than every other phone-based method of contact put together.

US high schooler here. I use SMS pretty frequently if you count iMessage, maybe real SMS with 2 or 3 people.