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Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

nytimes.com

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Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#141

Post by sillysaurus3 »

rdtsc wrote: post #129
function_seven wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m afraid my number might be used as the originator someday. Often when I get these calls, I keep them on the line as long as possible, feigning interest in whatever they’re selling. I figure as long as I tie them up, maybe I can waste a bit of their resources. Probably futile, but makes me feel better. Except they might retaliate one day and set their outgoing ANI to my number...

I do the same. A few of them got very angry, yelling quite creative obscenities. Some were amusing and I had never heard of. I took it as a an enriching cultural exchange. But did realize they have my number and could do something like what you suggested.

It's a fun hobby to learn to swear in all kinds of languages. Russians are very creative in this respect.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#142

Post by therealidiot »

kaslai wrote: post #42
Sir_Substance wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

All phones services I've used charge for total usage, regardless of the initiator. If someone calls me, I still get dinged for every minute I'm on the line, same as if I placed an outgoing call. (Granted, I've only used pay-as-you-go type services, so perhaps other services are different.)

Many years ago, using Virgin Mobile (in the UK) I remember being charged for incoming calls, however these days on all UK networks (and I assume this is the case for most of Europe) the caller gets charged but the callee does not

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#143

Post by leejoramo »

kaybe wrote: post #47
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…

Is getting a new number a bad option for you?

I have had several friends and colleagues get new numbers and immediately be hounded by collection agencies looking for the old owner of the number. Some of these collection agencies also stared sending postal mail to their homes based on the linking this new number with their addresses.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#144

Post by [deleted] »

extrapickles wrote: post #41
tomjen3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would this work when my phone declines their call? I assume it would hang up on the first call, then be available to hand up on the second call? Because if not, I need to disable my voicemail.

This entire process occurs before your phone is even aware of the call to decline it. They are taking advantage of the fact that it takes at minimum a few dozen milliseconds to route a call to your phone. If you have one of the carriers others have mentioned, they are calling your voicemail directly, completely bypassing your phone.

[deleted]

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#145

Post by delinka »

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.

All carriers will eventually charge customers to block this "service." Until consumer-friendly legislation bans the practice ... I'd estimate approximately two decades from the time this "service" is allowed.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#146

Post by coding123 »

tlb wrote: post #125
coding123 wrote: post #118

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.

When a particular company calls you, just ask to be put on their "do not call" list. Real organizations always seem to honor that list, and there are large fines from the FCC if they don't. (The robocallers described in the article are a different beast, who spoof numbers and pop up under a new identity as soon as they are shut down.)

One of the times I answered I told him to put me on the do-not-call list and the live person said: "FUCK YOUUUUUU" and hung up. My calls increased considerably after that day. Yes I have considered suing many times, but chicken out realizing how much work would be involved. Most of the calls don't ring anymore as I migrated to Google Voice and just turned on Do Not Disturb for everyone. I can read that it's telemarketing spam or someone that's real.

Regarding spoofing - 100% are spoofed now. In the last 6 months all of the spam calls I have in my GVoice inbox match the same first 6 digits of my phone number. The last 4 digits are random numbers.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#147

Post by wruza »

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?

The one with lower timestamp.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#149

Post by mgbmtl »

Gaelan wrote: post #120
khedoros1 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I use a lot of messaging apps, just not SMS. Partly for privacy reasons, partly for convenience.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#150

Post by betenoire »

opendomain wrote: post #137
caseysoftware wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly how it works. While I was at Twilio, we figured out how to do it - mostly from a customer abusing the system - and shut them down at the time. The problem was that it wasn't complicated enough that it would take long for others to figure out. The problem I noted at the time is that since we only charged for minutes during the call, the first call - which was dialed and immediately dropped - would never…

I am a big fan of twillio, but I suspect that they or companies like it are contributing to the problem. I would like everyone that uses a telephone API to be required to register a bond. If they are found abusing the system, they will lose the bond and be banned from using ANY companies telephone system. That telephony companies do not take the opportunity fix tbe actual problem makes me think a court may be able to…

What bond amount will both let a young entrepreneur play and learn and at the same time prevent a scammer with (relatively speaking) much deeper pockets?
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