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Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

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Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#61

Post by packet_nerd »

blang wrote: post #33

I was wondering aloud at work the other day if robocalls could actually spell the end of the phone number. It is extremely rare that I actually make a telephone call to talk to someone, it's been replaced with facetime and google hangouts, and it's very rare that someone calls me on my phone number that isn't a scam call. Pretty much the only time I get calls that I need to pick up are when my kid's day care is calli…

That would be great. At my company at least there's a lot of legacy infrastructure and complexity around phones and it's always seemed pointless to me, since obviously we already have a network. And like you, I don't even use the damn thing.

And on a related note, I much prefer interacting with customer service through a well designed website or app, rather than having to call, figure out the menu, sit on hold forever, and finally talk to someone who can't help me. It boggles my mind that a phone number is the main way to get service from so many companies.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#62

Post by paulie_a »

rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

It is interesting half the calls I bother to answer, are just instantly disconnected. Why bother calling if you are not even going to attempt to scam me. It is funny to get a live person and mess with them though..."oh which credit card are you referring to"

I kept one agent on the line for a few minutes and was eventually called some very insulting swear words. If I recall correctly I was called a "bitchass mother fucker"

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#63

Post by gowld »

munk-a wrote: post #19
fosco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

I'd suggest against it. There are important calls that can come in from true unknown sources, people who just legitimately need to contact you out of the blue, especially officials (police, utility companies, etc...). If you feel like ignoring those, there's also the possibility that a contact of yours needs to contact you in an emergency can can't use their normal phone. As an example, assuming you're married, maybe…

This happens less often than being killed by lightning, which you do not take proactive measures against.

People can leave a message. Officials can leave a message. When do you ever need to answer a call from a official? 911 is for getting instant help in emergencies. No one needs you to answer your personal phone immediately.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#64

Post by arosier »

"This scheme was particularly abhorrent because, given its breadth, it appears to have substantially disrupted the operations of an emergency medical paging provider. It did this by slowing down and potentially disabling its network. Pagers may be low-tech, but for doctors, these devices are simple and dependable standbys. By overloading this paging network, Mr. Abramovich could have delayed vital medical care, making the difference between a patient’s life and death."

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-17-80A1.pd...

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#65

Post by gowld »

1123581321 wrote: post #26
fosco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

I could see sending all non-contact calls to voicemail the first time, and letting them ring if they call again. Anything more restricted would make you unavailable if, say, the police called because a family member was in a crash. I will put up with some inconvenience to be available in rare emergencies.

If you get a voice mail from the police, you can listen to the voice mail and respond.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#67

Post by komali2 »

paulie_a wrote: post #50

Ive literally called my cell phone company to ask if I could block entire area codes...in one case I actually asked them to block Texas. Unfortunately that feature is not available.

Hah, the phone equivalent to when Hiroyuki / 4chan banned all Russian IPs during a DDOS attack.

I spent a solid couple minutes trying to find the screencap, but it went down in 4chan history for the distinct Hiroyuki-style response, that went something like

>Many DDOS IPs were from Russia. So, we block Russian IPs. Now, DDOS ended.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#68

Post by bonestamp2 »

rudedogg wrote: post #7
rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I've had to do the same. I sometimes get three calls and voicemails per day about business loans. I'm pretty sure they got my number by scraping the LLC filings for my state :\. I wish I would of used a Google Voice number rather than my cell.

One business that I own has "Lab" in its name. It gets sales calls for lab equipment from Asia at least once/week. It's a data lab, not a chemistry lab... these sales reps haven't done 1 second of research before calling. I assume they're scraping the names from somewhere too, or someone is scraping it and selling them a list.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#69

Post by gowld »

nkrisc wrote: post #13
fosco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

I've considered it. Important-but-not-emergency calls would theoretically go to voicemail where they can leave a message. I would worry about missing calls that really are emergencies though. This is why I haven't done such a thing. Perhaps there would be an override if they kept calling back.

What's wrong with emergency calls going to voicemail, for your personal line when you aren't an onduty first-responder?

Would you also take your phone into the shower with you so you don't miss a potential call?

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#70

Post by gowld »

jrobn wrote: post #10
rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

I agree. I receive at least one a day. It's more frequent than spam mail. I'm sure there is a viable business venture to basically make "spam assassin" for telecom. I've gotten to the point where I don't trust anyone calling from a non-local exchange that isn't returning one of my calls, because for the past 8 months 90% have been scam calls.

> "spam assassin" for telecom.

https://www.asterisk.org/

> I don't trust anyone calling from a non-local exchange

Modern telecom scammers spoof your local exchange when they call you.

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