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Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#61

Post by frikk »

spartas wrote: post #7

Answer the phone when they call and conference in the Jolly Roger telephone bot http://www.jollyrogertelco.com The bot will waste the telemarketers time, which is the most expensive thing that these companies are paying for. Do this enough times and the calls drop off rapidly.

I just signed up. Thank you. I don't even care if it works. I get up to 6/day, and if I can turn even just one of those into a bit of fun, it'll all be worth it.

I've become irrationally irritable because of these calls. I have started subconsciously turning off my ringer, causing me to miss actual important calls. Jolly Roger may be my saving grace.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#63

Post by basch »

dahart wrote: post #29

I'm fairly convinced that the only way this gets fixed is if enough people complain loudly to the phone companies & cancel accounts. Verizon / AT&T / T-mobile / etc. absolutely have the power to fix this, and they're choosing instead to largely ignore it, and productize the solutions for anyone who cares enough - let the spammers pay to create the problem, and let the consumers pay for the remedy. Telcos win on both…

>All the telemarketer strategies are changing too, to get around whatever blocking method you have.

My phone is in do not disturb mode, if i expect a call (2fa) i turn it off temporarily. They havent got around it yet. I can whitelist saved contacts. Check missed calls with Hiya or equiv.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#64

Post by timr »

beamatronic wrote: post #31
timr wrote: post #14

I find that 99% of spam calls (at least for now) can be eliminated by simply not answering any numbers that match the first six digits of my own telephone number. I don't know why telemarketers decided this would be a good strategy to increase conversions, but it certainly makes things easier for me.

For the same reason spam contains misspelled words and grammatical errors. If this turns you away, you aren’t the target audience.

I suspect that argument will win the day for about 15 microseconds, before everyone adapts and they're on to the next idiotic tactic.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#66

Post by baochan »

bluGill wrote: post #45
baochan wrote: post #42

I basically protect my phone number like I would my social security number. I was getting 5+ spam calls a day. Ended up changing provider and phone number to get away from them. I haven't added my new number to the Do Not Call list (none of these calls were legitimate businesses; just scammers with spoofed caller IDs) and have resisted giving my new number to anyone. Pretty much just my bank and a few friends have my…

Does this actually do anything? A computer that can dial all phone numbers in the US is not hard anymore. (the computer will probably get all numbers in North America, but what do scammers care?)

In the last year I've only gotten 2 spam phone calls. So either Google Fi is doing a better job at blocking them than Verizon was, or the scammers that targeted me stick to known numbers. Either way I'm not taking my chances. It was seriously frustrating being on their victim list.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#67

Post by sgdread »

Here's what you do to significantly reduce telemarketers calls:

1) Go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and register in the National Do Not Call Registry

2) Wait 31 day (it takes some time to propagate this information to callers)

3) Start reporting unwanted calls via link above

I have not received a single telemarketer call over a year since I started doing that.

FTC is also very good at dealing with collection agency calls if you are not the person they are trying to reach. I received personal apologies from ERC after filing complaint through FTC website.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#69

Post by Symmetry »

dahart wrote: post #60
Symmetry wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that the regulation of phone services in the US is fairly prescriptive and it would be a violation of FTC rules for a phone company to just go ahead and cancel accounts without legal authorization. Or to proactively screen your calls and not deliver the ones the phone company thinks are spammy. Though presumably the phone company could also tell your phone "Hey, we think this is spam" and let you…

I was suggesting that consumers close their accounts, not that the phone company should close spammer accounts. Also the telcos will not violate any rules by allowing consumers to opt into a service that blocks calls originating from companies reported as spammy by a large number of other consumers. It is absolutely within their power to give consumers some control and choice about receiving spammy phone calls. The r…

> It is absolutely within their power to give consumers some control and choice about receiving spammy phone calls.

Are you sure about that? I thought that the carriers being unable to discriminate between incoming phone calls, for whatever reason, was the whole point of common carrier status. I'm pretty sure that there's a business opportunity for a cell carrier that could offer spam filtering as a selling point and if it's a small mobile only carrier there wouldn't be any phone advertising that they'd be giving up by doing that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls?

#70

Post by MrMember »

alex_duf wrote: post #34
dahart wrote: post #29

I'm fairly convinced that the only way this gets fixed is if enough people complain loudly to the phone companies & cancel accounts. Verizon / AT&T / T-mobile / etc. absolutely have the power to fix this, and they're choosing instead to largely ignore it, and productize the solutions for anyone who cares enough - let the spammers pay to create the problem, and let the consumers pay for the remedy. Telcos win on both…

>If it's someone who needs me, they'll leave a voicemail Then the next step is for spammers to leave voicemails

Christ, I hope not. I get enough spam calls that I ignore, I don't need them leaving voicemails too.
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