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Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

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Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#281

Post by nojvek »

In India I got a Vodafone sim. Data was dirt cheap. $1.5 for 6GB of data.

However Vodafone would spam the shit out of everyone. Getting 10+ spammy calls in a day is very normal. They come from different numbers so you can’t block them.

Any phone that has a serious robocall spam filter mechanism built in would be a huge seller.

I can count on Apple to make such a bold move. I remember when Telcos used to block personal hotspots and Apple just gave them a middle finger and made iPhones only available to providers that would play by their rules and not the other way around.

We need more bold and human centric companies.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#282

Post by gnicholas »

spenvo wrote: post #57
awakeasleep wrote: post #14

"At the telelphony-infrastructure level, it’s a supremely difficult problem that lacks a short-term fix because the underlying protocol is hopelessly insecure." This is only partly true. Technologically the solution is difficult, but it's easy from the social side as carriers can blacklist the smaller carriers that allow this fraud to take place. The real problem is that everyone except the consumer benefits from thi…

I agree there’s a lot the carriers could be accomplishing in flagging “inauthentic” behavior of network participants, the root cause of SS7’s lack of authentication and encryption will remain and the problem will fester. Yes, carriers are definitely on the hook for making things better too. That said, the decisions in Apple's client side software are atrocious for the considerations of 2019. Aside: No idea why my pos…

Thanks for posting! If I had to guess, the post dropped down because it tripped the flame war sensor, which I understand to be based on a ratio of comments/upvotes. When this happens inadvertently (not a true flame war), you can email the mods (hn@ycombinator.com) and ask them to look into it. They're very responsive!

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#283

Post by howradical »

ekanes wrote: post #194
howradical wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just switched to Hiya from Nomorobo and the premium version allows for this, referred to as the "neighbor scam". It's worked really well, between my number and Gvoice I was getting 50 of these calls a week.

Mind saying a bit more about making this switch? I use Hiya now and am open to something better. You seem happy with the move?

I'd used Nomorobo since inception but found more calls getting through, mostly neighbor scams. Went looking for a new call blocker and they are all similar. Hiya had built in support for neighbor scam which was a huge percentage of my inbound spam. It's worked as well as Nomorobo plus it blocks neighbor spam, so I'm ahead at the moment.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#284

Post by bubblethink »

kkarakk wrote: post #210
bubblethink wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That got me thinking. I haven't seen that message in a while, but I've moved from regular android to AOSP. I wonder if that scam likely CID needs some google play support ?

google play has plenty of apps that keep track of robocalls via third party solutions. truecaller is an app i used when i was in india getting inundated by robocalls.

Right, I meant google play services. AOSP phone app, while quite similar to the stock google phone app, doesn't include this feature.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#285

Post by alecco »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #260
alecco wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country we have the same but the registry asks for ID and a lot of personal information. I'd rather not give so much to the government.

...the government hands out the ID, so they already have that information. What personal information are they asking about though?

The government doesn't know my phone number. I think.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#286

Post by grecy »

rasz wrote: post #279
grecy wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many simple solutions to this it's not even a challenge. Here's some simple ones: 1. If you want to make more than ~5k calls per month from a number, you must deposit $50,000 for every 10k calls you wish to make. If your number gets reported more than some cutoff number of times, you forfeit this bond money. 2. Call throttling. As a certain number (or customer) makes more calls, the interval between call…

I dont have "a number", Im a VoIP provider with thousands of clients, pinky promise! "your number" doesnt exist, my clients port their existing numbers thru my system, so I just let them pass those for convenience, all automated! Are you saying my customer doesnt own the same area and prefix number as you, receiver of a spam call from India? Bad bad customer, must've been a glitch/fraud, I promise to take care of it.

> my clients port their existing numbers thru my system, so I just let them pass those for convenience, all automated!

Absolutely. And that's where you apply my rate limits / bond suggestions.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#287

Post by [deleted] »

basilgohar wrote: post #165
intopieces wrote: post #139

I’ve completely turned off notifications for the phone. If someone wants to call me, they either need to use FaceTime (which hasn’t been overrun with spam, yet) or schedule a time with me. I also subscribe a call blocker.

How would someone without an Appke device or AppleID get in touch with you realtime? If all friends and family are already part of the Apple ecosystem, then okay for now, but you also would basically be filtering your communications to only people that fit that description in the future, as well.

[deleted]

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#288

Post by dpkonofa »

Waterluvian wrote: post #147

So what's the trick? I've had the same cell number for a decade and I get zero unwanted calls a year. Is it just luck or am I accidentally doing something that keeps my number from being spammed?

Same here. I have a Google Voice number that I give out to companies and a personal number that only my friends get. I haven't had a spam or robocall in at least a decade. Google Voice is nice too because I have it to screen all calls. The ones from actual people include a nice "Call from..." with the accompanying voice of the person identifying themselves.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#289

Post by charlesju »

jackvalentine wrote: post #105
charlesju wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only partially true on iOS. It doesn't take into account when you're using the phone, then it just lets everything through. Which is SUPPERRRRR annoying.

That’s one of the options you can flip in the settings.

Oh cool that seems new? I turned it on.

Re: Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

#290

Post by intopieces »

basilgohar wrote: post #165
intopieces wrote: post #139

I’ve completely turned off notifications for the phone. If someone wants to call me, they either need to use FaceTime (which hasn’t been overrun with spam, yet) or schedule a time with me. I also subscribe a call blocker.

How would someone without an Appke device or AppleID get in touch with you realtime? If all friends and family are already part of the Apple ecosystem, then okay for now, but you also would basically be filtering your communications to only people that fit that description in the future, as well.

People without Apple IDs can’t call me without texting first. I don’t get calls over FaceTime except from my parents anyway, everyone just texts, either iMessages or Signal.
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