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Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

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Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#251

Post by wittedhaddock »

jph wrote: post #142
danShumway wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I am currently on Google Fi. I'm not thrilled putting Google in charge of my mobile data, but I still trust Google to safeguard my privacy more than any of the major telcos, and for someone who uses small amounts of data, they're very competitively priced and have really good, simple billing. But particularly with the Librem Phone coming up, I've been trying to find other phone providers I won't hate that can gi…

Similar setup: I use Google Fi with a Google Pixel 3 phone, and I will buy the Purism Librem 5 phone. I get ~5 calls/day that are legitimate calls with unknown numbers, and ~10 calls/day that are spam robocalls. I use Google screening and it works reasonably well; I would much prefer to have a telco do the screening automatically. I use ~10-20GB of data per month, mostly for video calls, mostly for business, mostly v…

thanks, PMed

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#252

Post by balabaster »

mark-r wrote: post #242
StavrosK wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of solution that only works because basically nobody is doing it. If a big provider deployed it, it would take five seconds for it to be defeated.

Exactly. With phone number spoofing, all the scammer needs is the phone number of someone on your list. With social media how long do you think it would take to generate such a list, and to get propagated to every scammer?

This would need to be spoofed for every individual though. I imagine this would be cost prohibitive enough that it would at least in the short term kill most spam phone calls.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#253

Post by pbhjpbhj »

mark-r wrote: post #242
StavrosK wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of solution that only works because basically nobody is doing it. If a big provider deployed it, it would take five seconds for it to be defeated.

Exactly. With phone number spoofing, all the scammer needs is the phone number of someone on your list. With social media how long do you think it would take to generate such a list, and to get propagated to every scammer?

In UK some of the call centres use a fake local number.

It seems to me that phone companies can detect that, but they don't want to reduce the number of calls, do they?

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#254

Post by chrisBob »

I still get regular spam calls, but I can always look and identify them. My cell phone has a 315 area code, and the only other person I know with a similar number is on my contact list. Absolutely anything else from a 315 number is spam. If I get something from the same number twice then I add it to my "SPAM" contact which is blocked.

The Hiya app also helps somewhat. I didn't realize how good a job carriers like T-Mobile do at filtering out the Spam calls until I switched to XFinity Mobile and went from 1-2 calls per week to 5 in the first day. Hiya brings the number back down inline with T-Mobile, and might be the same database T-Mobile uses on the backend.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#255

Post by wittedhaddock »

adenner wrote: post #192
wittedhaddock wrote: post #62

My name is James, I work for Community Phone, a nationwide cell phone company. Show of hands: if we opened up this feature for you to control this filter for yourself or your loved ones, holding all else constant (price and coverage), would that be sufficient to cause a switch to try out an alternate provider?

I also am on Fi, the feature would at least get my attention. The biggest problem I would have currently with going to your service is the fact that it is on the Sprint network, currently the last place provider in my area.

How is T-Mobile or AT&T coverage in your area? We offer them as well.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#256

Post by wittedhaddock »

smt88 wrote: post #144
wittedhaddock wrote: post #62

My name is James, I work for Community Phone, a nationwide cell phone company. Show of hands: if we opened up this feature for you to control this filter for yourself or your loved ones, holding all else constant (price and coverage), would that be sufficient to cause a switch to try out an alternate provider?

No. Android + Google resolved my problems with spam calls.

Awesome! How long did it take to solve, and for how many years did you have the problem before solving it?

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#257

Post by wittedhaddock »

mark-r wrote: post #242
StavrosK wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of solution that only works because basically nobody is doing it. If a big provider deployed it, it would take five seconds for it to be defeated.

Exactly. With phone number spoofing, all the scammer needs is the phone number of someone on your list. With social media how long do you think it would take to generate such a list, and to get propagated to every scammer?

Can you explain phone number spoofing to me? Is there truly phone spoofing that is more than faking the dialer on the client?

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#258

Post by pbhjpbhj »

russelldavis wrote: post #172
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #5

I just put my iphone on "do not disturb" full-time and use my favourites list to only allow calls though (from a selected list). People who double call are also allowed through. Then you are not constantly distracted by notifications, emails, texts, spam calls [1]. My thinking is, my phone should serve me, not the other way around, so I only check when I'm not focused on something else. Personally, I find useless not…

This approach comes pretty close to solving the problem, but a couple issues are dealbreakers for me: 1) It mutes all notifications, not just non-whitelisted calls. As much as I hate notification overload, I do want a select few to come through. 2) I want a discoverable way for non-whitelisted callers to be able to break through (not everyone will know to call multiple times to break through). I'm working on an app t…

We have POTS at home and work with a regular digital answerphone set to "speaker" ("always answer").

So, all calls get answered by the answerphone, most spam callers hangup as soon as the message starts.

Genuine callers start to give a message and you can pick up if you want to handle the call immediately. If someone needs to "break through" then they can say "hi, it's X, can you pick up please".

Works fantastically.

I would love my mobile to work the same way.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#259

Post by INTPenis »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #5

I just put my iphone on "do not disturb" full-time and use my favourites list to only allow calls though (from a selected list). People who double call are also allowed through. Then you are not constantly distracted by notifications, emails, texts, spam calls [1]. My thinking is, my phone should serve me, not the other way around, so I only check when I'm not focused on something else. Personally, I find useless not…

I love the DnD feature of Android but I've noticed that if someone persists they still get through. A feature I assume.

Re: Ask HN: Why can’t I block all incoming calls that aren’t in my contact list?

#260

Post by magduf »

mark-r wrote: post #242
StavrosK wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of solution that only works because basically nobody is doing it. If a big provider deployed it, it would take five seconds for it to be defeated.

Exactly. With phone number spoofing, all the scammer needs is the phone number of someone on your list. With social media how long do you think it would take to generate such a list, and to get propagated to every scammer?

How is a spammer going to figure out phone numbers of people on my list from social media? I don't know about you, but I don't have my Facebook friends publicly viewable.

And that's an awful lot of work just to cold-call someone to try to sell them insurance or whatever.

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