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Let’s Destroy Robocalls

nytimes.com

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Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#171

Post by gonehome »

epriest wrote: post #14
gonehome wrote: post #3

What confuses me about this is that Apple could solve this in two seconds by allowing contact whitelists where only incoming calls in your contacts are accepted and everything else is sent to voicemail or dropped. Is there a law against this or something? Nomorobo, Robokiller, Hiya all do an okay job as blacklisting applications but that seems like the wrong way to go about it. Some suggest using do not disturb to do…

Here's how to actually "solve" this problem on an iPhone: - Pay $1.99 to buy a silent ringtone from the ringtone store. - Make that your default ringtone. - Give everyone who you want to be able to call you an audible ringtone.

This doesn't really do what I want.

- Phone calls still come in and take over the phone

- I can't use vibrate anymore? Now I have to use audible rings?

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#172

Post by gonehome »

acdha wrote: post #72
gonehome wrote: post #3

What confuses me about this is that Apple could solve this in two seconds by allowing contact whitelists where only incoming calls in your contacts are accepted and everything else is sent to voicemail or dropped. Is there a law against this or something? Nomorobo, Robokiller, Hiya all do an okay job as blacklisting applications but that seems like the wrong way to go about it. Some suggest using do not disturb to do…

> What confuses me about this is that Apple could solve this in two seconds by allowing contact whitelists where only incoming calls in your contacts are accepted and everything else is sent to voicemail or dropped. Now you missed the reminder from your dentist, a call from that relative whose new number you forgot to save, and you have 600 recruiters and other stale business contacts in your address book because you…

I don't care about any of those automated reminders (most come via text and email anyway). In my solution they'd also go straight to voicemail which is fine.

It'd give me the power to cull down my contacts to what I want and solve the problem.

Neighborhood spoofing is an issue, but if you have a pretty clean contacts list they're unlikely to get an exact match.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#173

Post by reaperducer »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #99
cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

It would be nice if someone would create a device to exchange contact info with businesses to close the loop on managing the whitelist for new, infrequent associations. I should be able to go to a receptionist, mechanic, or contractor and accept identifying info from a Bluetooth device or a standardized non-URL QR code payload to let them contact me in the future. Then we could more conveniently manage authentication…

That only works until the receptionist, mechanic, contractor, business can no longer be trusted.

I took my cat in for an oil change over the weekend. That resulted in three spam texts and two spam e-mails from VCA. Time to change vets.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#174

Post by darepublic »

atombender wrote: post #158
cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

Whitelisting is problematic because there are so many cases where it's impractical or impossible to add a contact first: Doctor's office calling to confirm your appointment; restaurant confirming a seat reservation; delivery guy is outside and can't find your doorbell; Lyft/Uber/whatever is nearby and is looking for you; pharmacy calling to inform about a prescription being ready; some store calling to inform that yo…

Need intelligent chat agents to receive calls on your behalf and act appropriate, just as you would -- arranging legit appointments, coordinating pick up times with the spouse and trolling offshore scammers by dangling red herring personal info to keep their resources tied as long as possible.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#175

Post by ArtDev »

grumblez wrote: post #157
bloopernova wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay t-mobile $4/month for their advanced spam-call blocking feature, and it works very well. I now get maybe 1 spam call every 2 weeks, compared against my worthless work number that has no such blocking which gets maybe 6 spam calls a day.

FYI: T-Mobile's app that they charge $4/month for is a reskin of the Hiya app ( https://hiya.com/ ) that's only $1.25/month when paid yearly.

I just installed it. It identifies many of my recent robocalls as spam. Thanks!

It also allows me to block numbers from my sim area code. This is where most spam calls spoof to be coming from. When I recently called T-mobile to ask for them to do this, they said they couldn't help me.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#176

Post by nonbel »

bloopernova wrote: post #144
nonbel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never made much sense to me that the providers would not offer some kind of robocall-free plan. I would instantly switch to avoid getting any more of these spoofed calls, which would block the vast majority of robocalls. It turns out that it is government regulation somehow preventing this: > "The FCC last year authorized voice service providers to block more types of calls in which the Caller ID has been spoofed…

I pay t-mobile $4/month for their advanced spam-call blocking feature, and it works very well. I now get maybe 1 spam call every 2 weeks, compared against my worthless work number that has no such blocking which gets maybe 6 spam calls a day.

How does it identify spoofed numbers?

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#178

Post by Causality1 »

darepublic wrote: post #174
atombender wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whitelisting is problematic because there are so many cases where it's impractical or impossible to add a contact first: Doctor's office calling to confirm your appointment; restaurant confirming a seat reservation; delivery guy is outside and can't find your doorbell; Lyft/Uber/whatever is nearby and is looking for you; pharmacy calling to inform about a prescription being ready; some store calling to inform that yo…

Need intelligent chat agents to receive calls on your behalf and act appropriate, just as you would -- arranging legit appointments, coordinating pick up times with the spouse and trolling offshore scammers by dangling red herring personal info to keep their resources tied as long as possible.

AI assistants are all well and good but I find you continually run into seemingly simple situation that completely flummox them. I experienced this myself recently when I discovered that, despite nearly a decade of development, Google Assistant can't handle the command "navigate to the McDonald's closest to the Best Buy"

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#179

Post by daphneokeefe »

Here is my simple strategy. It doesn't work perfectly, but it increases the probability that I will answer an important call and let an unimportant call go to voice mail.

I change the ringtone for everyone on my contact list to be different from the default ringtone. I do it when I create the contact. That's it. Two ringtones: they're a contact or they aren't.

When I hear my phone ringing in the other room, in my pocket with friends, on the bus, I know whether I may be interested in either taking the call immediately or listening to the voice mail fairly soon.

For one added level of differentiation, I use a very few other special ringtones: -- one that sounds like knocking on the door when I receive a call or text from Amazon or UPS and other delivery services -- a strident one when my doorbell rings (in my apartment complex, the exterior doorbell calls a phone) -- immediate family has a different one

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#180

Post by reaperducer »

zackmorris wrote: post #131
cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

Since caller id was implemented so poorly: https://www.onsip.com/blog/how-caller-id-works-why-it-might-... Maybe it would be nice if we had something kind of like a CAPTCHA, where an app on your phone would say "please dial and say your name to complete your call" and the person would have to dial it and say who they are to talk to you. Totally knee-jerk idea I realize, but I literally get 10 SCAM LIKELY calls for ev…

say your name to complete your call" and the person would have to dial it and say who they are to talk to you.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted for this. My in-laws have this feature on their landline from their local telco. Completely annoying, but I don't want to talk to them anyway.

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