Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Eliminating Robocalls

twilio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 276 posts

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#31

Post by tracker1 »

rhacker wrote: post #20

I'm waaay past trusting that network. I tell companies to text or email me. And texting is also starting to get spammed out. Right now, I can't even use apps like Hiya that implement prefix blocking. My method right now is to forward ALL calls to a google voice number, and those are transcribed or what-have-you. If you don't leave a message, I don't care about you. We need a signal, at the highest of levels to basica…

I've been using GV since it was Grand Central... love it. I really hope it doesn't get killed, I'd happily pay $25-30/year just for what google voice adds over regular phone service. If they do kill it, I'll probably do a virtual PBX to get at least similar services I can control.

As an aside, I showed the email thing to a coworker pretty early on, it was pretty wild in the old days.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#32

Post by darkpuma »

minikites wrote: post #9

Was there a reason the author redacted parts of the robocall phone numbers? They're robocalls, the numbers should be garbage by definition.

Over the past year or so I've received two or three irate phonecalls from people telling at me to stop robocalling them, unaware that my number had been spoofed.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#33

Post by penagwin »

cbhl wrote: post #11
minikites wrote: post #9

Was there a reason the author redacted parts of the robocall phone numbers? They're robocalls, the numbers should be garbage by definition.

Probably to avoid tipping off the robo-callers' authors

Tip them off in what way? They couldn't possibly do anything meaningful.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#34

Post by cronix »

Abundnce10 wrote: post #25

All I really want to do is allow calls through to my phone that are stored in my contacts. If they're not in my contacts, I'd prefer not to be notified and have it sent to voicemail.

One problem is they can easily spoof the number. I've received 2 calls from Bank of America's 800 number, that weren't actually from Bank of America (they were pretending there was a problem with my account...phishing for info...). They were in my address book, and showed up as such. You can't trust caller ID. They might not have your friends phone numbers, but you probably also have other major institutions that you trust in there as well.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-you-shouldnt-answer-th...

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#35

Post by hyperjeff »

gonehome wrote: post #28
rhacker wrote: post #20

I'm waaay past trusting that network. I tell companies to text or email me. And texting is also starting to get spammed out. Right now, I can't even use apps like Hiya that implement prefix blocking. My method right now is to forward ALL calls to a google voice number, and those are transcribed or what-have-you. If you don't leave a message, I don't care about you. We need a signal, at the highest of levels to basica…

Yes - a contact whitelist is all I want from iOS with two features: a button to temporarily allow all calls for 30min (for Uber/door dash) and the option to allow a second call to come through from an unknown number if it’s within 2min of the first. All other calls should go to voicemail by default. The way Apple allows you to interact with CallKit makes this hard to implement because a blacklist of numbers is requir…

Isn't this exact feature available via Do Not Disturb? I have DND on 24/7, and you can quickly turn it off for Lyft/etc if needed. If you make groups within your contacts you can even hone the whitelist and can fairly quickly mod it.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#36

Post by gonehome »

hyperjeff wrote: post #35
gonehome wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - a contact whitelist is all I want from iOS with two features: a button to temporarily allow all calls for 30min (for Uber/door dash) and the option to allow a second call to come through from an unknown number if it’s within 2min of the first. All other calls should go to voicemail by default. The way Apple allows you to interact with CallKit makes this hard to implement because a blacklist of numbers is requir…

Isn't this exact feature available via Do Not Disturb? I have DND on 24/7, and you can quickly turn it off for Lyft/etc if needed. If you make groups within your contacts you can even hone the whitelist and can fairly quickly mod it.

No - DND blocks all notifications in addition to calls which makes it not usable.

I still want notifications for other things (especially text).

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#37

Post by unixhero »

degenerate wrote: post #30
rhacker wrote: post #20

I'm waaay past trusting that network. I tell companies to text or email me. And texting is also starting to get spammed out. Right now, I can't even use apps like Hiya that implement prefix blocking. My method right now is to forward ALL calls to a google voice number, and those are transcribed or what-have-you. If you don't leave a message, I don't care about you. We need a signal, at the highest of levels to basica…

I'm actually hoping that robocalls are the downfall of the PSTN and big telcos. They are immovable monsters and have outlived their reign in this world.

Except when we provide you 4g and 5g coverage, ensure societies have working critical infrastructure to communicate peer to peer and in addition gives you a nice fiber pipe to your house and handle all the carrier dealings of broadband interconnectivity. Oh yeah and tie this all together with advanced roaming deals and functionality which connects countries around the world. It's also us who pioneer and really implement GDPR and stand in the trenches for privacy governance.

Telecoms are far from all that bad. But I understand why everyone hates their phone bill and of course agree that we need to act against predatory pricing, and such.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#38

Post by mc32 »

gonehome wrote: post #28
rhacker wrote: post #20

I'm waaay past trusting that network. I tell companies to text or email me. And texting is also starting to get spammed out. Right now, I can't even use apps like Hiya that implement prefix blocking. My method right now is to forward ALL calls to a google voice number, and those are transcribed or what-have-you. If you don't leave a message, I don't care about you. We need a signal, at the highest of levels to basica…

Yes - a contact whitelist is all I want from iOS with two features: a button to temporarily allow all calls for 30min (for Uber/door dash) and the option to allow a second call to come through from an unknown number if it’s within 2min of the first. All other calls should go to voicemail by default. The way Apple allows you to interact with CallKit makes this hard to implement because a blacklist of numbers is requir…

The problem is a legitimate urgent call from an unwhitelisted number. Hospital, school, fire, police, relatives, etc.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#39

Post by imglorp »

tracker1 wrote: post #31
rhacker wrote: post #20

I'm waaay past trusting that network. I tell companies to text or email me. And texting is also starting to get spammed out. Right now, I can't even use apps like Hiya that implement prefix blocking. My method right now is to forward ALL calls to a google voice number, and those are transcribed or what-have-you. If you don't leave a message, I don't care about you. We need a signal, at the highest of levels to basica…

I've been using GV since it was Grand Central... love it. I really hope it doesn't get killed, I'd happily pay $25-30/year just for what google voice adds over regular phone service. If they do kill it, I'll probably do a virtual PBX to get at least similar services I can control. As an aside, I showed the email thing to a coworker pretty early on, it was pretty wild in the old days.

Related, Hangouts has started to be spammed. The spammers create a group hangout with a few dozen people, draw you into it, and then you see the welcome message. There's no blocking contacts from unknown people: rather, it seems like that was the business model of G+.

Granted, hangouts is almost gone now, but it demonstrates there's a way to spam almost anything and ruin it.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#40

Post by hartator »

I disagree with the solution. A simple App that send to voicemail numbers not in my contacts will be far than enough. And it won’t require to change the whole infrastructure!
Post reply on HN