Here's very simple idea for Apple: Let only calls from known contacts ring, the rest auto-goes to voicemail. Why is this so F *ING hard for Apple to implement?
Because it's already there, it's called Do Not Disturb mode
Eliminating Robocalls
111–120 of 276 posts
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#112Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#113The solution is to use a whitelist for phonecalls.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#114I was hoping this would be a blog post on using Twillio to block robo callers.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#115I read a lot about the plague that robocalls are on international forums, especially from the U.S. But I live in central Europe, Austria, and received only two SPAM calls in my whole life, both by what seemed to be actual human agents on the other side and hear from similar amounts from friends I've asked about the phenomena. Can someone explain why it seems such hard to resolve problem elsewhere while it seems hardl…
Calling to almost all US numbers is cheap. You don't have to pay more to call mobile numbers, for example.
Additionally, people in the US have a generally high ability to pay and often have means to pay for things over the phone.
So, you don't have to pay much to try to scam people, and if you do, you're likely to get paid.
Probably the proliferation of small telephone companies helps avoid tracking and getting booted off the network.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is regulation. The US is firmly gripped by the belief that "regulation doesn't work", and keeps electing people who try to prove that true via incompetence, cronyism and ideological malice.
It's amazing how often I hear this kind of argument. " didn't work because it wasn't done correctly" Why do we humans do that? Why doesn't failure cause introspection/examination rather than excuse making? On a side note, it feels conspiratorial to explain failure as, "there's double agents on the inside sabotaging the effort"
Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture for a discussion of this topic.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, turns out there is virtually no downside to making spam calls in the US, and so companies continue to do it. The spoofed numbers are just a way they implement that to get around consumer efforts to prevent it.
I'll take your word for that. But the problem is that bad regulation has created a downside for providers to block spam calls so they continue not to. I would easily switch providers tomorrow if one of the features was "no spoofed numbers". This would be a giant market advantage if not prevented by this regulatory issue (whatever it is).
T-Mobile offers it for free: https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/call-protection
Verizon Wireless offers it for $2.99 a line: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/call-filter-faqs/
Not sure about the other major carriers.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#118I've never received a robocall and the whole thing seems dystopian. Is it something uniquely American? Is there EU legislation that prevents this, such as the "don't call me" register (bel me niet register)? I'm not on that, though. General anti-spam laws then? (Since it's unsolicited commercial communications directed at consumers). Genuinely curious what's different.
Canada and the USA also have national Do Not Call laws, and telemarketers are not allowed to cold call numbers that are on the list (in Canada, there are certain exceptions such as local newspapers selling subscriptions, charities soliciting donations, and companies that do telephone surveys, e.g. Ipsos-Reid). It works, too, because I never, ever receive legit telemarketing calls.
But the DNC list doesn't do anything to stop phishing/scam calls because apparently criminals don't care about DNC laws (obviously). They always spoof local numbers, but never have a caller ID name. This means I can pretty safely ignore all calls without caller ID names, unless I'm expecting a call.
The problem is, these scammers spam voicemail inboxes too, and on my phone and carrier (Android on Koodo in Canada) the only way to dismiss the "New Voicemail" notification is to call my voicemail number and listen to it. I don't care about voicemail, so I disabled it.
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is regulation. The US is firmly gripped by the belief that "regulation doesn't work", and keeps electing people who try to prove that true via incompetence, cronyism and ideological malice.
We have plenty of regulation and government attention on the issue, and I somehow doubt Congressional pockets are being lined by the campaign contributions from Big Spam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Do_Not_Call_Registry
The problem is that a lot of spam callers are not based in the US, and it is incredibly time consuming and expensive to prosecute spam callers outside the US.
The wheels of justice work, but they don't move very quickly. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/business/irs-phone-scams-...
Re: Eliminating Robocalls
#120I read a lot about the plague that robocalls are on international forums, especially from the U.S. But I live in central Europe, Austria, and received only two SPAM calls in my whole life, both by what seemed to be actual human agents on the other side and hear from similar amounts from friends I've asked about the phenomena. Can someone explain why it seems such hard to resolve problem elsewhere while it seems hardl…
Robocallers in the EU get meaningful fines. European telecoms providers proactively identify and block robocallers. VOIP companies that do business with robocallers lose the right to connect to the telephone network.
It's not an insurmountable problem, you just need regulators that give a damn.
https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/?facet_type...
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/inform...