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Eliminating Robocalls

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Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#261

Post by JohnFen »

mehrdadn wrote: post #224
masonic wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robocalls I get typically assign a caller ID of my area code (and sometimes prefix) with random other digits. Most 408-73x prefixes were originally specific to Sunnyvale CA and are therefore easy to distinguish.

Yeah but I'm not sure they're genuinely random. If you try Googling them you see that they're generally listed as robocallers. Whereas if you Google people you know, I don't think you'll see them being listed as robocallers (at least it hasn't been the case when I've tried). That suggests they don't just randomly pick numbers.

> If you try Googling them you see that they're generally listed as robocallers.

I just did a quick check of the last 10 or so I received. None of them were listed as robocallers. They were all legit phone numbers of innocent people who live in my area.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#262

Post by JohnFen »

kalado wrote: post #231
mcv wrote: post #230

I wonder why I'm not getting this barrage of robocalls. I live in Netherland, not the US, so presumably that's why, but are robocalls not a thing in Europe? Do we not have these kind of predatory companies? Do we have surprisingly effective legislation to stop robocalls? The only phone spam I'm getting are people trying to sell me new energy contracts (that's something that happens when you have a company for some re…

They are a thing in europe, but you have to make the mistake of entering your phone number on some sketchy homepage for it to start.

You're lucky! In the US, you have to make the mistake of giving your phone number to nearly any business.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#263

Post by JohnFen »

phaer wrote: post #49

I 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…

> Can someone explain why it seems such hard to resolve problem elsewhere while it seems hardly a problem at all here?

Because politics is broken in the US. There is a ton of lobbying money that is spent to ensure this problem does not get effectively resolved.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#264

Post by JohnFen »

nonbel wrote: post #72
__jal wrote: post #62

Earlier 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.

Nope, turns out it is some sort of crappy regulation preventing providers from stopping the robocallers from spoofing numbers in the US: >"The FCC last year authorized voice service providers to block more types of calls in which the Caller ID has been spoofed or in which the number on the Caller ID is invalid." https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/10/robocallers-evol...

If that were the root cause, it would have already been fixed. There is no FCC regulation that Congress can't change.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#265

Post by JohnFen »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #239
MockObject wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Politicians are not being supported by the spammers themselves, but by the telecoms that do not want to make costly changes to their network to stop or enforce this problem. This couldn’t be more obvious in our fcc chair who is basically against any kind of government regulation.

And don't forget the little fact that the telecoms make money from providing service to the spammers.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#266

Post by JohnFen »

aboutruby wrote: post #161
phaer wrote: post #49

I 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…

Last time I went to the US, I got a phone number from MetroPCS (e.g. T-Mobile reseller). I didn't give it to anybody and started receiving 3-4 spam calls a day. They are obviously reselling the phone numbers directly, which is illegal in most countries.

You probably were assigned a phone number that had been used by someone else prior, so the number was already on all the lists.

Every time I get a new number, I end up spending a few weeks getting calls from real people to the person who had the number before it was assigned to me.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#267

Post by eruci »

tyingq wrote: post #132
eruci wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the US are more likely to fall for these pitches. Maybe due to the lower average intelligence of the common dude. Just a hypothesis. This phenomenon deserves a deeper inquiry.

Oh, that's fun. Americans have a lower average intelligence than Europeans?

Just a hypothesis.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#268

Post by mehrdadn »

JohnFen wrote: post #261
mehrdadn wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but I'm not sure they're genuinely random. If you try Googling them you see that they're generally listed as robocallers. Whereas if you Google people you know, I don't think you'll see them being listed as robocallers (at least it hasn't been the case when I've tried). That suggests they don't just randomly pick numbers.

> If you try Googling them you see that they're generally listed as robocallers. I just did a quick check of the last 10 or so I received. None of them were listed as robocallers. They were all legit phone numbers of innocent people who live in my area.

Thanks for checking, I stand corrected then. Whenever I've tried they've usually been listed as robocallers so I guess it's just your luck.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#269

Post by diminoten »

JohnFen wrote: post #254
diminoten wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because while it's a common assumption that the spam callers do this, they don't actually do this, because while robocalling is sometimes illegal, actually dialing every single number removes any/all plausible deniability if they're ever caught, and provides little/no additional benefit.

> Because while it's a common assumption that the spam callers do this, they don't actually do this It sure looks like they do. Spammers have been calling our office lines daily (including numbers that aren't assigned to anyone and aren't given out). The spam calls come in numerical sequence. They're clearly just working through every possible phone number, in sequence.

They do that for your office (343-564-21xx), but not globally (000-000-0000, 000-000-0001, etc). There's a substantial difference.

Re: Eliminating Robocalls

#270

Post by WhyEmail »

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…

Why would you trust email? I have a few service providers who refuse to send a paper bill. I have nearly perfect credit because I always pay everything off on time, for literally decades. I have missed 2 or 3 email bills in the past year because they didn't get to me. While it's certainly possible for regular mail to go missing, my experience is that it happens orders of magnitude less frequently than losing emails. I now have to set up my own reminders to pay the companies that refuse to send me a paper bill because it's too risky to rely on them actually getting the bill to me electronically. (And I'm not giving anyone permission to withdraw money directly from my account.)
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