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On the Trail of the RoboCall King

wired.com

11–20 of 59 posts

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#11
post #9

I wonder if one should not use a dialer to call them back, sending an automated message until someone listens and acknowledges? They have a huge outbound capability, but their weak spot is inbound and call completion - they expect basically no call to complete. So anything that keeps their agents busy will immediately reflect on the number of calls they make. Would it be legal?

Isn't this what screen call is for Pixel?

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#12
post #10
post #5

For $20 US a year for an app, robocalls are down to a few a month from several a day on each of a VOIP and cell line. Nomorobo, Robokiller, and several more - do some research, read some reviews, and pick one. I only wish it was as easy to filter email spam for a 25-year-old email address. Telephone service providers may offer robocall filtering as well. One can deal with the problem now, or wait for Shaken/Stir, whi…

I pay for RoboKiller and still get 7-10 calls per day that make it through. It’s not a panacea.

Hiya worked the best for me.

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#13

I don't understand why the robocalls are a thing. Why are robocalls able to cause such a stir? Why are they referred to as " robocalls " in the first place, when this is such a lowbrow term that it might imply that the victims are part of the problem, due to an inability to adequately cope with something that requires very little effort to deflect. To give them a special name, in and of itself, raises phonecall spam…

From TFA: Emergency room doctors, nurses, and first responders were getting delayed alerts. This was not just an annoyance; it was a matter of life and death. What is your "almost too easy" solution? Block all local calls? Have you applied for a job and expected a call back only to be directed to a cruise/timeshare?

Or they’re showing up a bit groggier on their next shift because their sleep/nap got disjointed.

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#14
post #9

I wonder if one should not use a dialer to call them back, sending an automated message until someone listens and acknowledges? They have a huge outbound capability, but their weak spot is inbound and call completion - they expect basically no call to complete. So anything that keeps their agents busy will immediately reflect on the number of calls they make. Would it be legal?

I answer most robo calls and usually try to call back after I get them to hang up on me. The number is almost never in service. When it is and it leads to the scammer I'll sometimes continue calling and messing with them until my number is blocked by them. I've been messing with spam callers for more than 20 years. I wish more people would answer these calls and waste as much of their time as possible.

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#16
post #14
post #9

I wonder if one should not use a dialer to call them back, sending an automated message until someone listens and acknowledges? They have a huge outbound capability, but their weak spot is inbound and call completion - they expect basically no call to complete. So anything that keeps their agents busy will immediately reflect on the number of calls they make. Would it be legal?

I answer most robo calls and usually try to call back after I get them to hang up on me. The number is almost never in service. When it is and it leads to the scammer I'll sometimes continue calling and messing with them until my number is blocked by them. I've been messing with spam callers for more than 20 years. I wish more people would answer these calls and waste as much of their time as possible.

At least in the UK, the calling number is nowadays almost always spoofed.

I don't know enough about the telephone system to know if number spoofing is something providers could prevent?

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#17
post #14
post #9

I wonder if one should not use a dialer to call them back, sending an automated message until someone listens and acknowledges? They have a huge outbound capability, but their weak spot is inbound and call completion - they expect basically no call to complete. So anything that keeps their agents busy will immediately reflect on the number of calls they make. Would it be legal?

I answer most robo calls and usually try to call back after I get them to hang up on me. The number is almost never in service. When it is and it leads to the scammer I'll sometimes continue calling and messing with them until my number is blocked by them. I've been messing with spam callers for more than 20 years. I wish more people would answer these calls and waste as much of their time as possible.

Sometimes they leave a message on the voicemail, and in this case you do have a number to be called back. I wonder if it would be legal for you to recall them using a robodialer.

Say you implement something like this: https://www.wombatdialer.com/blog/blog/2017/03/17/outbounds-... this is a reverse IVR, that keeps calling until it gets an explicit acknowledgement. It is cheap to run (you set up a FreePBX somewhere), it does not tire, and can go on until it gets a confirmation.

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#19
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I answer most robo calls and usually try to call back after I get them to hang up on me. The number is almost never in service. When it is and it leads to the scammer I'll sometimes continue calling and messing with them until my number is blocked by them. I've been messing with spam callers for more than 20 years. I wish more people would answer these calls and waste as much of their time as possible.

At least in the UK, the calling number is nowadays almost always spoofed. I don't know enough about the telephone system to know if number spoofing is something providers could prevent?

Right but for the scam to work at some point they have to connect you to a human who asks for payment. So while the Caller ID may be spoofed the number embedded in the message wouldn't be.

Re: On the Trail of the RoboCall King

#20
Seems to me that the FCC doesn't actually want to stop these. Watch the senate commission deposition(?) of Adrian Abramavich. He says all these calls are routed through 5 or 6 tier-2+ VOIP firms who openly solicit robocall business and then blend the traffic to prevent the most obvious red flags. Just pull their licenses(?). Unless there's more to the story and everyone in the industry is getting rich from this, which sounds like is the case. Remember this is the same FCC that couldn't detect millions of fake anti-net neutrality comments. C'mon. Are we really dumb enough to think that they're that dumb?

If everyone in the industry is getting rich from this and the FCC is serving industry and not the people, then the plan of action would quite probably look like this:

1. Pass laws that make robocalls illegal to pacify the populace.

2. Charge one or two operators a year in civil court max, but not enough to actually deter people from doing it. And make sure to brand them names like "the robocall king" so that people think you've actually made a huge dent in robo-calling. Again, to pacify the populace.

3. Don't actually enforce the laws you passed on any meaningful scale and don't require technological changes which would stop this. Despite the fact that it doesn't happen in any other country, even third world ones, pretend that this is just a technologically intractable problem.

Pathetic.

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