Verified by Twilio • Hacker News Board

Re: Verified by Twilio

#171

Post by k__ » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:32 PM UTC

lysp wrote: post #26

HugoHobling wrote: post #19

I know it's overkill, but this is my current setup for my phone numbers. I treat phone numbers the same way I do my email address: I use different numbers for different purposes. 1. I have a "clean" phone number I only share with friends/family. Certain prefixes and phone number actually receive next to zero spam calls. This number has received 2 calls in the years I've had it. 2. I have a phone number I share with c…

When I was younger I used to work for a market research company doing surveys over the phone. The way their process worked was: * Big company wanted a survey completed. * Big company would want it targeted to a specific state/regional area, so would provide a list of post/zip codes. * Survey company would translate the list of codes into phone prefixes for each area. * Computer would randomly generate phone numbers i…

In some countries it's illegal for companies to call random people, they need to gather opt-ins from all people they wanna call.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#172

Post by StavrosK » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:34 PM UTC

Erwin wrote: post #65

ozmbie wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a uniquely American problem? My Australian mobile phone receives maybe one spam call per year. It’s my single phone and I give out the number to various businesses and people.

In Denmark, phone sales to consumers are generally illegal though strangely insurance and newspapers are excluded. There's a national "do not call" list you can sign up to as well. This is amusing called the "Robinson List", presumably after Robinson Crusoe. The same concept is used in a dozen other countries. I guess the penalties are severe enough that it generally only very shady people call, such as those pretend…

Rather off-topic, I was surprised by how readable this was to someone who doesn't speak a lick of Danish (me):

> Robinsonlisten er opkaldt efter Robinson Crusoe, som er en fiktiv person, der optræder i romanen Robinson Crusoe af Daniel Defoe. Han strander på en øde ø og lever isoleret.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#173

Post by chabes » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:37 PM UTC

k__ wrote: post #171

lysp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was younger I used to work for a market research company doing surveys over the phone. The way their process worked was: * Big company wanted a survey completed. * Big company would want it targeted to a specific state/regional area, so would provide a list of post/zip codes. * Survey company would translate the list of codes into phone prefixes for each area. * Computer would randomly generate phone numbers i…

In some countries it's illegal for companies to call random people, they need to gather opt-ins from all people they wanna call.

It doesn’t seem like it’s being enforced in the US, currently..

Re: Verified by Twilio

#174

Post by dingo_bat » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:41 PM UTC

Seems like all of this assumes that I trust Twilio, whatever that is. Why should I trust them? Why won't they allow specific robocalls/spam some time in the future?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#175

Post by fortran77 » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:44 PM UTC

HugoHobling wrote: post #19

I know it's overkill, but this is my current setup for my phone numbers. I treat phone numbers the same way I do my email address: I use different numbers for different purposes. 1. I have a "clean" phone number I only share with friends/family. Certain prefixes and phone number actually receive next to zero spam calls. This number has received 2 calls in the years I've had it. 2. I have a phone number I share with c…

I provision fresh DIDs all the time from my VOIP vendor. Robocalls don't work off a list of numbers, they just call every number in order.

The best strategy -- get an area code that's not local and where you don't know anyone. That's what I have on my personal cell phone. Any call that comes in from that area code I know is spam. I don't answer it.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#176

Post by whamlastxmas » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:47 PM UTC

jimbobimbo wrote: post #121

Jolter wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in some countries, because they have actual enforcement of the law.

The spam operations are usually overseas, not US based. This makes enforcement harder and takes longer time. It still happens, because I see news about busts in the press from time to time.

I wish I could tell T-Mobile to never accept calls not based in the US

Re: Verified by Twilio

#177

Post by bildung » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:47 PM UTC

fuzz4lyfe wrote: post #152

bildung wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note I don't disagree, but that source was on hn a few days ago and is a pretty poor propaganda site. The article: * redefines poverty multiple times and then comes to the surprising conclusion that the results differ from the NY Times article * uses consumption in USD as a measure, which is highly problematic, because a) different countries have different purchasing power, which is is the reason almost noone in pove…

>The usual threshold for poverty (for good reasons) is 50 or 60% of the median income in a country. If you think half to 40% of people in the Congo are not in poverty you are delusional

60% of the median is the definition of relative poverty. This is what the NY Times article was about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty#Relative_poverty

You are free to find that delusional, but if you want to partake in the scientific discourse about poverty, it would be advantageous if you don't redefine the core concept.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#178

Post by SomeOldThrow » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:52 PM UTC

rsync wrote: post #41

HugoHobling wrote: post #19

I know it's overkill, but this is my current setup for my phone numbers. I treat phone numbers the same way I do my email address: I use different numbers for different purposes. 1. I have a "clean" phone number I only share with friends/family. Certain prefixes and phone number actually receive next to zero spam calls. This number has received 2 calls in the years I've had it. 2. I have a phone number I share with c…

"2. I have a phone number I share with companies / loyalty programs / etc." How does this one work and who provides this number ? I ask because a twilio number is not a mobile number and therefore cannot receive 2FA from "short codes". I am sure you know what I am talking about and have run into this ... so I ask, if you have a number that you give out to "companies" (as I also do) do you have a mobile number that ca…

What do you mean? You can filter by the number type in their api. They do offer mobile numbers.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#179

Post by SomeOldThrow » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #156

js2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if I have more success because my GV number was originally a cellular number (many many years ago). I've used it with Uber and Lyft successfully.

Yeah, Uber blocked my GV number.

It’s alright they just locked me out of my account when they transitioned away from email. I use lyft now. Then they did the same thing. When did technology get so shitty?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#180

Post by pier25 » Fri, Aug 30, 2019, 1:54 PM UTC

Android already does this, somewhat.

Whenever you receive a call you know beforehand if it's spam or not. Maybe a handful of times in the last year I've received a spam call that wasn't marked as spam. You can block callers and report as spam much like in Gmail.

When the call is not spam Android looks up on Google where the number is from and it shows the name of the business in the call screen.

This is working great for me. A year ago I received 2-3 spam calls per day which of course I've been blocking. Now I receive 1-2 spam calls per week at the most. Some weeks I don't receive any.