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Verified by Twilio

twilio.com

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Re: Verified by Twilio

#231

Post by ta0xdeadbeef »

cookie_monsta wrote: post #36

> 70% of consumers don’t answer a call if the caller’s number is anonymous. While that might cut down the number of unwanted robocalls, it also potentially prevents consumers from receiving vital communications—calls from the doctor, banks that are flagging issues, schools calling about parents’ children. A message to my doctor, bank, kids' school, etc: if you call me on a private/unknown number and don't leave a voi…

Honestly I'd rather for all that communication to be handled by email and not phone calls. I'm not going to answer the phone either way, so it's not like it's any faster to reach me via phone than email. And the benefit is I don't need to write down what I hear or get tripped up on spelling with names.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#232

Post by bradknowles »

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 use the Firewall app on iPhone.

All phone numbers in my Contacts app go into a whitelist that is maintained only locally on my phone.

When a call comes in, a notification gets fired off to the Firewall app, and it checks the number against the whitelist. If the number is on the whitelist, then it actually uses a functional replica of the iPhone Phone app UI to "ring" the call through.

If the incoming call is from a number not on my whitelist, then it checks the blacklist of known bad actors. If the caller is on the blacklist, then the call just gets blocked. I get a notification from Firewall that a call from a known bad actor was blocked.

If the incoming call is not on the whitelist or the blacklist, then it goes to voicemail, where it gets transcribed, and I get a notice that Firewall sent a call to voicemail.

I'm hoping that this is basically the same workflow we will see with iOS 13, just built into the basic iPhone Phone app. Then I should be able to stop using Firewall.

But I certainly don't need Nomorobo or any other such tool. Firewall solves all those problems, and does so better than any of the alternatives.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#233

Post by bradknowles »

fortran77 wrote: post #175
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.

I am strongly inclined to switch over to using a 900 number as my official public number for everything. Anyone who really wants to call me can afford the small charge it would require.

Everyone else can just hang up.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#234

Post by bradknowles »

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #51
gregmac wrote: post #10

I was just reviewing my call detail records on my "home" number yesterday, and realizing that the vast majority are spam - we pretty much don't answer that phone. This got me thinking about alternatives to even ringing for any unrecognised numbers, such as an IVR menu that said something like "Hi, we're screening spam, press 4 2 if you're a real person". I'm not sure how that'd be accepted by, for example, the dentis…

Nomorobo is free for VOIP landlines, and pretty popular: https://www.nomorobo.com/ It has a whitelist/blacklist for common recorded messages like dentists, and then a CAPTCHA pretty much exactly what you describe: https://nomorobo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205761825-Wha...

I want my whitelist to exist exclusively on my phone, not in some central database of some company, regardless of how well-intentioned that company might be.

So, that makes solutions like Nomorobo not work so well for me.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#235

Post by darynaop »

awwstn wrote: post #210
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…

Request for startup! I would happily pay $20/month for a service that makes it easy to replicate this setup.

Hey! We might be just what you're looking for :)

www.openphone.co

Happy to answer any questions and talk about my own setup!

Re: Verified by Twilio

#236

Post by catacombs »

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…

> When I was younger I used to work for a market research company doing surveys over the phone.

Were you the one making calls? How did go through the randomly generated phone numbers?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#237

Post by cookie_monsta »

ceejayoz wrote: post #168
cookie_monsta wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a great use case where a school nurse called the speaker about their child, and she was very lucky to pick up and not let it go to voicemail. a) if you're a sloppy enough parent that you don't even have your kids' school phone number saved as a contact, I suspect you're accustomed to relying on luck. b) "Use our service or your children might die" is fairly over the top marketing, even for marketers.

My kids' school doesn't have one number. It varies, and they also use emergency alert systems (presumably via something like Twilio) that don't always come from a predictable number either.

I don't know why I care about this - it's a service offered to business and if business wants to take it up that's their call. But if I were your kids school I would be looking at the far simpler solution of having one outgoing caller id regardless of the extension. I've had kids in school for 12 years now and have never received emergency communication from them. For the great balance of history, we've trusted schools to be able to make on the spot decisions on our behalf because we didn't have a phone in our pocket. And rightly so - the school has multiples of experience dealing with 8 year olds than I will ever have. What could they possibly need to consult me about in real time?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#238

Post by doxavore »

darynaop wrote: post #235
awwstn wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Request for startup! I would happily pay $20/month for a service that makes it easy to replicate this setup.

Hey! We might be just what you're looking for :) www.openphone.co Happy to answer any questions and talk about my own setup!

I'd be interested in hearing about other setups. I use GoDaddy's SmartLine today - could you speak to how openphone.co is different?

Re: Verified by Twilio

#239

Post by ceejayoz »

cookie_monsta wrote: post #237
ceejayoz wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids' school doesn't have one number. It varies, and they also use emergency alert systems (presumably via something like Twilio) that don't always come from a predictable number either.

I don't know why I care about this - it's a service offered to business and if business wants to take it up that's their call. But if I were your kids school I would be looking at the far simpler solution of having one outgoing caller id regardless of the extension. I've had kids in school for 12 years now and have never received emergency communication from them. For the great balance of history, we've trusted schoo…

> What could they possibly need to consult me about in real time?

Your kid had an accident and needs new clothes. Your kid fell and is headed to the hospital by ambulance. Your kid has a headache, can we give them ibuprofen? etc.

Re: Verified by Twilio

#240

Post by cookie_monsta »

ceejayoz wrote: post #239
cookie_monsta wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why I care about this - it's a service offered to business and if business wants to take it up that's their call. But if I were your kids school I would be looking at the far simpler solution of having one outgoing caller id regardless of the extension. I've had kids in school for 12 years now and have never received emergency communication from them. For the great balance of history, we've trusted schoo…

> What could they possibly need to consult me about in real time? Your kid had an accident and needs new clothes. Your kid fell and is headed to the hospital by ambulance. Your kid has a headache, can we give them ibuprofen? etc.

1. Not an emergency, but I'll see what I can do (although the 3 schools my kids have been in have had spare clothes on hand for these situations)

2. Good. I'll be there when I can being that you're not asking for my consent and are more than qualified to make that decision

3. You already have a list of my child's allergies. Follow your policy which I have already agreed to, but thank you for the non-urgent notification

etc

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