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The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

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Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#261

Post by [deleted] »

dredmorbius wrote: post #151
smittywerben wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me wonder how long distance rates are charged in the first place. A little OT but did we used to call websites?

In dialup, you (or your modem) would dial a POP server, or point-of-presence. That was a modem bank on one side, and Internet backbone link on the other, generally as a local call. The website was reached via the POP, but you could reach any website anywhere on the public Internet without having to dial up each individually. More specifically, PSTN is a public, switched , telecommunications network, in which each com…

[deleted]

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#262

Post by solstice »

atoav wrote: post #244
nobodyandproud wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. It’s amusing to see people think there is some hard technical problem here. Tie the problem of robocalls to the telcos losing money, and this problem will solve itself in months.

I got two unwanted robocalls in the last twenty years (central europe). This seems like a profoundly american issue.

Unwanted calls are an issue in France as well afaik. Not necessarily robocalls but the fact that there isn't a way to opt out from advertising calls (in contrast to Germany's Robinson-Liste) is very annoying.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#263

Post by etxm »

These have gotten outrageous.

The WhiteStone health calls are incessant, I can’t even begin to comprehend how much money they are scamming if they can afford to pay people to do the volume of calls they are making. Theyre also nabbing a legitimate companies identity. [1]

I got called by them 13 times in one day. Requested to be put on DNC list (obviously a waste of breath). The numbers are seem random. I don’t know if they are spoofing them somehow or if carriers sell short access to numbers but they do the first N characters of your number trick.

I decided to go ahead and “get scammed” and walk through as much of the call as possible and the bullshit detection of these callers is PHENOMENAL.

We will get through a few questions with me trying to answer to sound like I’m interested and then eventually you’ll get a ~“fuck you man” and they’ll hang up on you.

These MFs need to be shot into a brick wall on a rocket sled.

1- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/whitestone-healthcare-llc_we-...

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#264

Post by etxm »

Karunamon wrote: post #192
tamalpais wrote: post #27

I enabled the Silence Unknown Callers feature [0] in iOS and haven’t answered a spam call since. The downside is that it sends every call from unknown numbers to voicemail, including legitimate ones. It’s a worthwhile trade-off. [0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099

I signed up with a SIP provider, Anveo, and set up an incoming call flow that’s very close to what Google Voice does - with one change, that being incoming callers who are unknown must press any key to be connected. Robocallers will never do this, humans will, so I’ve got a 100% reject rate on robots.

No familiarity with SIP.

Can it intercept calls to a cell phone with a carrier issued number?

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#265

Post by Karunamon »

etxm wrote: post #264
Karunamon wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I signed up with a SIP provider, Anveo, and set up an incoming call flow that’s very close to what Google Voice does - with one change, that being incoming callers who are unknown must press any key to be connected. Robocallers will never do this, humans will, so I’ve got a 100% reject rate on robots.

No familiarity with SIP. Can it intercept calls to a cell phone with a carrier issued number?

Sssssorta. The cool thing is you need no familiarity with the SIP protocol.

What you'd do is port your cell number to the provider, get a new cell number, and then set up a call flow that answers the number, eventually forwarding to your real phone after the caller has a chance to record their name and hit a key.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#266

Post by coryodaniel »

yellow_lead wrote: post #53

This should get better once carriers have implemented STIR/SHAKEN. Many are currently doing testing right now.

Had to google STIR/SHAKEN.

> Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (which stands for Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs)

The amount of bending over backwards to get that acronym to check out is impressive. It is such an engineer-named system.

Looking forward to it nonetheless.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#267

Post by etxm »

Karunamon wrote: post #265
etxm wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No familiarity with SIP. Can it intercept calls to a cell phone with a carrier issued number?

Sssssorta. The cool thing is you need no familiarity with the SIP protocol. What you'd do is port your cell number to the provider, get a new cell number, and then set up a call flow that answers the number, eventually forwarding to your real phone after the caller has a chance to record their name and hit a key.

Ah! Good to know. I was curious if I’d have to update all my friends, family, etc with my new number!

I really appreciate the info!

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#269

Post by [deleted] »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #94
ravenstine wrote: post #42

I see people here saying that spoofed numbers is the problem. Maybe it's a big part of it, but at the end of the day, the phone companies are complicit with the criminals because there's no good reason that these robocalls can't be treated like a DoS attack. These crooks make millions , of calls every year. My first employer was apparently making robocalls, though none of us were aware of it(there was a call center w…

I don't know how Google Voice did it, but I rarely if ever got a robocall when I had Google Voice. After leaving Sprint (and losing Google Voice after years of having it) I get them all the time. T-Mobile catches a few here and there, but I get so many damn spam calls. I just have my phone on mute.

[deleted]

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#270

Post by hinkley »

JaRail wrote: post #123
zackmorris wrote: post #41

Does anyone familiar with the law know why these fines couldn't be converted to tax liens or some other legal device that could be used to go after the offenders? Then the IRS could garnish wages or prevent loans to the businesses until the liens are paid, or do all kinds of things to throw a wrench in their plans and make robocalls too much of a hassle to be lucrative.

I'd assume they're mostly fines against foreign or shell companies. What's effectively a shell company is set up to forward calls, then goes out of business when caught.

"Piercing the corporate veil" is a process for dealing with this.
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