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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

#301

Post by iamthirsty »

jlarocco wrote: post #296
lukebuehler wrote: post #274

A lot of people point out that telecom companies should do something but aren't because it's lucrative for them or too expensive to fix. Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves with this in the long term? People will stop using phone numbers altogether. Using the phone has become such a pain, at least in the US, that whenever I can, I used different ways of communicating. WhatsApp, iM…

Is there a reason the FCC can't fine the telecoms for allowing the illegal calls? My guess is they'd fix the problem pretty quick.

Telecoms aren't responsible for who uses their service, or what they do on it—thats why they are classified as a utility.

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

#303

Post by ac29 »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #201
yellow_lead wrote: post #53

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

supposedly the big three have implemented it but you have to have certain phone models.

T-mobile has, but its only supported on Samsung and LG phones right now: https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/mobile-security

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

#304

Post by galangalalgol »

adrr wrote: post #299
jlarocco wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason the FCC can't fine the telecoms for allowing the illegal calls? My guess is they'd fix the problem pretty quick.

They could easily fine the carrier that is interconnecting the robo callers. The telecom lobby doesn’t want to fix the issues since they make money from robo callers and also selling services to block the robo callers.

The souce may very well be outdide the US, with no sure way to spot spam. I'm all against imperial hegemony and all, but i doubt the UN eould care if they sent some stealth bombers after the spamers.

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

#305

Post by teddyh »

macintux wrote: post #60
vharuck wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember asking my high school English teacher if I could use the contraction "shouldn't've" for "should not have." She said no. I still disagree.

A perfectly valid construction. My science teacher once insisted rivers couldn't flow north because on a globe, north is up. So, yeah, education is a bit of a mixed bag.

> My science teacher once insisted rivers couldn't flow north because on a globe, north is up.

That one seems to be common, oddly enough:

http://machall.com/view.php?date=2005-04-06

EDIT: After doing some web searches, it seems that this myth, just like robocalls, is also a uniquely U.S. phenomenon, possibly caused by the fact that U.S. geography causes many (possibly most) U.S. rivers to run southwards, even though contrary examples (even within the U.S.) are legion.

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

#306

Post by cortesoft »

lukebuehler wrote: post #274

A lot of people point out that telecom companies should do something but aren't because it's lucrative for them or too expensive to fix. Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves with this in the long term? People will stop using phone numbers altogether. Using the phone has become such a pain, at least in the US, that whenever I can, I used different ways of communicating. WhatsApp, iM…

Why would it make you more or less likely to stay loyal? Phone numbers are already portable, so you don't need to stay loyal currently.

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

#307

Post by teddyh »

So many knee-jerk “obvious” solutions in comments here, some with gratuitous violent fantasies to boot. Might I suggest that you look at how your proposed solution compares to other, older, suggestion on how the then-new email spam problem used to be suggested to be fixed:

https://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt

Also, this is a mostly exclusively a U.S. problem. In Europe, we basically just don’t ever get “robocalls”, and have ever only heard about them in stories from the U.S. Anyone proposing a complicated technological change should explain why this is necessary when Europe seems to have found a solution already.

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

#308

Post by ikeboy »

teddyh wrote: post #307

So many knee-jerk “obvious” solutions in comments here, some with gratuitous violent fantasies to boot. Might I suggest that you look at how your proposed solution compares to other, older, suggestion on how the then-new email spam problem used to be suggested to be fixed: https://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt Also, this is a mostly exclusively a U.S. problem. In Europe, we basically just don’t ever get “robocalls”…

There's no real email spoofing problem anymore because we have signatures proving the source on every email.

There's a phone spoofing problem because carriers are allowing spoofing, when they don't have to.

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

#309

Post by perl4ever »

EB66 wrote: post #256
closeparen wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does T-Mobile know there's a problem worth calling the C NOC about? One way is to see the frequency and duration of calls. Lots of very short calls indicate spammy behavior. So if you are B, you offer SIP trunking at below cost to legitimate customers, so that you can mix their call flow with the much more lucrative, 100% robocall traffic from A, and thereby stay on favorable terms with C. I worked in this busine…

> How does T-Mobile know there's a problem worth calling the C NOC about? One way is to see the frequency and duration of calls. Or make it easier for consumers to report spam calls. For example, dial *666 after hanging up on the spammer and it reports the last call as spam. Enough abuse reports originating from a particular carrier and T-Mobile knows there's a problem. That's basically how it works for email spam an…

Android seems to make it convenient to report and supposedly block spam calls these days - so where do those reports go?

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

#310

Post by Diesel555 »

lukebuehler wrote: post #274

A lot of people point out that telecom companies should do something but aren't because it's lucrative for them or too expensive to fix. Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves with this in the long term? People will stop using phone numbers altogether. Using the phone has become such a pain, at least in the US, that whenever I can, I used different ways of communicating. WhatsApp, iM…

"Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves"

After seeing cable companies fail to get into the internet, I'm convinced companies try to stop progress instead of embracing it. They don't see progress as an opportunity, but rather as a threat. They don't realize how much they are hurting themselves.

I read an interesting article on here about the rise of the cell phone camera, the amount of R&D into it compared to traditional cameras, and how slowly traditional camera manufacturers have progressed. Sure, cell phones have to overcome a smaller sensor... but traditional camera sales have been obliterated.

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