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Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

reportphonespam.org

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Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#1

Post by troydavis »

Do you receive unsolicited phone calls or SMS/text spam? I made a free public service site explaining how to find the telecom carrier that is responsible for the spammer's (real) phone number and report the abuse to them – so the carrier can terminate their service.

It works, and it feels like magic.

Background: Earlier this year, I wrote an HN comment[1] explaining how to find the telecom carrier responsible for a robocall or SMS spam campaign. Those steps aren't documented anywhere else, even though they're actually pretty easy.

This info deserved to be much more visible, so now it is: https://reportphonespam.org/

As my site says, most reputable telecom carriers don't want unsolicited messages on their network or phone numbers. In order to disconnect their abusive customers, they need to hear about the abuse. That's where you come in. In a few minutes, you can report abuse to the responsible carrier, who will investigate and often shut off the spammer's phone number(s).

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34570065#34570835

Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
reportphonespam.org

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#2

Post by paultopia »

Is there any reason to think that this would work for political party donation spam? Do the telecom carriers that provide services for all those horrific text messages about how the other party is going to install a dictator unless you donate to them right now actually care enough to punish those?

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#4

Post by jwie »

The first order problem with spam calls/sms is you probably opted in to something. Most spam, like it or not, you asked for, and they can almost certainly prove it.

The TCPA lawsuit business was so lucrative for years that a lot of effort goes into producing proof that the contact is legal. Rather than stopping spam calls these laws basically guarantee spam, but legal spam.

Also carriers have pretty well cracked illegal spam through their own analytics. Some still happens, but it’s cleaned up extremely fast.

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#5

Post by troydavis »

paultopia wrote: post #2

Is there any reason to think that this would work for political party donation spam? Do the telecom carriers that provide services for all those horrific text messages about how the other party is going to install a dictator unless you donate to them right now actually care enough to punish those?

From firsthand experience, yes, it works for unsolicited political party donation messages. Not 100% of the time, but way more than 0%.

These wholesale carriers know that recipients will flag unsolicited political messages as spam (to the recipient's wireless provider), and they don't want consumer wireless providers to block or heavily rate-limit messages from their phone numbers. The political campaigns cycle through phone numbers, so their unsolicited messages can "taint" many phone numbers - which will affect other customers' campaigns. The wholesale carrier's incentives aren't perfectly aligned with your incentives, but they're not totally different.

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#6

Post by fortran77 »

My Voip provider allows for sending receiving text messages as well, and I can certainly set the outgoing number. In our office, there are about 10 different phone numbers, but all outgoing texts are set to come from our "main" number no matter who sent it. And I've been able to change this number to my cell phone number and other numbers that aren't from the VOIP provider.

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#7

Post by Retr0id »

jwie wrote: post #4

The first order problem with spam calls/sms is you probably opted in to something. Most spam, like it or not, you asked for, and they can almost certainly prove it. The TCPA lawsuit business was so lucrative for years that a lot of effort goes into producing proof that the contact is legal. Rather than stopping spam calls these laws basically guarantee spam, but legal spam. Also carriers have pretty well cracked ille…

I can assure you, I did not ask for the SMSes telling me to go pay outstanding postage fees at a fake website.

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#9

Post by fortran77 »

jwie wrote: post #4

The first order problem with spam calls/sms is you probably opted in to something. Most spam, like it or not, you asked for, and they can almost certainly prove it. The TCPA lawsuit business was so lucrative for years that a lot of effort goes into producing proof that the contact is legal. Rather than stopping spam calls these laws basically guarantee spam, but legal spam. Also carriers have pretty well cracked ille…

This is easily proved wrong. If I get a brand new cell phone number, I still get calls for complete scams even though that number, as far as I've owned it, never opted in to anything.

Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

#10

Post by troydavis »

jwie wrote: post #4

The first order problem with spam calls/sms is you probably opted in to something. Most spam, like it or not, you asked for, and they can almost certainly prove it. The TCPA lawsuit business was so lucrative for years that a lot of effort goes into producing proof that the contact is legal. Rather than stopping spam calls these laws basically guarantee spam, but legal spam. Also carriers have pretty well cracked ille…

> The first order problem with spam calls/sms is you probably opted in to something. Most spam, like it or not, you asked for, and they can almost certainly prove it.

At least in my case, this isn't true. When reporting SMS spam, I've often told the carrier to ask their customer for proof that I opted in (because I didn't). None have - again, because I didn't opt in to it or anything else.

I don't know how true your assertion is among the general population, but my experience may at least be representative of other HN readers. Many of us don't randomly give out our mobile numbers.

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