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Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

reportphonespam.org

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

#31

Post by otteromkram »

bhpm wrote: post #26
dboreham wrote: post #23

My solution since 2002: don't answer the phone.

Same here but every time I post that on this site I get replies about how they have to answer the phone because their kid could have fallen down a well and their wife could be in a coma and the police would be trying to contact them and if they don’t jump to answer the phone every time it rings their entire family could be murdered. So IDK. It seems to be a problem, I just don’t have enough of a life for it to be for…

Every time you post...with a brand new account?

You don't even have any submissions, yet.

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

#32

Post by pixl97 »

bhpm wrote: post #26
dboreham wrote: post #23

My solution since 2002: don't answer the phone.

Same here but every time I post that on this site I get replies about how they have to answer the phone because their kid could have fallen down a well and their wife could be in a coma and the police would be trying to contact them and if they don’t jump to answer the phone every time it rings their entire family could be murdered. So IDK. It seems to be a problem, I just don’t have enough of a life for it to be for…

That said, who doesn't send SMS texts also, at least in the US?

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

#34

Post by simfree »

troydavis wrote: post #13
fortran77 wrote: post #6

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.

This is good to know. If you're comfortable sharing, could you email me your VoIP provider or a phone number they're sending from? Address is in my profile. I'd like to learn more. For anyone else reading, this service is called "10 Digit Long Code" AKA 10DLC. Many business-oriented VoIP providers eventually use a vendor like Syniverse or Sinch for the outbound SMSes. Those wholesale carriers usually either strongly…

SMS enabling offnet numbers has gotten stricter over the last few months, Bandwidth.com will not enable wireless numbers for SMS, and if there is an existing routing record (eSPID/NNID) most vendors require this be removed by the losing SMS provider prior to enabling a number for offnet SMS.

I used to be able to SMS enable my T-Mobile numbers offnet, but every 30 days TMobile would take this back.

10DLC is being strongly pushed by some carriers, while others are still permitting conversational traffic (for every one message that goes in, one should come back, with a 10% margin in either direction) to go over P2P rails.

With The Carrier Registry invalidating all registered organizations and campaigns every few months, triggering everyone to fill out a ton of paperwork, pay $50 or more to re-validate every business, and also the recent sudden devalidation of every sole proprietor 10DLC registration, I don't blame those who don't want to participate in this unsanctioned cartel formed by the big three wireless carriers.

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

#35

Post by kornhole »

I mainly stopped using phone calls years ago, and I hope more people also do. I ported my main number to voip.ms and created a couple others to use for pseudonymous accounts. The service is cheap at about $1/month per number, but it is a little technical to configure and is sometimes spotty. My phone number has sometimes been unregistered/out of service for long periods which has been a bonus. Nobody who really knows me calls me on the phone. Instead they know to go to my web page that has many ways to call me including a URL to a Nextcloud Talk conversation, Simplex, Session, XMPP, and Matrix.

If you want a slightly more expensive but simple and reliable number on Android, I highly recommend jump.chat.

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

#36

Post by otteromkram »

conception wrote: post #27
davchana wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most of the time, STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE (or clicking any link) marks the phone number or email as hot, and gets sold for more money in the market.

I wanted to note that for email this generally isn’t the case. Really spammy spam generally is easy to catch, I don’t think I’ve seen any in over a year. Any legitimate business generally adheres to unsubscribe requests. So if you unsubscribe from stuff hitting your mailbox generally you’ll stop getting it. My mailbox pretty much only gets signal to it, almost zero noise.

Sir, this is Wendy's.

No need to note; the topic is telephone and SMS. Everyone is probably familiar with spam mail and unsubscribing from it.

Email is still manageable and less personally invasive than someone calling you or sending a message at random.

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

#37

Post by WillAdams »

This is enabled by essentially free communication --- while it's probably not feasible to go back to the rates Ma Bell used to charge so as to fund their infrastructure (and generous pensions, and stock dividends)....

Why not have a system where a small amount of money is put in escrow when a call is placed? If the person who answered the call is displeased by it, they can punch in a command at the keypad after the call to claim the money.

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

#38

Post by zamadatix »

bhpm wrote: post #26
dboreham wrote: post #23

My solution since 2002: don't answer the phone.

Same here but every time I post that on this site I get replies about how they have to answer the phone because their kid could have fallen down a well and their wife could be in a coma and the police would be trying to contact them and if they don’t jump to answer the phone every time it rings their entire family could be murdered. So IDK. It seems to be a problem, I just don’t have enough of a life for it to be for…

You can cut through a surprising amount of spam by just reading the voicemail after letting an unknown number ring. If they didn't bother to leave one it was either not at all important or the vast majority of spam calls. If they did leave a voicemail you can generally tell whether it seems even remotely legitimate and, if it does, call back at the number. E.g. if you have a kid and the school calls they will leave something generic like "It's so and so elementary calling for ..." you call the school's main number back and say "so and so called looking for me" and get directed to them.

OTOH it seems if you ever answer these even once you're no longer a random number to try you're immediately marked as a real person who can be tricked into answering at least some calls and will never hear the end of the endless ringing.

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

#39

Post by Someone1234 »

phkahler wrote: post #20

Step 1 - ignore the callerID and engage with scammer to get their real number. Because us carriers can't be bothered to tell you where a call is actually coming from.

In 2023, if you're using a major commercial provider, and the caller ID is a US-originating number you're more likely to see accurate Caller ID than not. STIR/SHAKEN has been widely adopted, and networks now have permission to drop calls providing inaccurate digital signature.

Even as of last year caller ID accuracy was bad.

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

#40

Post by dmckeon »

My spam calls are down to 1 or 2 per month after using nomorobo.com for 5 years. It is not direct action as TFA suggests, but it works well for me. Callers reach voicemail, almost never leave messages, and the phone almost never rings. Free for VOIP numbers, $20/year for mobile. Several similar alternatives exist.
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