It's a sad state. We are right on the cusp but I seem to have no way to block all unverified numbers. But the verified number system is in place!
Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
41–50 of 339 posts
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#42The 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…
In my case, the old dead guy that had my number before gave his number to some booth at the state fair (or so one spammer claimed). And then that number got sold to all sorts of medical scammers and political campaigns. I always ask what my name is when an unknown caller calls, and 90% of the time it’s the old dead guy. I did not opt in, yet here I am getting a few dozen calls per week at all hours of the day.
For TCPA compliance purposes, they should be pulling the deactivated numbers list (which Twilio offers for free), checking the do not call list, and querying the reassigned numbers database to establish safe harbor against TCPA lawsuits.
This is really expensive to do (the RND and Do Not Call lists are very expensive to query, the FCC needs to make these cheaply available) and automation for doing these queries is not offered by most phone providers.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#43Use iPhone focus feature, whitelisting contacts phone calls. Just need to manually add notifications from frequent contacts. Works pretty well.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#44Would it be possible to build an app to automate all this?
Great question. I think the biggest challenge would be maintaining high-quality reports/complaints. Basically, preventing people from reporting things that they opted in to but are frustrated with (just because it's really easy to do). There's a chance that the reports would actually become worse (less actionable) if it was too easy or too automated. A small challenge is that the high-quality carrier lookup APIs char…
I see no downside to frustration also blocking a business. Dark pattern sub/unsub? Messaging hourly because marketing thinks you’re that important? Either pay to design an experience respectful to customers or pay after the fact for losing access.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Some folks cycle throwaways over time instead of allowing a consistent identity to be built. The guidelines request nicely against doing so but some always do anyways of course.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#46My 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…
Lol. T-Mobile has gotten good at flagging spam calls as "Scam Likely", but for the landline I do the same thing. (I don't believe landline carriers...at least in the US...were forced to implement Stir/Shaken, so it gets the full brunt.) My logic is always that if it's important, they'll leave a message. The landline message also includes the three escalating (line disconnected) SIT tones, which I would like to think helps. But if the spammer uses speech-to-text technology, I'm screwed.
> Instead, report the phone number that the call instructs you to contact.
Under the above scenario most callers aren't dumb enough to leave a message, and I'd be concerned that actually engaging with anybody would increase the number of calls, at least in the short term.
If you're a staffer running the honeypot lines at the FCC, it would be fine because you can go home at the end of the day, but for a personal number I would need convincing. Would love to hear testimonials from anyone who tried this technique and their interpretation of the results.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#47Use iPhone focus feature, whitelisting contacts phone calls. Just need to manually add notifications from frequent contacts. Works pretty well.
The iPhone calling app has a more direct native setting for this "Silence Unknown Callers". Anyone in your contacts or recent outbound calls will still ring, everyone else is silenced (without having to change your global focus).
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#48This is very helpful, in Mexico, we have a couple of government-provided services where you register to not get advertise/financial calls, when you do, you can report them, and, in theory, the organizations could get considerable bills due to this violation.
I have been thinking that we should make an app to automate the reporting process.
A fun detail is that the government sells the lists of people that do not want to get contacted.
Also, lately, I have been getting many calls that are supposedly coming from the UK.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#49Step 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.
It is still ridiculously easy to spoof a number. I'm on Verizon with the enhanced caller ID, and it happens consistently on a weekly basis.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#50My 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…
I simply have a whitelist of numbers I'll answer.