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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

#81

Post by aimor »

I've been reporting spam calls and texts to the FCC for a few years now. Does it do anything? I don't know, certainly not immediately, and the problem persists.

I tried the method spelled out here for my latest batch of "Your USPS package has arrived" texts, but the phone numbers (example: +63 936 631 6676) just give an "invalid number" response. Not unexpected.

Every official channel seems to be failing us on this one. Spam calls still exist, spam texts still exist, and even fake government websites still exist. I don't understand why a .com site like https ://usps.com-helpnk.com/ is still up.

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

#83

Post by BLKNSLVR »

If the telecoms industry wasn't making a profit from it, it would have disappeared a long time ago.

It's just a pity that we all need to pay these companies for one fairly crucial thing, but it enables these undesirable things.

It's somewhat surprising that the rules or enforcement are so lax, given that everyone, including politicians, have elderly relatives that are susceptible to this BS. (but then, maybe the politicians ARE the elderly relatives, and therefore they don't see the problem).

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

#86

Post by TrueGeek »

dboreham wrote: post #23

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

I had someone call Friday night. I sent it to voice mail and they immediately hung up and called back. It happed again and I sent it to voice mail again. On the third call in under a minute I thought something must be wrong and maybe this was a friend of a friend in trouble. I answered and they said “Are you interested in selling your house at 1234….”

I hung up, mad at myself for falling for it, and at them for being so ballsy. Then they texted (it came through as an iMessage so I’m assuming it’s their real number) and they said “not sure what happened but we got cut off!”

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

#87

Post by chucksmash »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #54
zamadatix wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

This might be a cultural thing, but at least in Australia nobody under the age of 60 would ever leave a voicemail. If you're deliberately making yourself hard to contact this way, a lot of people will just stop calling you.

The person on the other end doesn't know if you are making yourself deliberately hard to contact, or if you are genuinely unable to answer the phone call.

This strategy works fine in my experience. Most important calls I get are from people already in my address book. If I'm in a job hunting phase, I'll answer calls from numbers I don't recognize during time frames when I am expecting them (e.g. the policy is relaxed for the duration of a job hunt). But, outside of that, it's hard to imagine a call from someone I don't know that is so important I can't let it go to voicemail, but so unimportant that the caller will deign not to leave a voicemail to let me know this is really important.

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

#88

Post by Terr_ »

hackernewds wrote: post #72
AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. My son got sick at school last week and I ignored the call from the school nurse because I have been so thoroughly conditioned by daily scam calls to ignore any unrecognized number. It’s insane that this is still a problem.

get an android and use "screen my call"

Useful for an individual tactic, not really a solution to the large scale problem.

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

#89

Post by sk0g »

viraptor wrote: post #77
jupp0r wrote: post #55

It already takes me 45 minutes of my time to get a hold of a support person of my own carrier and I'm a paying customer. I commend the effort, but getting a human to answer a support hotline call in order to report a spammer number is so comically difficult and ineffective that I can't see a significant amount of people participating. Why doesn't my carrier have an automated system allowing them to communicate with t…

Because contrary to the page, they don't really care about the spam that much. Now, if more people started calling the support for every spam they get... that would translate to some real cost.

Who would bear that cost though? My prediction would be the customers again, because they would make the phone support harder to reach than it already is as a "solution" to the increased demand for phone support.

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

#90

Post by chucksmash »

dboreham wrote: post #23

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

One thing I've noticed is that the majority of the spam calls I have received historically have had the same originating area code as my phone number. Perhaps this was number spoofing, or perhaps it was using local VoIP numbers to make spam calls. In either case, it was a great flag for "this call goes to voicemail" because I hadn't lived there in over ten years, I didn't grow up there, and anybody who needs to contact me without a "Hey this is _____" text/voicemail is already in my address book.

It also means that if I pick up calls from numbers originating in , it usually IS somebody I need to speak with. No hassle filter to help answer the right calls and ignore the spam.

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