This whole system needs to be automated. It should be as easy as clicking a "Report" button on my phone or in my SMS application.
Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
251–260 of 339 posts
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#252I'm getting so much political spam its crazy and even when trying to opt-out it doesn't nothing. I get another message from a new number.
Your experience is typical. The process covered on this site is the only realistic shot of getting anything done. It's far from perfect and it shouldn't be necessary, but it's much better than nothing.
(It's still worth reporting to your wireless provider as well (see https://reportphonespam.org/#Reporting-abuse-to-your-wireles...), but only because it's so quick to do, not because it's likely to help.)
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#253The best part of all of the number spoofing is now I get real calls from real people who are "calling back" the spam call they received from my number. So I'm getting double-hit by the fact that somehow you're just allowed to place calls from a number you don't own and that's considered a valid part of the phone system still in 2023.
I get that this is for businesses (mostly) so every outward call seems to originate from a single number, but why in the hell can't there be a verification that the number originated from that specific business? Isn't everything digital now? Just do NATing with phone numbers.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#254This whole system needs to be automated. It should be as easy as clicking a "Report" button on my phone or in my SMS application.
I actually emailed the FCC[1] last month and asked about/offered to try to make this available to more consumers. A realistic MVP would be an FCC-operated wrapper for Twilio's Line Type Intelligence API, so that any consumer could find the carrier responsible for any US phone number. That's not perfect, but it's a great start.
One step better would be that plus a unified contact form - basically, the process I described here, but without needing to find the carrier and then map that to a contact. The FCC already operates a robocall reporting form that goes to an FCC-operated Zendesk, but reports don't go to the responsible carrier.
The FCC did not reply.
[1]: Loyaan Egal, Bureau Chief of the Enforcement Bureau: https://www.fcc.gov/about-enforcement-bureau/loyaan-egal-2 (the person most often cited in robocall enforcement actions)
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#255I'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 o…
I used to report spam calls, but quit when I received one from my own number, the number of the phone on which I received the call.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#256I wish we could euthanize this garbage, antiquated phone system. It shouldn't be expected/required that every adult has a phone number when the system is so irredeemably broken and dangerous. If the web didn't have HTTPS, it would be illegal to conduct sensitive business over it. Yet we're stuck with this entrenched telephone system, the best we can do is STIR/SHAKEN, and that's not real security.
I wouldn’t exactly say STIR/SHAKEN isn’t real security. The protocol works fine (like HTTPS), the issue right now is that the Certificate Authority network is still being built out and attestation isn’t enforced by carriers yet. Things should steadily improve now that the protocol itself is deployed.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#257Would 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…
Off topic but your HN profile doesn't have your email
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#258The best part of all of the number spoofing is now I get real calls from real people who are "calling back" the spam call they received from my number. So I'm getting double-hit by the fact that somehow you're just allowed to place calls from a number you don't own and that's considered a valid part of the phone system still in 2023.
I get that this is for businesses (mostly) so every outward call seems to originate from a single number, but why in the hell can't there be a verification that the number originated from that specific business? Isn't everything digital now? Just do NATing with phone numbers.
That’s basically what STIR/SHAKEN is designed to do, what you’re talking about is going to be handled by the certificate authorities. Carriers are ramping up the way they flag or restrict unverified calls as the system is more widely implemented. Echoes of how HTTPS slowly became universal.
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Off topic but your HN profile doesn't have your email
Thanks. I removed it this morning because I got an email from an HN user who is experiencing mental illness/delusions. My email address is pretty easy to find online, though, or I'm on Mastodon here: https://mas.to/@troyd
Re: Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are ads a thing on cable? On the web? It's literally the same problem, and since this site's audience is likely more familiar with the latter, it should be clear it's not a technological failure, but a social/legal one.
Ads are not the same thing as impersonation, lying about who you are and where you are calling from. Cable is not full of ads that say they are from AT&T and you need to contact them about your bill at but the ad isn't from AT&T and the number goes to a scam call center.
Yes, but most scam calls aren't impersonations either.
I bet if you tallied it up, there's many more people being tricked into taking on bullshit contracts with legitimate companies[0] and losing much more money in total, than there are victims of actual impersonation scams. I firmly believe both schemes are morally equivalent, and that one of them is still considered legal only means we should push firmly for a change in laws.
Even the impersonation angle isn't clear-cut. When a telco calls me with their newest scam, it's always via a third-party call centre they outsource this job to. Where I live, it's also historically has been a major source of contact and personal information for scammers - always a "disgruntled employee" leaving and "covertly" taking the customer database with them.
--
[0] - Telcos are my go-to examples here, they're notorious for borderline fraud. For example, just under a year ago, a billion-dollar telecommunications corporation named after a color, one of three major telcos in my country, tried to scam my own grandmother hard, after my grandfather passed away, and almost succeeded. More generally, after many years of near-misses and one or two mistakes, most people in my family learned to never talk to phone companies cold-calling with offers.