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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

#261

Post by organsnyder »

matsemann wrote: post #196
jader201 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don’t get people complaining about important missed calls. Yeah, I may miss these occasionally, but I see them almost immediately if they leave a voicemail — and they should, if it’s important — and then call them back, and apologize for the missed call, which they always empathize with. I lose at most a minute or two, which is totally acceptable.

I think this is cultural. I've never ever left a voice message, and never will. I've also never received one, the few I get are robocallers not understanding no one picked up. If you want me to pick up, send an sms explaining what it's about.

A school nurse probably doesn't have SMS capabilities on their school phone, and might not be willing to share their private number (I certainly wouldn't in that position).

I rarely leave voicemails, but I will when it's urgent.

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

#262

Post by organsnyder »

gosub100 wrote: post #245
Brajeshwar wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have defaulted to No Phone/Voice Calls for over 5+ years. By default, everyone is blocked, and I maintain a whitelist (a group named "!DND") of numbers who can go through — school numbers, including quite a lot of teachers, the bus driver, and the bus assistant can get through. This is working so far.

I could see this failing because the nurse's phone number is different than the school. Any large institution usually has multiple lines.

Depends on how their PBX is set up, but often those lines—even if they have separate incoming numbers—will all have the same outgoing number.

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

#263

Post by organsnyder »

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #118
megablast wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a kid and are ignoring calls, that is crazy.

Well he’s 12, in the care of competent adults at a public school less than a mile away. But sure, I guess I should have been perfect.

I also have a 12yo (and three younger kids), and I have missed calls from school as well.

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

#264

Post by aendruk »

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?

I started receiving these in August and so far have filed 311 complaints with the FCC to no apparent effect.

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

#265

Post by habosa »

baby wrote: post #199
habosa wrote: post #63

I got a spam call seemingly “from Verizon” (their main number) on my Verizon phone. I called them and told them and they said “oh yeah that happens all the time don’t pick up when we call” That’s when I realized we’ll never win. The spammers have won.

Just disable all calls. That’s what I do. Real people call you on whatsapp or other similar apps.

Not sure where you are in the world but in the US having a phone number and receiving voice calls is pretty much required to participate in society. And using WhatsApp or other similar solutions is not very common.

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

#266

Post by troydavis »

aendruk wrote: post #264
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?

I started receiving these in August and so far have filed 311 complaints with the FCC to no apparent effect.

I think reporting to the FCC is a waste of time (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34570065#34570669). Following the steps on this site - reporting to the responsible carrier - is nowhere near perfect, but sure beats pretending like the FCC might do something.

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

#267

Post by jaktet »

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #148
megablast wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a kid and are ignoring calls, that is crazy.

Maybe, but that's the world we live in now. If it's crazy, it's an inevitable sort of crazy. Get enough spam calls, and even if you know you might get a valid call from an unknown number, you'll find yourself treating them all as spam just the same. We really, really don't do well with repeated false alarms. It's how our brains operate, and the fact that the spam keeps on coming just reinforces it. If the call is leg…

Is there a word for describing becoming desensitized from false alarms? A similar situation is instead of a shared calendar for OOF status (at work) we are asked to send a calendar invite to our team and immediate team. My calendar is filled with “doctor appointment” invitations from people I don’t often interact with or need to know their in-office status. I started missing meetings and appointments because I was so desensitized from appointment reminders that were meaningless, I’d just ignore the notification because they were rarely valid. Since then I’ve tried automatically deleting out of office invites but they don’t always follow the same format. I’m apparently alone here because I brought this up as an issue and no one else felt like it was a practice that needed to change.

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

#268

Post by Double_a_92 »

jader201 wrote: post #179
case wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the school at least leave a legit voicemail? (Curious)

Yeah, I don’t get people complaining about important missed calls. Yeah, I may miss these occasionally, but I see them almost immediately if they leave a voicemail — and they should, if it’s important — and then call them back, and apologize for the missed call, which they always empathize with. I lose at most a minute or two, which is totally acceptable.

I have literally never in my life received or left a voicemail, or even know someone who ever did... and I also wouldn't expect anyone to listen to the one I leave on their phone.

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

#269

Post by red_admiral »

gruez wrote: post #92
mullingitover wrote: post #25

I 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.

>If the web didn't have HTTPS, it would be illegal to conduct sensitive business over it. Source? According to this timeline[1], e-commerence with credit cards predate SSL. Therefore I'm not really convinced that there's some law against it, except for laws that were introduced after SSL was a thing. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce#Timeline

It's not so much law, as far as I'm aware, as the PCI/DSS requirements made by the credit card companies. Since they'll stop doing business with you if you don't follow their requirements, for all practical purposes, they have the force of law.

You could probably get sued for negligence if you process card details over an unencrypted connection, but that's nothing compared to the damage your business will take if the card companies decide that you're on the naughty list.

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

#270

Post by lelanthran »

pogue wrote: post #214
lelanthran wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Solving spam problems in a highly distributed large federation of networks is not simple. I agree and disagree with this statement: 1. The distributed system can't solve the spam problem, because it's not a technical problem. 2. The population can immediately solve the spam problem by responding in the affirmative to every single request they get. What makes spam profitable is the quality of the responses - right n…

When you say 'poison the database' in the case if sms/robocalls what exactly would that involve?

> When you say 'poison the database' in the case if sms/robocalls what exactly would that involve?

It involves never blocking any SMS/robocall: for SMS always reply in the affirmative (i.e. you want an agent to phone you), for robocalls, keep the call active for as long as you can, and reply in the affirmative for future contact.

You do that, knowing full-well that you aren't going to be buying anything.

If even half the population did that, spam SMS and robocalls would become too expensive to do anymore.

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