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Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

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Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#131

Post by om3n »

paulie_a wrote: post #62
rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

It is interesting half the calls I bother to answer, are just instantly disconnected. Why bother calling if you are not even going to attempt to scam me. It is funny to get a live person and mess with them though..."oh which credit card are you referring to" I kept one agent on the line for a few minutes and was eventually called some very insulting swear words. If I recall correctly I was called a "bitchass mother f…

Reminds me of "scam baiting" which is becoming a popular live stream opportunity.

I occasionally watch this guy who calls tech-support scammers or IRS scammers and attempts to waste as much of their time as possible. He will often impersonate an old lady using a voice modulator (or he'll implement other personalities) to make his performance more realistic. It can be quite entertaining.

https://www.twitch.tv/kitboga

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#132

Post by Skunkleton »

abawany wrote: post #128
rudedogg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I've had to do the same. I sometimes get three calls and voicemails per day about business loans. I'm pretty sure they got my number by scraping the LLC filings for my state :\. I wish I would of used a Google Voice number rather than my cell.

One approach is to get a new cell number and port your existing cell number to Google Voice (GV). You can then forward calls from the latter to the former, using GV blocking and spam filtering to kill off the noise.

I tried this once. Now I have debt collectors after me because of my numbers previous owner.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#133

Post by gonehome »

Retric wrote: post #81
gonehome wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is called 'neighborhood' spoofing - they do it to get numbers similar to yours (sometimes they'll even appear as a known contact). I use an app called nomorobo ($2/month) that's basically a blacklist that gets continually updated to block these calls prior to ringing my phone. The way they deal with the neighborhood spoofing is having local access to your contacts so they don't accidentally block any real n…

Interesting, but honestly 2$/month seems very high unless you get a lot of these calls.

2$/month is not “very high” unless you’re living in the third world.

I don’t mind paying it either since I can report numbers that get through to their blacklist. I feel like I’m fighting back.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#134

Post by klenwell »

paul7986 wrote: post #125

This guy and other slimeballs helped changed the telephone landscape. The population of those who do not answer unknown numbers possibly has risen to 60% of the US population. I bet all of us here don't answer unknown numbers. Text or email me and if it's important or you are important to me then I'll respond. Don't bother to leave a voicemail either unless you are going to give me money, a new job or there's a situa…

Before my grandparents passed away, I considered it extremely dangerous for them to answer their phone and did everything in my power to discourage them from doing so unless they recognized the number. Even then, with number spoofing, it made me nervous.

One wrong call from a motivated scammer and I feared it could end in bankruptcy for them. On one occasion, a telemarketing scam ended up costing an elderly relative a couple thousand dollars that required other family members to help cover for her.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#135

Post by logfromblammo »

munk-a wrote: post #19
fosco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

I'd suggest against it. There are important calls that can come in from true unknown sources, people who just legitimately need to contact you out of the blue, especially officials (police, utility companies, etc...). If you feel like ignoring those, there's also the possibility that a contact of yours needs to contact you in an emergency can can't use their normal phone. As an example, assuming you're married, maybe…

You can always just accept the call and wait for the other party to speak. If it's a machine-assisted call, silence doesn't trigger the answer detector, and it hangs up after a few seconds, possibly also marking your number as no-contact. A human caller will eventually ask if anyone is listening.

They called you, after all. They can just say what they wanted to say whether you acknowledge them or not.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#136

Post by DanAndersen »

>“Clearly regulation needs to address the carriers and providers and require the major carriers to detect robocalls activity,” Abramovich said in testimony submitted in advance to the Senate Commerce Committee.

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the sheer chutzpah needed to say something like that. "The issue isn't that I did it, the issue is that you didn't make other people stop me." Textbook sociopathic behavior.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#137

Post by komali2 »

ada1981 wrote: post #120
komali2 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given your age and the fact that you're posting here I'm gonna safely assume you know more things than me, but just in case you haven't given it a shot - I took a custom google voice number and almost never get unsolicited robo calls on it. The only ones I get are from a couple debt collectors that are tossing around an old hospital bill they can't decide if I need to pay or not, i.e. they got my number relatively le…

You can request the debt collectors stop calling you and then they have to decide if they will sue you or not. If they keep calling they can be fined and you get the $$.

It's always a different debt collector. None of them have proof of debt so they're all just shitting my debt down the pyramid lol. I'm guessing the value goes down significantly each sell.

I think it's reached the "penny stock" mark by now, I haven't had a call in 8 months.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#138

Post by darrenf »

fosco wrote: post #9
rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

I haven't answered an unknown number in well over a decade. My voicemail message has for at least that long been along the lines of "I probably chose not to answer you, especially if your number is withheld or not known to me. Leave a message, or better yet text/email me". I don't recall ever missing something important.

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#139

Post by terrik »

drewg123 wrote: post #23
fosco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

Me too. The vast majority of my spam calls are on the local exchange for my phone's native number. I use Google Voice on a Pixel2, so nobody should even be using the native number. I've often wished for a way to either: Block any call for the native, non Google Voice number or Block any call claiming to originate from any number in the native number's local prefix. Eg, 604-233- I haven't found a call blocker that can…

For those on iOS, you can block wildcard number ranges like this with Number Shield[0].

I have been receiving alot of these spoofed neighbor number calls, and this app saves me a lot of time and stress. You can also prevent it from blocking contacts that fall into your blocked number range.

0: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/number-shield/id1319082167?m...

Re: Man Accused of Making 97M Robocalls

#140

Post by jimbobimbo »

fosco wrote: post #9
rco8786 wrote: post #2

Hopefully this is the first domino that ends all this crap. Myself and everyone I know has been getting hammered with spam robo-calls for the past year or two with no signs of slowing down. I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling.

> I don't even answer my phone anymore unless I know who's calling. I have considered enabling a feature that blocks all calls unless the caller is in my contacts list but I am concerned about missing something important. Any thoughts on this?

Do it.

I have my phone in a permanent "Do Not Disturb" mode with a few break-through rules for "favorite" contacts (not even all contacts). Missed important calls: 0. If someone's calling and doesn't leave the voicemail, then it's not important.

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