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Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

nytimes.com

171–180 of 227 posts

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use google voice (hangouts?) and get 3 to 6 robo voicemails a day. They are 2-5 seconds in length, and empty.

You have to activate spam call filtering, it is not on by default.

I do have it enabled and they still get through. I also have 'straight to voicemail' turned on for all calls, so maybe that bypasses the spam check...

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#172

> The Republican National Committee, which is in favor of ringless voice mail, goes as far as to argue that prohibiting direct-to-voice-mail messages may be a violation of free speech. Absurd. The right to free speech does not include forcing others to listen to you.

It does when you run it through the right wing filter. And when the FCC is run by the head cheerleader of right wing policies you can bet the filter is going to catch a lot more things.

This isn't right wing. This is just crony capitalism. Find the "right winger" of your choice and ask them what they think about this.

Part of the way the cronies keep us in line is to direct our fire at "the other wing", instead of at them. There is approximately nobody in this country going "Hooray, finally our right to be spammed by telemarketers on the phone that I pay for is being respected!"

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#173

Anyone else in a situation where you're receiving robocalls ten times a day? Hard to believe, but I can show screenshots as proof. I just counted. It's four times per day, like clockwork. Then there are various other robocalls that come in every couple days. So sometimes it's 4 per day, sometimes it's up to 7. It's mildly annoying, but is there any other option than to just ignore it or keep blocking the endless new…

nomorobo.com works well for me (with an AT&T U-verse VOIP line). You need to have the "simultaneous ring" feature, which most mobile phone carriers do not provide.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#174
post #149
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US high schooler here. I use SMS pretty frequently if you count iMessage, maybe real SMS with 2 or 3 people.

I use a lot of messaging apps, just not SMS. Partly for privacy reasons, partly for convenience.

Hmm. Convenience is the exact reason I'd give for staying away from "a lot of messaging apps" and using primarily SMS. I've got a couple friends that really like Signal, so that's the only other messaging app I ever install.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#175

The article doesn't describe how the technology works. Due to the slow speed (100 voicemail/min) its likely what they are doing is initiating a call far enough for the phone system to busy out your phone, then very quickly placing a second call that the phone system sends straight to voicemail as your phone is busy. Once this call starts to hit voicemail, the original call is dropped. I doubt phone companies let peop…

> I doubt phone companies let people directly send voicemail to people as they wouldn't be billing for that.

I mean- they could just bill for that. Like, offer a product that would send a voicemail message directly. Evil but I would not put it past a cell carrier.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#176
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All phones services I've used charge for total usage, regardless of the initiator. If someone calls me, I still get dinged for every minute I'm on the line, same as if I placed an outgoing call. (Granted, I've only used pay-as-you-go type services, so perhaps other services are different.)

Apparently only the US and Canada charge the phone owner for incoming calls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_services#Incoming_calls Europe, Asia, Australia etc all charge the caller.

This leads to awkward situations like when I called someone in the US and they were worried that they're going to get charged international rates for a call from abroad.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly how it works. While I was at Twilio, we figured out how to do it - mostly from a customer abusing the system - and shut them down at the time. The problem was that it wasn't complicated enough that it would take long for others to figure out. The problem I noted at the time is that since we only charged for minutes during the call, the first call - which was dialed and immediately dropped - would never…

I am a big fan of twillio, but I suspect that they or companies like it are contributing to the problem. I would like everyone that uses a telephone API to be required to register a bond. If they are found abusing the system, they will lose the bond and be banned from using ANY companies telephone system. That telephony companies do not take the opportunity fix tbe actual problem makes me think a court may be able to…

One of the most important/valuable things about Twilio is that people can get started easily with little friction. If you add a bond (aka insurance) into the process, you've added a ton of friction that will only solve a problem relevant in a tiny percentage of situations.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a big fan of twillio, but I suspect that they or companies like it are contributing to the problem. I would like everyone that uses a telephone API to be required to register a bond. If they are found abusing the system, they will lose the bond and be banned from using ANY companies telephone system. That telephony companies do not take the opportunity fix tbe actual problem makes me think a court may be able to…

One of the most important/valuable things about Twilio is that people can get started easily with little friction. If you add a bond (aka insurance) into the process, you've added a ton of friction that will only solve a problem relevant in a tiny percentage of situations.

It doesn't have to be that complicated. Consider, for example, the credit card pre-authorization hotels perform when you check into a hotel, to ensure you can pay for incidental expenses (room service, mini bar, etc).

One can easily imagine doing something similar at signup time for postpaid services like Twilio (or any other abusable SaaS, for that matter).

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a big fan of twillio, but I suspect that they or companies like it are contributing to the problem. I would like everyone that uses a telephone API to be required to register a bond. If they are found abusing the system, they will lose the bond and be banned from using ANY companies telephone system. That telephony companies do not take the opportunity fix tbe actual problem makes me think a court may be able to…

everyone that uses a telephone API How does one enforce such a thing, around the world, where interoperable telephone systems interact across multiple jurisdictions, some of which might not be as advanced, in technical terms, as others? What constitutes abuse? Which countries will this apply to first? Who is capable of making such a thing possible?

>How does one enforce such a thing, around the world

Strongarming.

>Who is capable of making such a thing possible?

The US.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right to free speech does not include forcing others to listen to "it".

Obligatory xkcd https://xkcd.com/1357/ Also the mouse over text applies very well to this situation as well.

You know what happens in the real world? That person exits through the door, finds enough people like him outside and gets into political power, then proceeds to show the door to the smug stickman.
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