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Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

reportphonespam.org

171–180 of 339 posts

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

#171
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

get an android and use "screen my call"

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

The solution (well, one at least) to the large scale problem is for everyone to call their representative as long as it takes to implement necessary penalty regulation. All the US based people complaining here can start doing it today.

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

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TCPA deputizes you as a private citizen to enforce it. It’s empowering, so much so I would be amazed if anything like it would be passed these days.

Uh, it gives us zero power to enforce anything whatsoever.

It provides a private right of action for you to sue the culprit in civil court. I have personally received thousands of dollars in compensation for every case I’ve brought under the statute.

Unfortunately most of the culprits nowadays are overseas scammers, in which case it’s no help. I would agree in that case- the only way to stop these folks is through the carriers themselves and they don’t seem too keen on doing anything.

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

#173
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. How about we all try this? The next time anyone's in a meeting together talking about a production incident or quarterly planning or whatever, they're going to tell everyone else to STFU and wait while they take every random call they get on the off chance it's their kid's school trying to get through to them. Does that seem reasonable to you?

No, because it isn't reasonable. What would be reasonable is for the individual receiving the call to excuse themself leaving the rest of the meeting to carry on. Isn't this already the standard?

When over 95% of the calls you receive are spam, it's not reasonable to excuse yourself from meetings whenever you get a phone call.

I mean, unless you just don't want to be in meetings. Which is okay.

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

#174
post #81

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 o…

I disagree with the posted page that the telecoms are interested in stopping spam. If they really cared, they would have addressed it by now. I suspect they are somehow making money from the spam callers.

> If they really cared, they would have addressed it by now.

They care, but not enough to spend what is required to address it.

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

#175
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.

The spammers have won only because the phone system (in which the phone companies are complicit) is designed to let them win.

When you get a call from Verizon's number, they know the actual originator of the call (or perhaps they know it up to some known-to-be-not-so-trustworthy-source). They know that the number is not Verizon's phone number.

But the phone company chooses to blindly display the spoofed caller ID. Note that T-Mobile will block their equivalent of these calls (not that T-Mobile isn't to be blamed for other things, such as sending their own spam texts).

So it is Verizon's choice to lie to you on behalf of these scammers, and the FCC allows them to do it.

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

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you consider that most of this stuff originates from places outside of jurisdictions of any place that would ever consider doing something about it, you realize that legislation is worth much less than the paper it's never printed on.

It's that time I get to repeat: The US is a big enough destination that threatening to drop incoming calls would work. Much like the EU online privacy regulations has international effects, the US can play the game too. It's extremely unlikely that a legit telco anywhere in the world would choose to continue spam and lose the ability to call the US. (Telcos peer to other telcos/interconnects explicitly and can force…

> The US is a big enough destination that threatening to drop incoming calls would work.

They should threaten to drop outgoing calls too. That’d eliminate all the useless offshore call centers.

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

#177
post #81

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 o…

> example: +63 936 631 6676

It’s unlikely to work for phone numbers outside the US. Sorry :( For typical 10-digit US numbers, the carrier search sites work well, as does Twilio’s carrier lookup API.

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

#179
post #135

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.

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.

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

#180
post #81

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 o…

I disagree with the posted page that the telecoms are interested in stopping spam. If they really cared, they would have addressed it by now. I suspect they are somehow making money from the spam callers.

Less that spam makes them money, more than doing nothing about spam doesn’t cost them money.
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