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Let’s Destroy Robocalls

nytimes.com

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Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#251

Post by ilikehurdles »

nathan_long wrote: post #206
cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

The nightmare case for whitelisting is an emergency call from or on behalf of your spouse or child using a stranger's phone. This is why I don't want a whitelist. What I want is for spammers specifically to be identifiable and blockable, or for their business to be made prohibitively expensive. I didn't get spam calls on my cell phone 15 years ago, and as you say, what has changed is largely economics. Why can't we w…

I treat my phone as if it’s on a whitelist anyway. I can’t imagine how people do otherwise. If it’s an unknown number, I reject it. If they leave a voicemail, I’ll get notified and I’ll check it pretty soon after the call. Every day I get no less than two unwanted calls from scams and robocallers. I don’t have time for that.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#252

Post by Scoundreller »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #249
Scoundreller wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a recent Reply All podcast on that topic. The “feature” started innocuously enough.

Haven't heard that podcast. Is it good?

$350m from Spotify good (well, for the whole podcast company, not just that one show).

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#253

Post by wallace_f »

reaperducer wrote: post #187
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason that matters here is bad actors . What kind of lack of compassion do you have to have to participate in an organisation that generates something universally hated.

There's some kind of mental disconnect involved. I once knew a guy who ran a spam operation from Chicago. I was in his office once and he showed me something on his computer. In doing so I could see that his mail in-box had over 29,000 unread messages. I asked him how he deals with all those spam messages. He didn't think it was a big deal at all. Spam simply didn't bother him, and he believed in his heart that spam…

This idea is summarized in a famous quote:

>"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#254

Post by CharlesColeman »

cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

> Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero

I think this is the crux of the issue, and I don't think it's a situation that any non-spammer end-user wants. There's a definite non-zero cost to receiving a phone call.

I think we'd fix the robocall problem in a heartbeat if a small artificial charge was billed by the receiving phone company each time they connected a call (or rang a customer's phone, not sure about the precise terminology).

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#255

Post by atombender »

jimbobimbo wrote: post #244
atombender wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whitelisting is problematic because there are so many cases where it's impractical or impossible to add a contact first: Doctor's office calling to confirm your appointment; restaurant confirming a seat reservation; delivery guy is outside and can't find your doorbell; Lyft/Uber/whatever is nearby and is looking for you; pharmacy calling to inform about a prescription being ready; some store calling to inform that yo…

If caller doesn't leave voice mail, then it's not important. All entities that value your business perfectly understand this. Worst case - complain to their management and this will get sorted out very quickly.

That's nonsense. Whether the call is important to them has nothing to do with whether it's important to me. The delivery guy may give up and not deliver my food; the doctor's office may just assume I will show up (but maybe I forgot to add it to my calendar); and so on.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#256

Post by TuringNYC »

clort wrote: post #212
reaperducer wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

say your name to complete your call" and the person would have to dial it and say who they are to talk to you. I'm not sure why you're being downvoted for this. My in-laws have this feature on their landline from their local telco. Completely annoying, but I don't want to talk to them anyway.

My mother has this feature (in UK). The first time you call, it will send you to the voicemail and ask you to state who you are. Then she gets a notification and can listen to the message. If she phones you back, the number you are calling from is whitelisted. I think she can press something else to blacklist you, otherwise you stay in the grey zone and will always go to the voicemail. I think she has had a couple of…

Be careful calling back. I had a friend who called back what turned out to be a Wangiri Scam http://www.three.co.uk/hub/earth-wangiri-scam/

The call-back cost him ~$4 in long distance charges.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#257

Post by ssimpson »

cfallin wrote: post #84

One solution, not practical for most folks but works well for me: live in a different area code than phone number. (My cell number is in the area code I grew up in.) It seems most spam calls either fake a source number that's in my phone's area code, or use a completely random source. Almost any inbound call I actually expect without an address-book entry would come from my (new) local area code, so I can pick up a c…

I have the same issue. I'm in the PNW, but have a 210 number. I'm pretty sure most of the time they are just war dialing the prefixes to figure out who answers. The robocallers are also spoofing all numbers, as i get people calling me saying "why did you call me?!"

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#258

Post by nonbel »

spc476 wrote: post #250
nonbel wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it identify spoofed numbers?

The company I work for has a similar feature. We have a tap on the actual phone network (for some carriers) and can track in real time. If we notice that (407)-555-1212 has placed 100 outbound calls in the past 10 seconds, that's probably a robo call. If it's from a phone number that isn't provisioned (or not in use---there are databases for such information) then it's spoofed. Or it could be a valid phone number who…

Thanks. It seems technically possible to stop a great deal of these robocalls with that info.

Re: Let’s Destroy Robocalls

#260

Post by esotericn »

biztos wrote: post #218
cletus wrote: post #62

So robocalls are the result of: - Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero - Cost of automation going to basically zero - Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national boundaries anymore - Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system - Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging for it - Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors There'…

That sounds plausible, but then why are robocalls not a problem in Europe? I have two EU numbers and have never gotten a robocall on either of them. I have never heard of anyone getting a robocall in Europe, and while that might just be anecdata I think I would have heard something after two decades, especially in privacy-minded Germany. When I get off the plane in San Francisco and activate my American SIM card, I u…

I get tons of these in the UK to the extent that as others have posted I treat my phone as being whitelisted.

I don't even know what most of them are. From times when I've been expecting important calls and checked, the most common is probably accident claims. Some of them aren't even automated.

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