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Spam Calls - technical solutions?

Rhea

Rhea

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I was thinking this morning about government and industry-level technical solutions to the scourge that is robocalls.

In internet, one solution proposed was a required "response p[acket" of some kind that is no burden for normal users but for someone who is spamming millions of accounts it amounts to a self inflicted denial of service attack. I think that's kind of an elegant solution. It hasn't been implemented as far as I know, so it obviously has some flaws, but I think many of the complaints are from the very people we're trying to stop.


But at any rate - why not on phones,too? Any number which initiates more than a certain threshhold of user-request blocks, or just a certain threshhold of initiated calls, must produce a live person to explain the business model or be shut off. Or, a certain number of calls triggers an automatic filter through the Do Not Call registry.

Or something.

Thoughts?
 
I don't know where you live however in the UK you can buy phones with built-in call barring. You can program it with numbers to allow, numbers to always block, and numbers to only let through once the caller has announced their name and pressed a key on their handset (to prevent robo-calls) as well as a variety of other options.

I have one and it is brilliant. I've gone from three-four sales calls per day to only one since the 1st of October when I installed it.
 
Hickdive said:
I don't know where you live however in the UK you can buy phones with built-in call barring. You can program it with numbers to allow, numbers to always block, and numbers to only let through once the caller has announced their name and pressed a key on their handset (to prevent robo-calls) as well as a variety of other options.

I have one and it is brilliant. I've gone from three-four sales calls per day to only one since the 1st of October when I installed it.
Click to expand...

But you have to answer each of the calls for the first time to find out if you wish to block them.

Won't the spammers just change phone numbers every week? And why not, right?

I've gotten calls from "Carmen at Cardholder services" for 5 different phone numbers this week.
And yes, I can set my phone to block the number after she calls (although some come through as "private" and so you can't block that kind)

But I'm talking about industry and government based solutions that stop the calls before they pollute the public utility. It seems we ought to be able to find a way to do this...

The "do not call" list that exists in America should have a way of making it actually work. I'm curious about exploring ways to make it work.
 
Rhea said:
I was thinking this morning about government and industry-level technical solutions to the scourge that is robocalls.

In internet, one solution proposed was a required "response p[acket" of some kind that is no burden for normal users but for someone who is spamming millions of accounts it amounts to a self inflicted denial of service attack. I think that's kind of an elegant solution. It hasn't been implemented as far as I know, so it obviously has some flaws, but I think many of the complaints are from the very people we're trying to stop.
Click to expand...

Dealing with the packets would be nothing compared to the technical effort of sending the e-mails. It's still a very good idea, though--there would be no sending forged mail because when the recipient tried to authenticate the message it would fail and never get delivered. This would end the value of botnets for spamming and make it much easier to identify the spammy domains.

But at any rate - why not on phones,too? Any number which initiates more than a certain threshhold of user-request blocks, or just a certain threshhold of initiated calls, must produce a live person to explain the business model or be shut off. Or, a certain number of calls triggers an automatic filter through the Do Not Call registry.

Or something.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

All they need to do is restrict spoofed caller IDs. If the ID you're spoofing is not on record as allowing you to spoof it the call doesn't go through.
 
Hickdive said:
I don't know where you live however in the UK you can buy phones with built-in call barring. You can program it with numbers to allow, numbers to always block, and numbers to only let through once the caller has announced their name and pressed a key on their handset (to prevent robo-calls) as well as a variety of other options.

I have one and it is brilliant. I've gone from three-four sales calls per day to only one since the 1st of October when I installed it.
Click to expand...

I have a phone that displays the calling number. It is great. Not only do each of my friends get a different ring tone, the known spammers get their own - silence. We do not get many calls that do not fall into one of those two groups.
 
I never answer calls from unknown numbers. Never. If someone leaves a message, I will listen to it... eventually.
 
I've recently been getting 'credit card' calls on my cell. I set those number to 'auto-reject,' so they go straight to voicemail. According to a few reports I've heard, they may be elaborate phishing scheme trying to gather any personal info they can. The best policy is to ignore them, like all spam.

Just today NPR ran a story glossing over some of the points thus far in thread.
 
Uwe said:
I've recently been getting 'credit card' calls on my cell. I set those number to 'auto-reject,' so they go straight to voicemail. According to a few reports I've heard, they may be elaborate phishing scheme trying to gather any personal info they can. The best policy is to ignore them, like all spam.

Just today NPR ran a story glossing over some of the points thus far in thread.
Click to expand...

That is the best advice... ignore all unsolicited communications, regardless if it is a text, IM, email, or phone call.
 
Back when I still had a land line, it was the target of more than a few telemarketing calls. Barely anyone I knew called me on that phone, so I changed my outgoing voicemail. Recorded a message (complete with cheesy on-hold music) that sounded like something you'd get calling a business.

"Thank you for calling. All our customer service representatives are busy helping other customers. Please stay on the line, or if you're calling after business hours, please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your business."



The calls started drying up almost immediately.

- - - Updated - - -

Back when I still had a land line, it was the target of more than a few telemarketing calls. Barely anyone I knew called me on that phone, so I changed my outgoing voicemail. Recorded a message (complete with cheesy on-hold music) that sounded like something you'd get calling a business.

"Thank you for calling. All our customer service representatives are busy helping other customers. Please stay on the line, or if you're calling after business hours, please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your business."



The calls started drying up almost immediately.
 
Reminds me of two stories...

One time, I decided to call random phone numbers and record the computer voice saying "do-do-dwee.. The number you have reached..." until I collected several random number sequences and the announcement that the number I have reached "had changed.. the new number is...". I pieced all the recordings together so my outgoing message was, "do-do-dwe... The number you have reached <my number> has been changed, the new number is 23467534.. hundred... 345104395693... thousand... 36503956....". My dad called me at work... "there's something wrong with your phone!"

Second story...
I moved into a new apartment and got a new land line. Every night at like 3 AM the phone would ring and it was a fucking fax machine squealing at me. This happened every night... and when I hung up on it, it called back like 5 times... so annoying! The phone company refused to do anything about it... the police even wouldn't do anything about "misdirected data".. only if it was a person harassing me.
So I took action... I setup telephony on my computer so it would receive the mysterious fax. In receiving the fax on the first night, I discovered it was a pharmaceutical company attempting to send their daily advertisement's to a medical office (the previous owners of the line I got, apparently). So I called them to let them know what they were doing... they were very apologetic on the phone and told me they would take care of it. That night, a call comes in... same the next night and the next.... so I call back... they apologize and say there is nothing they can do but request I be removed... I said not to call again or I will break them. They called again. so I broke them.
I created a 100 page word document that was nothing but a giant solid black square on each page. I waited until midnight that night and faxed the document to them and went to bed.
they never called again... I'm pretty sure I emptied $400 worth of toner and blocked their line all night.
 
Ford said:
Back when I still had a land line, it was the target of more than a few telemarketing calls. Barely anyone I knew called me on that phone, so I changed my outgoing voicemail. Recorded a message (complete with cheesy on-hold music) that sounded like something you'd get calling a business.

"Thank you for calling. All our customer service representatives are busy helping other customers. Please stay on the line, or if you're calling after business hours, please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your business."



The calls started drying up almost immediately.

- - - Updated - - -

Back when I still had a land line, it was the target of more than a few telemarketing calls. Barely anyone I knew called me on that phone, so I changed my outgoing voicemail. Recorded a message (complete with cheesy on-hold music) that sounded like something you'd get calling a business.

"Thank you for calling. All our customer service representatives are busy helping other customers. Please stay on the line, or if you're calling after business hours, please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your business."



The calls started drying up almost immediately.
Click to expand...

Twice? What are you doing, spamming this thread? :)
 
I found this: https://www.nomorobo.com/

"no mo robo" get it?

I think it is free too. They give you a number to setup as a secondary line to forward your calls to. Every incoming call you get rings on your phone, and also at the number they give you. A computer scans a list of reported spammers and if the incoming number is a match, it picks up and hangs up the call instantly. So, with this service enabled, if your phone rings only once and then stops, it was spam. If it rings twice, then you know it is good
 
Computer calls are just annoying and no fun at all. If there is an actual person I do one of two things. I'll either ask them to "Hold please" and I'll leave them there until they give up and hang up. Or when they ask how I am today l'll make up some story. Sometimes I'll tell them how I just left the most glorious and gratifying shit in the toilet in a long time and how wonderful it felt to get it all out. I'l. Ask it the caller recently made a glorious shit in the toilet.
 
crazyfingers said:
Computer calls are just annoying and no fun at all. If there is an actual person I do one of two things. I'll either ask them to "Hold please" and I'll leave them there until they give up and hang up. Or when they ask how I am today l'll make up some story. Sometimes I'll tell them how I just left the most glorious and gratifying shit in the toilet in a long time and how wonderful it felt to get it all out. I'l. Ask it the caller recently made a glorious shit in the toilet.
Click to expand...

malintent said:
It can be a lot of fun to mess with them. But I have heard it just pegs your phone as a live one. :(

I found this: https://www.nomorobo.com/
Click to expand...

That looks interesting - will check it out.


And still from a governmental/industrial standpoint, there MUST be technology that can regulate the airwaves so that only entities with an actual person/company that is actually able to be resposible can make calls... There must be.
 
Malintent said:
I found this: https://www.nomorobo.com/

"no mo robo" get it?

I think it is free too. They give you a number to setup as a secondary line to forward your calls to. Every incoming call you get rings on your phone, and also at the number they give you. A computer scans a list of reported spammers and if the incoming number is a match, it picks up and hangs up the call instantly. So, with this service enabled, if your phone rings only once and then stops, it was spam. If it rings twice, then you know it is good
Click to expand...

Grrrr. Only works with broadband interwebs phones. Well, I'll keep my eye on them...

Unfortunately, Nomorobo is not available on traditional analog landlines or wireless phones at this time.
Click to expand...
 
Uwe said:
Just today NPR ran a story glossing over some of the points thus far in thread.
Click to expand...

Interesting thought in the comments: Every one of those phone numbers has to pay a bill to someone. The phone companies really do know who they are, don't they. :(
 
Long ago, I had a small box that sat between my phone and the wall jack. It allowed me to set a code, 4 digits, so to call me you had to know those four digets. On the other side, a voice asked for "the extension" and if the correct code was not entered in 30 seconds, it disconnected. I haven't seen one of these offered for sale in years, but it was, for me, a wonderful device. It cut my junk calls, down to zero.

Amazon shows a slew of various gadgets that do some sort of screening. You can apparently set up white lists and block all others.

For example
http://www.amazon.com/Tel-Sentry-V2-0-Automatic-Blocking-Election/dp/B00U1PPWDO
 
I only have a landline because it came with the internet package and I'm pretty sure the provider sold my number to every telemarketing company there is. The vast majority of calls are telemarketing. I get home and there are never any less than six "blank" messages on my answer machine. If I am in I usually answer, tell them I am on the do not call register and ask where they got my number from. I never get a sensible answer. I get a lot of calls from charities and I believe they are exempt from using the do not call register.

Unsolicited calls should just be illegal and that's the end of it, it's tantamount to harassment.
 
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