Stopping Robocalls

[Tom Bender]

Got all three of my neurons working together and here's what they came up with,

User fees for high caller volume. Say the first 100 calls per day are covered by the base rate, then callers must pay 1 cent per call. This would not be a significant burden for legitimate business as each call must have a value of more than 1 cent.

What could go wrong?

Where did I get 3 neurons you ask, conjugal visits and fertility drugs.

[Jim Becker]

The conundrum here is that the majority of robocalls originate from other parts of the world, are generated using Internet protocols and are not tied to valid numbers. Even those launching in North America are not coming from any kind of normal phone number. That's why the carriers have to fully get onboard with the technological solutions that can detect these calls before they get to your number. Trying to charge and entity that "doesn't exist" would be, um...difficult.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Old episode of Andy Rooney on 60 minutes: “Tired of junk mail? Send it back. Just put the blank ‘application’ in the wrong envelope: CC app goes to the new window folks; new window RFQ goes to the Tijuana time share; etc. Since it is all in prepaid biz envelopes, the USPS gets added revenue and the sender gets to pay to receive and dispose of someone else’s blank forms.” (I’m simplifying story a bit.)

Do the same to callers: Press 1 to talk to a rep; ask them to repeat EVERYTHING 5 times at least; try to renew the warranty on your 1837 Conestoga 4x4 starship - with leather interior. Then hang up.

It costs you 4-5 minutes. If everyone does it, it costs the caller a fortune. With zero return. (Presumably there is virtually zero cost to the caller for the computer to call you, but the meter runs when you connect to a human.). IIRC there are phone apps that will engage with said humans for you…?

[Michael Weber]

Congratulations on that conjugal visit��

[Bruce Wrenn]

Ever notice they have gone to only four rings before they hang up and move on to the next victim? Our answering machine is set for FIVE rings. Seldom is heard a word! Still need to get fax machine sounds on answering machine. I guess this will meant shortening rings to three before answering machine picks up.

[Maria Alvarado]

The other problem is spoofing real numbers. Apparently my landline number has been "calling" people all over the country multiple times. And if they have caller ID, my name shows up. I come home to not only spammer missed calls, but irate messages (all from good people over a certain age, judging from the voices) trying to figure out why I've called them and not left a message. At least two fine gentlemen figured out what was going on and left kind warning messages in case I had lost my phone. Sadly, there is nothing I can do about it.

[Curt Harms]

The other problem is spoofing real numbers. Apparently my landline number has been "calling" people all over the country multiple times. And if they have caller ID, my name shows up. I come home to not only spammer missed calls, but irate messages (all from good people over a certain age, judging from the voices) trying to figure out why I've called them and not left a message. At least two fine gentlemen figured out what was going on and left kind warning messages in case I had lost my phone. Sadly, there is nothing I can do about it.

I ran into the same thing with a work cell phone. I got a few voice mails telling me to quit bothering them. I had no idea who they were so the number (no name on the phone) was being spoofed

[Mark Bolton]

The conundrum here is that the majority of robocalls originate from other parts of the world, are generated using Internet protocols and are not tied to valid numbers. Even those launching in North America are not coming from any kind of normal phone number. That's why the carriers have to fully get onboard with the technological solutions that can detect these calls before they get to your number. Trying to charge and entity that "doesn't exist" would be, um...difficult.

There is no conundrum other than the excuses (no offense) like this one you provide. Our government, and the corporations routing these national and international calls could end this nightmare immediately. They dont... because there is money in it. For them, their political donor, the phone companies make money off this foolishness, on and on. It continues because there is profit being made. Again, no offense Jim, but your type of devils advocacy perpetuates its continuation.

All of this nonsense could end in a matter of days/months should the choice be made. It would just end. It can happen in nearly an instant. There are just dollars at play. Making excuses for businesses not being able to answer their phones due to this foolishness serves zero purpose.

Another boondoggle that is building at the moment that will thwart ending robocalls is the fact that businesses left and right are so fed up they are investing in call services ("Thank you for calling xyz services, please listen to all of the menu options as our menu options have recently changed"). Even small companies around here are going that route to eliminate the burden from a receptionist then to simply eliminate the receptionist all together. So now farming out what was done on your PC years ago is another industry that will be impacted by "stopping robocalls".

It can end in a fart... excuses serve no purpose. Its about money. The United States is minting more "paper" billionaires every year. A vast majority of which are off "air" that comes from our time, our data, and pretty much nothingness. The data front is coming to a head. Who knows if it will ferment into some real common sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMtrY6lbjcY

[Jim Becker]

Mark, I think you interpreted what I wrote incorrectly...I absolutely support and WANT the technology to be used. I wasn't making excuses for anyone. I'm not the one not doing the job. The carriers are and the reasons are their own, not mine, and yea, the jurisdictions are also not pressing the matter. This was supposed to be in place several years ago. It's still not effective and at least one carrier refuses to even use Shaken/Stirred to be consistent with the others. The only way it ultimately works is for it to be end-to-end. That's the technology speaking, not me.

[Mark Bolton]

Mark, I think you interpreted what I wrote incorrectly...I absolutely support and WANT the technology to be used. I wasn't making excuses for anyone. I'm not the one not doing the job. The carriers are and the reasons are their own, not mine, and yea, the jurisdictions are also not pressing the matter. This was supposed to be in place several years ago. It's still not effective and at least one carrier refuses to even use Shaken/Stirred to be consistent with the others. The only way it ultimately works is for it to be end-to-end. That's the technology speaking, not me.

It can end in an instant. It wont because money is being made and people insinuating the problem as "too complex". It can end in a fruit flies fart. Cash and complacency are the drivers.

[Jim Becker]

It can end in an instant. It wont because money is being made and people insinuating the problem as "too complex". It can end in a fruit flies fart. Cash and complacency are the drivers.
Exactly my point but more blunt.

[Tom Bender]

So might I get a robot of my own to say "please press 3 to complete your call"? A robocaller would not be able to do that and would not get thru.

[Roger Feeley]

So might I get a robot of my own to say "please press 3 to complete your call"? A robocaller would not be able to do that and would not get thru.
At one time, there was a device that would require callers to enter a 4 digit code to make your phone ring.

[Roger Feeley]

When I moved from Kansas to the DC area, I was too lazy to change my phone number to the local area code. Now, when I get a call from the 913 area code, I know it’s a robocall. The takeaway from this is to get a phone number from someplace you’ve never been.

[Rick Potter]

Any politician that ends robo calls, diverts unwanted flooding from East of the Rockies to Western deserts, and finances the search to cure Cancer will go down in history books as the first universally loved president.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Years ago we picked up an Ooma so we could make - more or less "free" long distance calls.
Since getting it, we have moved more and more to just using our cell phones, but, we kept the Ooma and use that number to register a phone number when we sign up for reward programs from vendors.
Places like Staples & Meijers & the bank.

I had been setting it to go to voice mail after two rings, but, even that got beyond our ability to deal with with the flood of Medicare calls - 30 plus per day - so I just unplugged the Ooma from the phone.
It still has voice mail & the Ooma app on my cell phone lets me know if there's a voice mail message.
So far, after a month, the only voice mail message is the one I tested it with.

[Bob Coates]

So might I get a robot of my own to say "please press 3 to complete your call"? A robocaller would not be able to do that and would not get thru.


There is several phones that do this. I have a Vtech, but I think Att also has one. They don't use you "3" but the # key. The Vtech if a number is not in your phone book, or allow list it will give you options of what to do with the caller. Here is link for more info on the one I have https://www.vtechphones.com/support/technical-support/product/4371

[Bill Dufour]

Can I set my cellphone to not ring unless the number calling is in my contact list? More and more people are not answering their phone for a unknown #. At some point what is the purpose of a phone that can not accept calls.
I understand that in the old USSR there was no phone book. The government said you should only call people you knew so you had their number anyway. Save al lthat work of printing and distributing phone books.
Bill D

[roger wiegand]

So might I get a robot of my own to say "please press 3 to complete your call"? A robocaller would not be able to do that and would not get thru.

Yes, this exists, and it works, we have friends who use it.

NoMoRobo (different from the "press 3 to speak to a human" thing) eliminates 95% of the calls for us and is free for landlines. I highly recommend it. Unfortunately their cell phone version didn't work well for me when I tried it a few years ago.

[Jim Becker]

Can I set my cellphone to not ring unless the number calling is in my contact list? M

Most smartphones support this.

[lowell holmes]

I check the incoming call number before I answer.

[Lee DeRaud]

NoMoRobo (different from the "press 3 to speak to a human" thing) eliminates 95% of the calls for us and is free for landlines. I highly recommend it. Unfortunately their cell phone version didn't work well for me when I tried it a few years ago.I'm trying it at the moment: seems to be working, although admittedly the volume of unwanted calls on the cell is a small fraction of what shows up on the "landline".

But there's no easy way to tell what percentage of the calls it marks as robocalls are from numbers I already had blocked.

[roger wiegand]

I'm trying it at the moment: seems to be working, although admittedly the volume of unwanted calls on the cell is a small fraction of what shows up on the "landline".

But there's no easy way to tell what percentage of the calls it marks as robocalls are from numbers I already had blocked.

On the landline version your phone will ring once if NoMoRobo blocks the call.

[Jim Becker]

Services like NoMoRobo are great for "known numbers", but have the same difficulty with randomly spoofed CID numbers that we humans do. That's why the only long term solution is for such things to be detected and blocked at the carrier level.

[Barry McFadden]

I check the incoming call number before I answer.

On my cell phone I look at the number calling and if I don't recognize it I push "call screen" and the caller gets a message that I'm using a screening device and to state their name and the reason for the call....they always hang up after that.

[Tyler Bancroft]

Any politician that ends robo calls, diverts unwanted flooding from East of the Rockies to Western deserts, and finances the search to cure Cancer will go down in history books as the first universally loved president.

I'll nominate any person who ends robocalls for a Nobel Prize.

[Bert Kemp]

yea me too I'm gettin 2 to 3 calls an hour, I don't answer any of them, i have blocking but its useless, and because I live in AZ and my number is a NH calls start coming in a 7am my time. No I'm not gonna change my number that won't do anygood.Some genius out there will find away I hoe its soon.

[Tom M King]

I've had my phone set to only take calls from people in my Contacts list for years. Just recently, I've started getting unwanted texts though. I was able to set it some sort of way so there was no alert given, but they still show up on the phone. A little bit of trouble to delete them, but I haven't bothered to try to figure out how to eliminate the silent, unwanted texts.

[Michael Schuch]

Got all three of my neurons working together and here's what they came up with,

User fees for high caller volume. Say the first 100 calls per day are covered by the base rate, then callers must pay 1 cent per call. This would not be a significant burden for legitimate business as each call must have a value of more than 1 cent.

What could go wrong?

Where did I get 3 neurons you ask, conjugal visits and fertility drugs.


The solution is actually much easier than this. The next time you fill out a form online use your congressman's office phone number... assuming their personal number isn't available.

As soon as the inconvenience to those that make the laws outweigh the campaign contributions they are receiving from the telecom industry the problem will be solved.

[Jeff Roltgen]

Only other option: waste their time. Which costs you some. My latest tactic: Call the toll free # they give you. Someone tried the Norton scam and simply listed a phone number. I rang it at least 27 times, let them impatiently say Hello? about 10 times, then they hang up. Pound the heck out of them. Took to about the 29th ring and Ta DA! I got blocked by the India scamming pukes.

Occurred to me that if you had a genuinely trustworthy group of individuals across the country that you could share that number with via a twitter connection per se, you could have hundreds slamming them with dead calls. Yah - I know - they just run a different number to fix the situation. But if you had a good collection of people spread far and wide, someone's gonna get the new one and start again.

Most Important if you take any such action: DO NOT SPEAK. If you say one word indicating that you are aware of who they are, the gloves are off and the expletives start flying from their filthy little faces. And they are vindictive, nasty little imps. However, saying nothing keeps them on the line - it could be a bad connection - maybe you're just an idiot (even better for them...) but they MUST keep up the fake patience and sincerity, as there's always a chance, you might still be the perfect target.

I know - best advice is not to answer, but some days, it's just the wrong day to poke me. SOMEONE's got to try something!

[Michael Schuch]

Only other option: waste their time. Which costs you some. My latest tactic: Call the toll free # they give you. Someone tried the Norton scam and simply listed a phone number. I rang it at least 27 times, let them impatiently say Hello? about 10 times, then they hang up. Pound the heck out of them. Took to about the 29th ring and Ta DA! I got blocked by the India scamming pukes.

Occurred to me that if you had a genuinely trustworthy group of individuals across the country that you could share that number with via a twitter connection per se, you could have hundreds slamming them with dead calls. Yah - I know - they just run a different number to fix the situation. But if you had a good collection of people spread far and wide, someone's gonna get the new one and start again.

Most Important if you take any such action: DO NOT SPEAK. If you say one word indicating that you are aware of who they are, the gloves are off and the expletives start flying from their filthy little faces. And they are vindictive, nasty little imps. However, saying nothing keeps them on the line - it could be a bad connection - maybe you're just an idiot (even better for them...) but they MUST keep up the fake patience and sincerity, as there's always a chance, you might still be the perfect target.

I know - best advice is not to answer, but some days, it's just the wrong day to poke me. SOMEONE's got to try something!



The "RoboKiller" Android app will automatically answer known spam calls on your phone with "Hello" in a random voice then waits for the callers agent to come on and greets them with some random phrase followed by other random phrases saying you can't make out what they are saying etc.. It records the callers reaction for your later amusement if you choose to listen to it. I used to use it but got tired of paying $25 a year for it.

If a spam call does get through to me I am interested in their scam but I have a caller on the other line so please hang on for a bit. Some of them will hang on for several minutes. Some even call back later at which time I very politely also happen to have a call on the other line...

[Jim Koepke]

If a spam call does get through to me I am interested in their scam but I have a caller on the other line so please hang on for a bit. Some of them will hang on for several minutes.

They might hang on longer if you tell them you were just in the middle of giving the caller on the other line your SS#.

jtk

[Michael Schuch]

They might hang on longer if you tell them you were just in the middle of giving the caller on the other line your SS#.

jtk


LOL! I will try that next time! :D

[Bert Kemp]

Im thinking let my answeeing machine play with them.
Machine.... Hello pause
Machine.... oh how are you Pause ect ect LOL

[David Hostetler]

Since I use my phone for work, I kind of HAVE to answer the thing. I get on average, and I kid you not, around 15 robocalls a day.

I have taken to trying to get to an actual caller, and questioning their cross species parentage.

Typically they hang up once the hear the word hamster.

However I did get one caller got furious at me to the point they were screaming at me at the top of their lungs while I laughed my tail off.

They abuse my number, I will abuse them.

I'd love some sort of AI to interact with these fools using Jean Luc Picard quotes. See if they notice...

[Bert Kemp]

its only noon and Ive had 8 calls already today the first one at 630 my time

[Jim Koepke]

One thing noticed recently is many of the robocalls disconnect after the third ring to avoid answering machines.

Many of these scam callers are using internet calling. After the person receiving the call says hello it takes quite a few seconds before the person on the calling end to come on the line.

Scammers calling my phone tend to have a city and state as the caller ID with my local area code. Other than my base station the handsets let my press off to stop the ringing. My solution is to lower the volume on the base station to its lowest level.

jtk

[Bob McBreen]

Congress could also modify the Do Not Call list to allow people to opt out for political & "charitable" calls but again to Mark's point, there is too much money for the politicians