Are We Winning the Robocall Wars? - Comments Page 1

regrettably, I am too old for a phone that is smarter than I am. I only got a cell phone to help my elderly parents be able to catch me whether home or not. in the mean time, I have a really low-tech way of screening out unwanted calls: don't answer the phone!
my landline is connected to an anserfone, and its still an annoyance, because when a call comes in, I have to stop what I am doing and listen carefully to see if a recognizable voice says, Hi, its Julie ... and on the cell phone, I reject all calls which are not in my contact list, regardless of the number. and if it comes from 202-456-1212, I will take the phone out in the carport and shoot it.

I use nomorobo.com It works and is free!

I cant understand why it is so difficult to solve. The new google system seems the righ way to go. I would only allow numbers in my contacts lists to ring through. Other numbers would be met by a message asking for their name and telephone no, If suplied this would come up on a screen and the owner could decide whether to answer, phone back,accept future calls, or block. If not you almost certainly did not want to accept it. There seems very little if any down side and it does not seem to be technically difficult to implement. Phones to do this should be vailable for both mobiles and land lines.

I get about 3 spam calls a month. I'm on the do not call list although I don't know if that helps. I also listen to the call to see if it says - press 2 to remove your number from our call list. Not all calls have this option but this is what I think has helped most.

'Users will have the option to block all calls from numbers that aren't in their contacts'?
Not holding my breath. I would assume that the major carriers are getting great big kick-backs from these scam entities. They will be in no hurry to implement.

Nomorobo works great on my voip landline. If one gets through it goes to the answering machine where I just delete it. On my not-so-smart phone, if a number is not in my contacts I know it is junk. So I just don’t answer. They never leave a message. I am not so troubled with robocalls using these techniques.

The current pandemic has caused a new wrinkle. Delivery services for such things as food, pharmaceuticals, etc. have their drivers using their personal cell phones to contact the people to whom they are delivering goods. Pharmacies will NOT (and rightly so) leave drugs without an acknowledgement that the receiving party is at home. Responsible food vendors do not deliver hot food without the receiving party being contacted by phone. None of these caller numbers, even from the same businesses repeat. New deliverers each time, calling on their own unidentified phones, either need to be answered or they will not leave tbebproducts ordered. Obviously this does not happen all the time, but often enough to justify having to answer the phone.
Also, during this time of working at home, many medical and other businesses appear as numbers only...no name ID for the protection of the caller. Delivery people and workers calling on their private lines do not want to leavee themselves open to unwanted calls by identifying themselves to a robot answering system. How to keep legitimate callers from being blocked is a problem.

Nomorobo is my answer. Unfortunately, when we signed up with them a few years ago, Verizon did not allow the simultaneous transfer of a call, so we could not use it on our cell phones. But on our fiber optic phone it works perfectly. We haven't had a serious annoyance since, even though an occasional call gets through, and those we just don't answer.

'Users will have the option to block all calls from numbers that aren't in their contacts'

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I use that option on my iPone7, and it isn't a carrier option, it is part of the iPhone operating system, so I don't get bothered by robocalls as they get silently forwarded to voicemail, and of course, rarely do they leave a message.

During the lockdown, I got almost no spam calls! Was the best thing about the pandemic. Now they are returning. I expect them to be back up to full force soon. I used to think they were mostly from other countries, until the US had a lock down.
I also use nomorobo, but you still get a ring before it picks up on scammers.

I am retired and have the time to talk with them - time is the only commodity they have that I can use.
1. "Thank you for calling, my wife passed away and all the want when they call is money." Take it from there and kill all of their time you can.
2. If it's a local number spoof answer it with "Hello Ralph haven't heard from you lately, how's Pam and the kids?" Talk as long as you can without giving them an opening.
Has reduced my calls and been fun.

I use Nomorobo on my cell and answering machine on my landline.
Nomorobo is far from perfect, it still rings at least once.
The answering machine is okay, but I still have to listen to the message.....there rarely is one from them. I guess I should shorten mine and adjust the ring through to have less rings.
I hesitate to ban all calls not in my contacts list, new doctors, or even another phone from an old contact.
The greedy phone companies could easily solve this problem, but.....MONEY!

My wife and I have three phone 'lines'. We get about 15 spam calls a day, fairly evenly distributed across the lot. Is is 3pm, and I have had 4 on my cell, but only 1 on the land line. And, the volume of calls seems to be getting worse.

Software vendors have solved the issue of unauthorized/fake/insecure digital interactions over email and internet with digital signatures, spam blockers, trusted sites, etc. The exception seems to be digitized voice calls. It is certainly possible to do so. Unfortunately, it appears that the call service providers (Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, etc.) are not even attempting to p[police the fraud calls being transmitted through their networks.

Bob, there is probably an opportunity here for an article that 'follows the money'. The robocall kings thrive by succeeding making severl $$'s on a tiny percentage of the calls placed. One suspects the call service providers thrive by getting a tiny $$'s on 100% of the calls handled. So what is their incentive to police the fraudulent (spoofed) traffic through their network? Maybe you can get a Pulitzer out of it.

Thanks for another great article.

Googles system on the Pixel line of phones has vitualy eliminated the robocall problem,
The new trick is sending unwanted SMS messsages tha attempt to spoof you for some type of reward. They can be blocked after the first receipt but that doesnt stop the merry-go-round. New Tech needed for this badly
The previous commenter who noted that in this day and age we do get important calls from unknown numbers. This indeeed caused me to turn off some of my protection for a period of time. It is now back on LOL

My OldFart method works quite well. After I say
"Hello," if nobody answers within 3 seconds I hang up.

The phone companies should also be liable for selling the scammers all those phone numbers...more money in their pockets too. Comcast will let you block numbers which I have been doing for some time. As soon as I block one they come back with 10 more...in sequence too....hmmmm

Love my Pixel. This plus the camera make it the best phone I've ever owned, all for less than $400.

Google Voice, has made their "Call Screen" option available, using ANY device, (not just their Pixel smartphones), for several years, now. But truthfully, we've never bothered to turn it on, since their "Filter Spam" option is so effective, that we only average getting one robocall in four months - which immediately gets added to the "Blocked Numbers" list, before they can call 3 more times, on the same day.

Also, it's been our habit for the last decade, to only answer calls, if the NAME of someone we know shows up (and THAT will only occur, if the number matches someone in our Contacts list) - which is not a true White List setup, but works well enough.

Voicemail, becomes the final destination for all calls displaying ANY kind of phone number. Local or otherwise is irrelevant to us, since as Bob mentioned, they're likely spoofed anyway. Predictably, legitimate callers that are not in our Contacts, leave messages; the other kind don't.

At first, if a call was not in my contacts I let it go to voicemail. That was not the answer, it just added to my minutes of usage and some of messages left were just nuisance noises. Now I answer the call and disconnect immediately (takes about a second). Also I've told my kids to call on the land line if they want to talk any length of time. That meant, to them, don't call dad's cell. All I want the cell phone for is to call the tow truck when the car quits, or for confirming texts for 2FA. I have one computer at home and I don't need another expensive smart phone (yet).

When the government starts hanging these scamers it may stop. Fines are a joke.