Time To Ban Caller-ID Spoofing (Again)?

This article touches on a problem that affects ALL of us!

I have had my share of robocalls, spamming phone calls & plain irritating phone calls. These have been mostly on my landline phone. My cell phone will get them, once in awhile, but I have been getting messages for "renewing your car's extended warranty", when my car is 14 years old!!!

I just got HiYa and Mr.Number on my phone by reading the comments from William and a couple of others. I am impressed with both of these programs. It may be "overkill" but I don't mind a backup for good service.

Just a note: Both HiYa and Mr.Number are by the same company. Both looked at my phone calls that I missed and told me which ones needed to be blocked and who they were. I really like that, since I do hate having mystery callers! }:O)

a note to srsvii - we have Consumer Cellular and I have a list of blocked numbers on my phone. So as far as I know they do allow it.
I have, for years, even in the day of the old answering machine, only answered calls I knew the number. If someone wants me bad enough they can leave a message and I'll call back. My drs. office uses the no number or private number and they always leave a message so I just return the call. These spammer/scammers are a pain but I refuse to let them get any of my time.

Hot topic, I know Heather got just last week. I fill up my blocking allocation dump it and go again. I have to remember some in my area code that come unknown and one time for the voice mail and they're done. What a pain and I found from your previous articles that I had opted out in 2015. Not much good is it?
Thanks, PMW

I have gotten calls on my house phone showing my cell phone number. I have been using nomorobo for a couple of years. It will catch most of the robo calls,but not all.Best thing is let it go to your answering service.

To "The Other Al" who asked: "...is there a law against blowing a VERY SHRILL whistle into the phone?"
No, there is no law, but there is a limit to how much volume can actually pass through any phone line, due to the specifications of the equipment used throughout the system. Using an extremely loud voice, even shouting, will not really sound much louder than a normal strong speaking voice to the person at the other end of the line . Blowing a loud whistle will, however, sound annoyingly shrill to the person blowing it and other people or pets in the house (and perhaps innocent neighbors).

Enrolling with Nomorobo helps, but the most effective remedy I have found for unwanted calls to my landline is to use a callblocker that lets you program "wildcard" numbers into the unit's "block" list. Mine can block entire area codes, OR 3-digit exchanges within those areas, OR any short number string you enter. Unlike most other models, it can also let you specify numbers that you want exempted from those restrictions (like if you want to get calls from a friend who lives in an area code that you otherwise are blocking because telemarketers use that same area code.)

But, for the very best results, many models give you the option of programming in the numbers (or area codes /exchanges) that you DO want to accept calls from, and then blocking ALL others. So, if you know all your friends, family, and business contacts' numbers, you can base the callblocker's "Whitelist" (of OK callers) on those numbers. Then, if an incoming call does not have a Call-ID matching a number on your approved list (or compatible with one of your wildcards on that list), it will not even ring your phone.

Don't worry that the Whitelist approach might mistakenly block wanted calls from contacts you forgot to include on your list, or from new contacts that you neglected to add promptly. Just leave an answering machine connected on the line and it will take messages from those people if they call (theoretically, also from telemarketers, but they rarely leave messages these days). So if you hear a message from a person whose call you would have wanted to accept, it means you will have missed their call, but only once - because you will then know to add their number to your Whitelist. The callblocker I use prevents ringing from almost every one of the many spam calls that l get. If I want, I can see a list of all the blocked calls displayed on the unit's screen, to great satisfaction.

I never answer a call that doesn't show as being someone on my contact list anyway, knowing that if it is legit they can leave a voicemail and I can call back. I recently installed the callcontrol app so that the ones supposedly from my area code and exchange don't even get to ring my phone.

As Charley posted, the problem isn’t a lack of will or technology, it’s that the system is not built to make CallerID verification possible.
When CLID was developed, they weren’t thinking about VoIP or scammers: they were thinking about company switches, where your desk phone uses some random line for outgoing calls, never the same one twice in a row. They didn’t want that number to show up on CLID, as folks couldn’t call it back and get you (or perhaps anyone). So they made it so a switch can fake the originating number, so a call from E-Corp shows the main E-Corp number, not that random line.
Obviously with scammers, that’s not great. But it’s not at all clear how to fix it, since it would break so many providers (Vonage et al., not to mention many “landlines” which are now also VoIP).
It’s also important to recognize that the way CallerID works is that the name info is NOT transmitted with the call—just the number (if at all). The local switch does a “database dip” – a lookup, reaching out to the carrier’s database. And sometimes that lookup fails: no info (which may be reported as “UNKNOWN” or equivalent), or it just times out. That’s why your neighbor’s call might show full info 99 times out of 100, and that 100th time, it doesn’t: the database dip failed.
In the last decade or so (maybe less, not sure) local switches have started being smarter about these failed lookups, and looking at the nxx (the “exchange”, the first three of a seven-digit number), the area code, or the country code, and reporting based on that. We have a friend whose cellphone has an exchange that’s nominally about 15 miles from her home for some reason; her calls always show as that town, because Verizon Wireless doesn’t make the name database available (for reasons they’ve never been able to explain when I’ve asked, since other providers do so). And we get calls that say “TEXAS” or whatever, or even a country name.
I’m not trying to sound like an apologist here: a design mistake was made, in good faith and for a (then) good reason, and we’re paying the price now. But as others have noted, there has been a lot of thought, effort, and money put into trying to solve this, and there doesn’t seem to be a solution without changing things in ways that people won’t find acceptable.
Use NoMoRobo when available, cellphone apps like TrueCaller and HiYa and the like, and letting it either go to voicemail or just picking up and hanging up immediately seem like the best solution. As others have noted, if it’s a legit call that you just didn’t recognize, they’ll call back. I have yet to get an immediate callback from a scammer, so if I do “bounce” the call and it rings again immediately with the same number, I do pick up.
Finally, be gentle when someone does get through to you who thinks you called them—remember that they’re probably just a victim of a scammer faking YOUR number. I’ve even seen scammers so stupid that they faked the number they were calling; that was one call I was sure wasn’t legit! And yesterday I got one whose CLID showed as “FRAUD”. Truth in advertising for once.

I tend to have some fun with spam callers, and also have a method that virtually eliminates callbacks. I have authority to record all of my landline calls, and have this equipment connected at all times. I answer unknown incoming calls with a simple phrase: "Hello, this call is being recorded." I usually get an awkward pause followed by a hangup on their end!

all calls touch phone providers equipment first. Display the real number to the called. multi line buss. can use their equipment thru the provider to display the number they want to be the call back. I know they can do it. Till then Mrnumber has my back

To ALL Ladies and Gents who use the services of NoMoRobo:
Please consider donating to the tipping jar for them. As that is a very great FREE service which we don't want to go belly up or *shudders* in desperate need for $$ >> they may think of pawning all our phone#s.

Talk about spoofing - I have been getting calls from actual local real numbers. One that was particularly troubling identified as the local hardware store (their number). It was one of the credit card callers. How do they get actual numbers to ID? That is really troubling. I can't block them.

I think it should be possible to create a 'whitelist' of phone numbers from which you will accept calls, if that's what you wish to do. All others would simply be disconnected.
I pay for my phone, which I have for MY convenience. No one else. If I don't want to be bothered by calls from anyone, for any reason, I should have that right. That includes politicians, charities, or anyone else I don't want to hear from. When the politicians, charities, or whoever starts picking up my phone bills, then they can claim they have a "right" to access my phone.

Retaliating with a clever response, or any other "solution" that still involves letting the bad calls ring your phone in the first place, is really no solution at all. The main nuisance is not so much receiving a call that turns out to be unwanted as it is having had to stop whatever you were doing at the time. Even if you plan to simply not answer (and let your machine record their message), just being disturbed (perhaps awakened) by the ringing is enough of a problem in itself. So it's better to use callblocking techniques that don't even let your phone ring if the caller-ID is likely to be a spammer. I describe this approach in a previous post on this topic.

To add to Kevin's comment, I too have been plagued by fake number callers here in the UK (my BT directory tells me that the five digit area code is unrecognised). Usually, to callers claiming to be from Microsoft, BT or whoever, I respond very forcibly in the hope that my bad language will put them off further calls. However, one such response recently simply provoked another nuisance call advising me that my landline would be disconnected forthwith! It wasn't, of course, but clearly these phone pests won't take NO (or anything else) for an answer.

I agree that if you don't recognize the phone number don't answer it. My wife is tired of being a prisoner of the phone. Meaning that she should not have to stop answering the phone because of unscrupulous lowlives. The other day she answered a call from a different area code. It was someone claiming to be from some tech company. They said I have a computer virus, yet they still asked me if I have a computer. Really? So I decided to mess with them and act stupid. After a few minutes this dude says to me, with anger, for the last 3 minutes you are "bullshitting" me. I said, hey, you called me. He then hung up the phone. I loved it!!!

I refuse to answer any number I don't know period. If you want me to call back, leave a message. My daughter, however, answers most calls and sometimes gives me the phone. The dirty look I give her doesn't mean a thing. I usually then hang up. I constantly hear her complain when she gets the usual telemarketer on the phone. When will she ever learn?

I refuse to answer any number I don't know period. If you want me to call back, leave a message. My daughter, however, answers most calls and sometimes gives me the phone. The dirty look I give her doesn't mean a thing. I usually then hang up. I constantly hear her complain when she gets the usual telemarketer on the phone. When will she ever learn?

We recently purchased a set of Panasonic phones at Costco. When we answer a call from an unknown, we say "hello" a few times, wait for a response and if we don't like the results we push the "CALL BLOCK" button on our phone. If that number calls us again, our phone will ring one time and cancel the call. It is that simple.

"Why can't we reverse the law and make rule that the phone companies can only put through calls from numbers the customer allows?"
Do you have a list of every number that you MIGHT want to receive phone calls from - including in the future?