Apple to Join 'Robocall Strike Force' to Crack Down on Automated Phone Calls

[acadiel]

Never call back. Never ask to be removed from a call list, unless it's a legitimate company you know. Otherwise do not answer these calls at all or speak to them, unless you get your jollies from jerking their chains. Keep in mind you are dealing with criminals.

Or forward them to the Jolly Roger Telephone company, sit back, and enjoy the entertainment!

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC3OxCWLEmoIhNMm-hnvBm9Q

http://www.jollyrogertelco.com

I believe you get two free calls to start. Well worth supporting this guy just for the funny videos he posts!

 

[IJ Reilly]

Or forward them to the Jolly Roger Telephone company, sit back, and enjoy the entertainment!

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC3OxCWLEmoIhNMm-hnvBm9Q

http://www.jollyrogertelco.com

I believe you get two free calls to start. Well worth supporting this guy just for the funny videos he posts!

Freaking hilarious, thanks for passing it along.

While I was laughing at one of these videos I got a robocall from some marketing study scammer. Figures, huh?

 

[benthewraith]

Integrate a flag option in the call (sales, scam, etc.), upload it to a database and crowdsource the garbage calls. It should not be too hard.

Then some poor soul whose number has been spoofed will wonder why no one's calling him.

 

[happyslayer]

I'd pay money to stop the political robocalls. On my home line, I get 5-10 a day. And few have started happening on my iPhone. I don't want to vote for any of my local government candidates because of the volume of calls I get.

 

[pubwvj]

Simple solution: crowd voting implemented by the phone companies. When you get a spammer call press *99 or something. This would notify the phone company that you think this caller was a spammer. A single vote isn't sufficient but spammers would quickly get many votes and which point the phone company should stop them from making outgoing calls from that number completely until they reactivate their phone number by convincing the phone company they're not a spammer. Of course, they would still be able to dial the operator, 911 and such but not anyone else. This is an ultra simple solution that would work. The phone companies are the ones who need to implement it. The users are the ones who then kill the spammers.
[doublepost=1471754236][/doublepost]

Then some poor soul whose number has been spoofed will wonder why no one's calling him.

No, he wouldn't be able to make calls but could still receive calls.

How ever, if the phone company properly implemented things there would be no spoofing so the point is not valid.

 

[ctone]

I've used nomorobo for about two years now. It is free and really does the job.

The main issue I have with nomorobo is that they don't have a clear privacy policy, and obviously if it is a free service, their business model is most likely to mine your data, in this case, all of your phone calls (metadata only hopefully), and then sell that info off, which to me is worse than having the phone ring a lot.

On the land line (VOIP actually) I just let my old school answering machine pick up and screen the numbers I don't recognize. The land line account is also set up to not allow calls to come through from callers with blocked caller ID, but I don't think that stops most robocallers, since they mostly just spoof it. My telephone company also allows a block list of 100 numbers, but I filled that up really quickly.

When the phone rings from a number I don't recognize and I am at the computer, I search the number quickly to see if it might be a legit call. Most of the time it will show up as a reported spam caller's #.

 

[Weaselboy]

Simple solution: crowd voting implemented by the phone companies.

Nomorobo is doing something similar to what you are describing here. Your calls are routed through them, and they watch for an influx of calls from a particular number and certain "spammy" patterns, then block that number. Users also can report robocalls and if they get multiple users reporting the same number, that number gets blocked. It has really cut down on my junk calls.

 

[Digitalclips]

So it would be a Wall-E'd garden!

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

I disagree with the idea of eliminating spoofing. It actually has some good real world uses. When one of our buses went missing and the driver wouldn't answer for us, we spoofed him using his girlfriend's number. What do ya know?! He answered immediately and confirmed that everything was okay. We received the bus back three days later.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I disagree with the idea of eliminating spoofing. It actually has some good real world uses. When one of our buses went missing and the driver wouldn't answer for us, we spoofed him using his girlfriend's number. What do ya know?! He answered immediately and confirmed that everything was okay. We received the bus back three days later.

Of course you could have simply called from his girlfriend's phone. Anyhow, one isolated example of using spoofing for a legitimate purpose does not justify its existence since we all know 99.99% of spoofing is for criminal activity. So give that ability only to law enforcement and then even your tiny minority use-case is addressed.

 

[/dev/toaster]

I use truecaller a crowd sourced listing of spam phone numbers. When a call comes in it flags if it is spam. I also share spam call numbers with the app.

When you get 10 of them a day, an app like that does nothing. I was reading the reviews on it and since iOS doesn't allow you to intercept a call with a plugin before it rings (or while it rings). The app can't display it's findings.

What good is knowing they are a spam caller after you answered. I guess there is more functionality if you jailbreak. But the appstore version seems useless.

Good idea, but sadly iOS doesn't make it useful.
[doublepost=1471806139][/doublepost]

I disagree with the idea of eliminating spoofing. It actually has some good real world uses. When one of our buses went missing and the driver wouldn't answer for us, we spoofed him using his girlfriend's number. What do ya know?! He answered immediately and confirmed that everything was okay. We received the bus back three days later.

An edge case like this isn't a reason to justify allowing spoofing. The fact you can spoof the callerid system shows there is still unauthenticated transactions in the phone switches. It needs to be stopped.

Between spam callers and scam callers. I know a few people who fell for a rather well crafted scam. There was nothing they can do because the number was spoofed.
[doublepost=1471806304][/doublepost]

I'd pay money to stop the political robocalls. On my home line, I get 5-10 a day. And few have started happening on my iPhone. I don't want to vote for any of my local government candidates because of the volume of calls I get.

I am not registered with any specific party so I don't get those calls. I do however get a lot of charity calls. You donate once and they won't leave you alone.

You ask them to not call you and they said they have a right to call you. Fine, there are a number of charities that will never get a single dime out of me again. I mention this to them, only to have them call the next day.

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

Of course you could have simply called from his girlfriend's phone. Anyhow, one isolated example of using spoofing for a legitimate purpose does not justify its existence since we all know 99.99% of spoofing is for criminal activity. So give that ability only to law enforcement and then even your tiny minority use-case is addressed.

So... just hand over more power/tools to big-daddy government, eh?

 

[IJ Reilly]

So... just hand over more power/tools to big-daddy government, eh?

Right it's so much more sensible to keep them in the hands of criminals where they can go to such good use.

 

[iOSFangirl6001]

Thank heavens about friggin time the industry take robo calls more seriously


Now add robo calls, fake attorney or IRS calls, and the countless number of foreign calls about sweepstakes,lotto winnings, bogus scholarships, Nigerian princes trying to get to make investments etc etc to the list


And not only will I be a happy camper but I'll finally be able to say that our government and business sector are doing possibly 1 of the best collaborative beneficial things for the public in possibly ever lol
[doublepost=1472369987][/doublepost]

It's gotten so bad now that I think the only solution is a whitelist. There's no point blacklisting spoofed numbers, you'll never get a call from that particular number again. Do not call lists are completely useless. Legislation is useless, because most of them come from overseas. Nuclear weapons seem like overkill, but less and less as time goes on...

You'd be surprised
Believe it or not I have legitimately had repeat telemarketing or robo calls from the same CID
Or vastly similar CID's as well


Legislation can work for overseas it's just it needs to be addressed with the United Nations and such.


Perhaps other countries lack these issues with robo, spam or telemarketing calls and the US is just the worlds big ok get rich quick or screw YOU tarhet?

It's gotten so bad, I'm ready to not have a phone number at all.
Seriously, is there a way to disable voice service on my phone altogether?

No not really other than the following close Alternatives:

Call forwarding to a known dead/inactive number

Call forwarding to the telemarketers own number ( for the lolz as well )

Put your phone into Airplane mode often

Call forwarding to voicemail

While we're at it, can we finally have a solution to physical junk mail?

For everything worthwhile that I receive in my physical mailbox, I receive 10+ pieces of junk that goes straight into the recycle bin.

Hey to be fair that "junk mail" helps fund the ailing postal service probably to a fair degree

And at least you're recycling props to you for thinking green

People still take phone calls on their smart phones?

Why would we not?
Plans still include voice services
And they're still phones.

 

[Marzzz]

Don't your patients deserve to know who is calling them? Don't you want to not look like a phone spammer when you call a patient? If you are so concerned about them knowing your cell phone number, then don't call them from it or get another phone and call them from that one.

In these situations, patients are reaching out to the physician after hours through the answering service; they are then expecting a call back from the physician (who will be calling usually from their cellphone); typically the answering service will instruct patients to remove any blocking functions when initiating a call. There is very rarely any reason for a physician to call a patient after hours otherwise. During office hours, the call is coming from the office phones, which show up on Caller ID as expected.