Yes, It’s Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging.

Americans received a record-breaking 5.1 billion robocalls in November — here are some ways to stop them
December 21, 2018
https://www.businessinsider.de/how-to-stop-robocalls-to-cell-phone-explained-2018-5?r=US&IR=T

 

T-Mobile begins verifying calls to protect against spam
January 10, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/10/18177008/tmobile-call-verification-spam-shaken-stir-note-9

 

"The latest threat from the government shutdown: More robo-calls...

In Washington, federal regulators aren’t around to administer the nation’s anti-robo-call rules. They can’t take consumers’ complaints, warn Americans about potential fraud or investigate the worst offenders, experts say. Already, some scammers even appear to be trying to target Americans about the shutdown itself...

At the moment, there’s no one around to administer the country’s Do Not Call list, the official government registry where consumers can ask legitimate businesses not to call them. Those who have tried to add their numbers to the list have encountered a Web page that says the government is “unable to offer this website service at this time,” a notice that drew a flood of angry comments on Reddit, Twitter and other social media sites this week....

In Washington, spokesmen at the FCC and FTC could not comment because they are closed during the shutdown...."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...utdown-more-robocalls/?utm_term=.f927ba9872af

 

I am on the "Do Not Call List" but when I called to report being called repeatedly to lower my Credit Card interest rate I was told there wasn't anything they could do. But, to continue to report the calls and the telephone numbers calling me. Now why would I waste my time reporting to them if there is nothing they can do?

 

About six months ago I bought a four handset cordless phone for my landline and for the first time in almost 20 years of the 30 I've had the number, there's been total peace and quiet on the home front.

It's the CLP99387, one of the several At&T cordless phone models with Smart Call Blocker and since the blocking exists in the phone itself, it doesn't matter what phone company you're with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guSi4_K-BOE

While the video demonstrates the "say your name" filter, I use the one that answers, "If you are an invited caller, press pound to be connected. If you're a solicitor, please hang up now."

Of course, contact numbers ring through. Allow filters can be created for Caller IDs, i.e. "Podunk Unified School District."

Currently I average about 15 robo and scam calls a week which show in the phone's log and not one of them has rung through. I can't say, of course, if any were human. But if any, they paid attention. Without a pound key response within a few seconds, the phone hangs up, thereby defeating the robo call.

So far everyone who has interacted with the filter told me they didn't have any problem with it and several inquired about it. That included 17 calls from contractors who responded to emails I sent out for quotes on a drywall job. A gal in my dentist's office (I forgot to add that to my contacts.) bought one for her home.

If you don't/can't answer the phone, it rolls over to the base station answering machine and if you don't use that, as far as I know, your provider's voice mail service. I've never used the latter on my landline.

Luckily, the robo call issue hasn't yet presented a serious problem with my smart phone, one or two calls a month, if any, on a number I've had for almost seven years. But I did enable the Caller ID & spam settings when Pie rolled in.

A google search on cordless smart call blocker site:at&t.com will point you to info and sellers.

 

This is relates to the phone I referred to in my post 57 above.

Neighbor spoofing is where a number with your area code and prefix (exchange) show up in Caller ID in an attempt to trick you in assuming the call is from a neighbor. Even if the robo/scammer picks numbers in a city of five million, like mine.

I stopped falling for this years ago as the two numbers for people I know in my exchange are in my contacts and any calls otherwise I can screen real time with answering or later with voice mail, if any.

I was running through the CID log before I cleared out January's 79 robo/scam calls. I look for repeats and add them to the block list.

So, check it out, this is this phone's number:



For the first time, my landline phone number got robo called with my landline number; this and a previous one at 5:44 AM.

Yes, it's bad.

 

I recently also received a spam call whose CID showed my number. After I thought about it a bit I added my own number to my blocked caller list, since I would never actually be calling myself!

 

Here’s the cure for the deluge of scammy, spammy robocalls
STIR and SHAKEN have the potential to prevent fraudsters from spoofing Caller ID. But a number of details are yet to be worked out
February 4, 2019
https://www.fastcompany.com/90299767/heres-the-cure-for-the-deluge-of-scammy-spammy-robocalls

 

I am getting them on a daily basis now and some strange phone numbers like +10000000000, my block caller list is getting huge.

 

Only law-abiding U.S. citizens are bound by the Do Not Call List, officially the National Do Not Call Registry, and there are several exceptions.

My primary phone number, a POTS landline I've had for almost 30 years, has been on that list since the beginning when one had to download a PDF from the FTC website, print it, fill it out and snail mail it in and wait on a return post card verifying its entry. Over the years I've added two more numbers using the online service which I check every now and then to verify all three numbers remain accounted for.

The National Do Not Call Registry and every stinkin' "opt-out" for public and private commerce or service never stopped anything phony (pun intended) , though it can be assumed some relief was and is in effect.

I never gave out my nine year old near-indestructible Convoy 3 flip-phone number and it gets robo calls every so often from a random number always in the same area code and exchange. Weird.

I never gave out my 3 year old smarty phone number, now with Pie, and never got unwanted calls until last month. Like death, it seems it became my time for it, a victim of the many methods used by the dirt bags. The Google Phone App has been doing a real good job but calls do get thru to the ringer occasionally.

The only 100% relief has been a stand-alone landline device for my landline number, the cordless phone set I discussed in my post #57 here. (It's no longer on twisted pair but plugged into the RJ-11 jack on a GSM transceiver, an interesting piece of hardware marketed by one of the big four.)

My concerns about the "FCC ... warning phone providers to implement technology" are:
1) The dirt bag robo callers and scammers will figure out how to defeat anything the providers dream up, and
2) False positives.

 

One simple trick is to start hitting 0 just like you would to get through to a human being if you called a service number for a corporation and want to get past the automated answering. In most cases, the robo call will hang up and in few cases you will get a human being who you can tell never to call again. I found this by accident but since I've been doing it, the amount of robo calls I was getting on one of my numbers has dropped from several a week to around 1 a month.

 

According to the spam call blocking application provider RoboKiller, my cell phone number is within the top targeted area for January 2019. I can confirm it is definitely a bad situation. My cellphone and home landline have been on the Do Not Call registry list for years. Within the past 1 - 2 years, I can say that such registration has become absolutely meaningless. No one either enforces it, cares about it, or can possibly keep up with it due to sheer scale.

I did decide to go ahead and install the RoboKiller app on my phone. I actually do like it quite a bit. It states that it has blocked 101 calls within the past 6 or 7 weeks that I have had it installed, with 2 being blocked already today. It is a paid subscription app, however; and I know that may not be acceptable to everyone. I think it was $2.99 / mo or $29.99 / year. It seems worth the money to me so far. It keeps the calls from even ringing, although they do appear as notifications.

There are other similar apps. Some from the wireless carriers themselves, as I recall. But I liked RoboKiller because it actually will answer the call (on their systems) and it will play back to the caller a Robo-scripted response call, while recording the whole thing. It can be pretty funny for live callers with scam operations. The vendor behind RoboKiller sort of promotes it all for the humor and the fact that you are wasting live scammers' time as well... but it has a useful purpose too, in that in reviewing the recordings you might be able to determine if any legitimate calls were blocked. It provides measure of validation, and allows you to review and un-block some callers if you find it to be necessary. I don't know if the other spam blocking apps provide this feature.

 

Do Not Call registry list: just to mine personal information for big brother.

Feel so sorry for you that rely on "cell phones", no privacy what so ever.

 

"John Oliver unleashes spam calls on FCC leaders every 90 minutes to lobby for ban on robocalls

HBO host John Oliver launched his own attack on the Federal Communications Commission by spamming them with annoying calls and bagpipe music every 90 minutes..."

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/jo...ers-every-90-minutes-lobby-get-rid-robocalls/

 

AT&T CEO interrupted by a robocall during a live interview
Can we fix this now?
March 20, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/20/...andall-stephenson-live-interview-fcc-ajit-pai