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

ronjor · Aug 14, 2019

AT&T and T-Mobile will now verify phone calls between their networks

Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon
The call verification feature is based on the SHAKEN/STIR framework.
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mood · Aug 14, 2019

FTC Obtains Telemarketing Injunctions against Recidivist Do Not Call Violators Jasjit “Jay” Gotra and His Company, Alliance Security Inc.
Defendants responsible for more than one million illegal calls
August 14, 2019
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...rketing-injunctions-against-recidivist-do-not

The Federal Trade Commission obtained a stipulated final order that permanently bans Alliance Security Inc. from telemarketing. The FTC also obtained a preliminary injunction barring Alliance’s founder and CEO, Jasit “Jay” Gotra, from telemarketing until the final resolution of the case against him.
Gotra is the sole remaining defendant in a 2018 FTC case against Alliance, Gotra, and their telemarketers for calling more than one million consumers whose numbers are on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Alliance and Gotra are repeat violators of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which prohibits calls to numbers on the DNC Registry. Alliance installed home security systems, and its employees allegedly made outbound calls to solicit the sale of the systems and associated security monitoring services. Gotra and Alliance (then known as Versatile Marketing Solutions, Inc.), previously settled similar FTC allegations against them in a 2014 court order.
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Circuit · Aug 14, 2019

Why so-long? Government moves as fast a maple on a frozen day,

and this is just one company out of thousands.

Just like; so many people have to be killed in a intersection before a signal is installed.

mood · Aug 18, 2019

Report: FTC, FCC Squabbled About Who Is Responsible for Cracking Down on VoIP Robocalls
August 18, 2019
https://gizmodo.com/report-ftc-fcc-squabbled-about-who-is-responsible-for-1837351272

As automated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems fueled a national robocall epidemic estimated at tens of billions of bogus calls annually, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission argued over who should actually do something about it, according to a Sunday report in the Wall Street Journal.

“Relatively few” of the calls that are “flagged as ‘high risk’ of being illegal robocalls” originate from big, national telecoms, the Journal wrote [...] small companies that facilitate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services and do little to prevent abuse have played a disproportionate role in enabling mass robocalls.
The Journal wrote that because these services are small and use the same technology used to place legitimate robocalls—say, school closures—they have largely avoided scrutiny.

An FCC spokesperson told the paper that the agency has limited authority over such providers [...] Meanwhile, the FTC has punted back to the FCC, the Journal wrote:

An FCC spokesman declined to discuss specific enforcement cases but disputed the FTC’s legal interpretation, saying the FTC has broad authority to go after both robocallers and “middlemen that facilitate them.”
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ronjor · Aug 21, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Telemarketer Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $10 Million International Fraudulent Sweepstakes Scheme

A telemarketer was sentenced to 63 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release today for his role in a $10 million telemarketing scheme that defrauded primarily elderly victims in the United States from call centers in Costa Rica
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ronjor · Aug 22, 2019

Phone companies, state attorneys general announce broad campaign to fight robocalls

By Tony Romm August 22
Twelve of the country’s largest telephone companies on Thursday pledged to implement new technology to spot and block robocalls, part of an agreement brokered between the industry and 51 attorneys general to combat the growing telecom scourge.
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Minimalist · Aug 23, 2019

US phone carriers make empty, unenforceable promises to fight robocalls

All 50 states agree to let telcos keep doing what they're already doing.
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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...ty-unenforceable-promises-to-fight-robocalls/

mood · Aug 27, 2019

Cable industry fights plan to require robocall-detection technology
NCTA opposes strict deadline on rollout of SHAKEN/STIR Caller ID authentication
August 27, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...lan-to-require-robocall-detection-technology/

The cable industry is fighting an attempt to require deployment of robocall-detection technology.

Some phone providers have already begun deploying the technology in question, which is called SHAKEN/STIR.
Cable lobby NCTA–The Internet & Television Association last week told the FCC in a filing that "these requests for mandatory requirements should be rejected."

While consumer advocates only asked for a strict deadline to apply to large phone companies, NCTA still used its filing to argue that a mandate would harm small phone companies.

"Requiring a company to implement SHAKEN/STIR before it is economically and technologically feasible for that company will only lead to ineffective and inefficient actions."
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mood · Sep 12, 2019

Telstra blocks 2.9m scam calls in one month
September 12, 2019
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-blocks-29m-scam-calls-in-one-month-530924

Telstra blocked 2.9 million “scam calls” in July this year alone, highlighting the need for industry and government to come together on the issue.
Penn said there had been an “exponential increase in the number of scams targeting Australian consumers.”

“This is an industry-wide issue of broad community concern and we need industry, government and regulators to work together to address it,” he said.

“SHAKEN/STIR is a certificate-based authentication for IP voice calls equivalent to the HTTPS certificate system on the internet,” he said.
“Combined with real-time call analytics and call blocking capabilities (as well as law enforcement activities), the industry is confident that impact of this scourge can be diminished and eliminated over time.”
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Victek · Sep 12, 2019

My solution was to install an Ooma Telo which provides very inexpensive VOIP service, and program the device to only allow numbers in the contacts list to ring through. All other calls go directly to voicemail without ringing the phones. This has provided an enormous relief from the daily barrage of spam calls.

ronjor · Sep 12, 2019

Most of the robocalls you get aren't coming from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile numbers

Dalvin Brown, USA TODAY Published 9:03 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2019
The data analytics company Transaction Network Services (TNS) released its bi-annual "Robocall Report" on Thursday, and some of the emerging unwanted call trends included an increase in hijacking mobile numbers and a shift to spoofing toll-free numbers.
However, the most promising news for consumers was that only 12% of high-risk calls received during the first six months of 2019 originated from numbers owned by AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
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mood · Sep 20, 2019

Apple drops the ball implementing SHAKEN/STIR framework in iOS 13
Call verification is there, but it is utterly useless
September 20, 2019
https://www.techspot.com/news/81997-apple-drops-ball-implementing-shakenstir-framework-ios-13.html

Facepalm: Robocalls are annoying, but fortunately, some networks are beginning to implement SHAKEN/STIR technology to fight them. Unfortunately, smartphone makers are part of the equation, and Apple has failed to implement call verification in a useful way.

SHAKEN/STIR is a call authentication framework that is supposed to verify if the numbers coming in are spoofed or not. The FCC is pushing carriers to have the technology put in place by the end of the year. So far, only AT&T and T-Mobile have working systems in the US.

The Verge notes that with the release of iOS 13, Apple has updated the operating system to identify authenticated calls. However, it does not display a verification as the phone is ringing.The only way to know if a number is real is to either answer or let it ring through to voicemail, and then look in the call log to see if the caller has a checkmark, indicating it is a verified number.
Since pulling up the log is after-the-fact, it somewhat defeats the purpose of the system. Of course, it does beat not having it at all, but Apple certainly should reconsider its current verification method.
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ronjor · Oct 3, 2019

Phoenix police bust telemarketing ring that scammed seniors out of $40 million

azfamily.com News Staff 02 oct 2019
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Phoenix police say they have busted a telemarketing fraud ring that has scammed thousands of senior citizens out of more than $40 million. Thirteen people have been arrested.
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mood · Oct 18, 2019

FTC Releases FY 2019 National Do Not Call Registry Data Book
October 17, 2019
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...-2019-national-do-not-call-registry-data-book

The Federal Trade Commission today issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2019. The FTC’s National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry lets consumers choose not to receive most legal telemarketing calls. The data show that the number of active registrations on the DNC Registry increased over the past year, while the total number of consumer complaints decreased for the second year in a row.
FY 2019 Registration and Complaint Data
During the past fiscal year, the FTC continued to receive many consumer complaints about telemarketing robocalls, with the total number of complaints decreasing slightly. In FY 2019, the Commission received 3.78 million complaints about robocalls, compared with 3.79 million in FY 2018.
Significant Changes in the FY 2019 Data
This year, consumers most frequently reported robocalls about imposter scams, with more than 574,000 complaints received. This represents a significant increase from FY 2018, when such complaints comprised only the third most reported category, with approximately 393,000 complaints received.
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mood · Oct 23, 2019

GoDaddy partners with Hiya to target billions of unwanted robocalls with new spam filter feature
October 22, 2019
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/godad...s-unwanted-robocalls-new-spam-filter-feature/

GoDaddy is teaming with Seattle-based startup Hiya to provide an answer for when not to answer your phone.

In an effort to block some of the billions of unwanted robocalls that plague customers, GoDaddy has launched the Spam Call Filter in its SmartLine mobile app. The feature was produced in partnership with Hiya, which works to make the smartphone experience smarter through protection against scam calls.
The new feature will rely on the analysis of billions of global incoming calls per month, as well as expansive algorithms, to send robocalls from known black lists straight to voicemail.

Founded in 2016 and spun out of Whitepages, Hiya says it protects nearly 100 million users from unwanted scam and nuisance calls globally.

“SmartLine’s Spam Call Filter leverages Hiya’s market leading spam detection platform to ensure business owners are protected from nuisance and scam calls,” Alex Algard, CEO of Hiya, said in a news release.
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Hiya: GoDaddy SmartLine Users Now Have Protection From Spam Calls With Hiya

Socio · Oct 23, 2019

It is getting so bad that I have gotten no less that a half a dozen calls from my own phone number so far this week.

Can't very well block your own phone number.

Victek · Oct 23, 2019

Socio said: ↑

It is getting so bad that I have gotten no less that a half a dozen calls from my own phone number so far this week.

Can't very well block your own phone number.
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Yeah, I've seen that. FYI Verizon has a free spam blocking app for android.

ronjor · Nov 5, 2019

Robocalls are winning the war against humans

By Arianne Cohen 11.05.19
Our robocall overlords have officially declared victory, to the tune of 5.7 billion robocalls in the U.S. in October. This is 7% above their prior blowout record of 5.2 billion calls in March, according to a report by YouMail, a robocall blocking app.
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Keatah · Nov 5, 2019

They don't "want" these calls to go away entirely. 5.7 billion calls is a lot of money. And someone is making it.

Reality · Nov 6, 2019

Keatah said: ↑

They don't "want" these calls to go away entirely. 5.7 billion calls is a lot of money. And someone is making it.
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I tend to agree. Gave my phone company some very stern words a few months back about this nonsense and we might have had just one call since, so what does that tell you.

ronjor · Nov 15, 2019

Anti-robocall bill likely as House, Senate reach compromise

By TALI ARBEL 15 Nov 2019
House and Senate leaders said Friday they’ve reached an agreement in principle on merging their bills.
The final bill will require phone companies to verify phone numbers are real and to block calls for free. It will also give government agencies more ability to go after scammers.
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mood · Dec 3, 2019

mood said: ↑

Truecaller: Spam calls jumped over 300% in 2018
December 18, 2018
https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/18/truecaller-spam-calls-jumped-over-300-in-2018/
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Spam calls grew 18% in 2019
December 3, 2019
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/03/truecaller-spam-call-robocall-report-2019/

Do you feel you have been receiving more spam calls of late? You are probably not wrong — or alone.

The volume of spam calls has grown by 18% globally this year, according to Truecaller. In its annual report published Tuesday, the Stockholm-based firm said users worldwide received 26 billion spam calls between January and October this year — up from 17.7 billion during the same period last year.
The United States remains the eighth most spammed country, where the volume of robocalls increased by 35% this year.

Brazil again topped the list for the most spammed country.

“These calls are typically seeking to provide special offers and upselling data plans amongst other services. Scam calls continue to be a big problem in Brazil. Two years ago, only 1% of all the top spammers were scam related, last year it went up to 20% – and this year it is up to 26%,” it said.
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mood · Dec 5, 2019

A man called a telecom company 24,000 times to complain. Now he's been arrested
December 5, 2019
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/04/...4000-complaint-calls-intl-hnk-scli/index.html

A 71-year-old man who allegedly made 24,000 toll-free calls to a telecoms provider to complain that the company had violated his contract has been arrested by police in Japan.
The man, identified as Akitoshi Okamoto, was taken into police custody on November 26 on suspicion of "fraudulent obstruction of business," a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman told CNN.

Police said the man repeatedly called KDDI, a Japanese telecommunications operator, and demanded its staff come to him and apologize for breaking the terms of his service contract.

"He also repeatedly hung up the calls as soon as someone picked up," the spokesman added.
In a statement to CNN, KDDI said it had received some 24,000 calls from Okamoto since May 2017. It eventually decided to file a damage report to the police in October this year, as the man increased his frequency of calling its customer service hotline, which it said "seriously interfered with its business."
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mood · Dec 6, 2019

Court Halts Operations of VoIP Service Provider after the FTC and Ohio Alleged that it Helped Promote Credit Card Interest Reduction Scheme
First FTC case against a VoIP service provider under the Telemarketing Sales Rule
December 5, 2019
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...erations-voip-service-provider-after-ftc-ohio

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Ohio, a federal court has halted the operations of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider Globex Telecom Inc., which allegedly played a key role in robocalling consumers to promote a credit card interest reduction scheme that bilked consumers out of millions of dollars.
The federal court in El Paso, Texas issued a temporary restraining order against Globex and its Canadian counterpart, 9506276 Canada, Inc., that appoints a temporary receiver and freezes the defendants’ assets.

Globex allegedly provided Educare Centre Services—a company that the FTC and Ohio sued in July 2019—with the means to make calls to U.S. consumers, including illegal robocalls, to market Educare’s phony credit card interest rate reduction services.

“The FTC is determined to stop illegal robocallers, including by holding their service providers accountable,” said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “It is unlawful for VoIP service providers to knowingly provide substantial assistance to illegal robocallers, and we will not hesitate to take action against these companies.”
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mood · Dec 11, 2019

Google Fi will warn you about spam calls
A defense against annoying robocalls
December 10, 2019
https://www.engadget.com/2019/12/10/google-fi-spam-calls/

However, there were issues with the Fi experience, with some customers complaining about the number of spam calls they received. Google aims to address that problem with an update to Fi which rolled out this weekend.

The new features for Fi include a warning on screen if a call is suspected to be spam, which will be handy for those dealing with a deluge of robocalls. There's also the ability to block particular numbers. The features are available on all Fi phones, including iPhones and Android devices.
The new options can be found in the Phone Settings screen of the Google Fi app.
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