10 ms·

Now we need to go after the robocall spammers. They waste so much time of so many people -- worse that email spammers. I swear they are doing +1B of spam call

Now we need to go after the robocall spammers. They waste so much time of so many people -- worse that email spammers. I swear they are doing +1B of spam calls per month in North America.

bduerst 11y ago
Apparently there were 214,000 people who complained about robo callers to the FCC last year. If you think about how obscure that reporting process is and extrapolate to the real number, you're probably not that far from the truth.
- bhouston 11y ago
  I get one or more a day but then again I have a business line with a Google listing. I started to use the whitepages caller Id all to block known slammers - it is pretty good.
- wanderingstan 11y ago
  I've complained and was appalled at how obtuse the process is. (E.g. the FCC requires that you include hyphens in phone numbers, the Do-not-call list won't allow numbers with hyphens.) I've thought of making an app to automate the process. It would remember all form's entries for you (name, address, etc) and fill in the current time and date. You'd just have to copy the phone number. Think there's any demand for this?
  - joelberman 11y ago
    And then they thank you for reporting, tell you that they cannot handle individual complaints, and close the case. If they fixed the problem they could handle more difficult cases.
- srtjstjsj 11y ago
  The real number is obviously "every phone number".
Someone1234 11y ago
Many robocall spammers are located abroad. They use VoIP endpoints to connect with US phone numbers for pennies on the dollar (relative to international calling prices). But that's not even the biggest problem, the biggest problem is that it is trivial to spoof caller IDs in the US, and many of those operators do just that. So tracking down who actually called can be tricky, then even if you could you still need to either get them extradited for robocalls (which isn't happening) or get them prosecuted abroad for breaking US law (which, again, isn't happening). I personally feel like it can be solved however it has to be solved like this: - Eliminated caller ID spoofing through technical means. - Once caller ID is accurate, you can both have apps/databases with known bad callers or callers from VoIP providers, and or you could fine the VoIP providers facilitating this type of activity in the US (i.e. give them a motivation to stop abusive behaviour on their services). I mean heck, if a VoIP limited each account to just ten calls per minute, it would massively decrease the volume of robocalls overnight. But none do because they have a financial motivation to keep allowing these companies to operate on their services and zero motivation to stop them (since it is almost untraceable anyway).
- bduerst 11y ago
  Isn't this what the FCC is for? Can't they require providers to update their standards for the public? It would be interesting if they could implement a system where you could dial (555-555-5555) or something after receiving a robocall, which would log your last received call as being fraudulent and flag it for providers to shadow ban it. Would that work for spoofing caller ID?
  - bhouston 11y ago
    Whitepages caller Id app for Android does this. But it only blocks rather than reporting to fcc.
    - Someone1234 11y ago
      Wouldn't that be subject to caller ID spoofing? For example we get calls from randomly generated local area code numbers (according to caller ID) but they actually originate out of state.
qiqing 11y ago
In China, Xiaomi phone users have a "report spam" button, and if X number of people report that phone number as a spammer, calls from that number get blocked on all other Xiaomi phones. (I think X = 5, but I'm not sure.) I really wished we had something like that here. One of the only times I'm jealous of my mom's phone.
- jonknee 11y ago
  That seems like a nightmare to police.
  - 15155 11y ago
    "Is this number generating call volumes two standard deviations outside the norm?"
  - bhouston 11y ago
    How is this different from the report spam or phishing button that is built into Gmail?
    - eli 11y ago
      Thise spam buttons are a lot more complicated on the back end and they're still a pain for legitimate mailers, which requires google set up and maintain a "feedback loop" program for email providers
- arihant 11y ago
  Truecaller has that feature.
fletchowns 11y ago
I have been getting some bullshit robocalls constantly recently, some recording about Google+ blah blah blah. I just hang up and block the number. I swear 90% of my phone & snail mail spam comes from the fact that I used my real name & address (PO Box) for domain names I've registered (as required by ICANN). I mean I doubt ICANN can enforce that but it'd be a dumb way to lose my domains so I used real info.
- srtjstjsj 11y ago
  The Google+ one is a new popular one, and it's impressive that someone things Google+ is worth conning about. WHOIS Privacy FTW

Now we need to go after the robocall spammers. They waste so much time of so many people -- worse that email spammers. I swear they are doing +1B of spam calls per month in North America.

bduerst 11y ago

Apparently there were 214,000 people who complained about robo callers to the FCC last year. If you think about how obscure that reporting process is and extrapolate to the real number, you're probably not that far from the truth.

bhouston 11y ago
I get one or more a day but then again I have a business line with a Google listing. I started to use the whitepages caller Id all to block known slammers - it is pretty good.
wanderingstan 11y ago
I've complained and was appalled at how obtuse the process is. (E.g. the FCC requires that you include hyphens in phone numbers, the Do-not-call list won't allow numbers with hyphens.) I've thought of making an app to automate the process. It would remember all form's entries for you (name, address, etc) and fill in the current time and date. You'd just have to copy the phone number. Think there's any demand for this?
- joelberman 11y ago
  And then they thank you for reporting, tell you that they cannot handle individual complaints, and close the case. If they fixed the problem they could handle more difficult cases.
srtjstjsj 11y ago
The real number is obviously "every phone number".

Someone1234 11y ago

Many robocall spammers are located abroad. They use VoIP endpoints to connect with US phone numbers for pennies on the dollar (relative to international calling prices). But that's not even the biggest problem, the biggest problem is that it is trivial to spoof caller IDs in the US, and many of those operators do just that. So tracking down who actually called can be tricky, then even if you could you still need to either get them extradited for robocalls (which isn't happening) or get them prosecuted abroad for breaking US law (which, again, isn't happening). I personally feel like it can be solved however it has to be solved like this: - Eliminated caller ID spoofing through technical means. - Once caller ID is accurate, you can both have apps/databases with known bad callers or callers from VoIP providers, and or you could fine the VoIP providers facilitating this type of activity in the US (i.e. give them a motivation to stop abusive behaviour on their services). I mean heck, if a VoIP limited each account to just ten calls per minute, it would massively decrease the volume of robocalls overnight. But none do because they have a financial motivation to keep allowing these companies to operate on their services and zero motivation to stop them (since it is almost untraceable anyway).

bduerst 11y ago
Isn't this what the FCC is for? Can't they require providers to update their standards for the public? It would be interesting if they could implement a system where you could dial (555-555-5555) or something after receiving a robocall, which would log your last received call as being fraudulent and flag it for providers to shadow ban it. Would that work for spoofing caller ID?
- bhouston 11y ago
  Whitepages caller Id app for Android does this. But it only blocks rather than reporting to fcc.
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    Wouldn't that be subject to caller ID spoofing? For example we get calls from randomly generated local area code numbers (according to caller ID) but they actually originate out of state.

qiqing 11y ago

In China, Xiaomi phone users have a "report spam" button, and if X number of people report that phone number as a spammer, calls from that number get blocked on all other Xiaomi phones. (I think X = 5, but I'm not sure.) I really wished we had something like that here. One of the only times I'm jealous of my mom's phone.

jonknee 11y ago
That seems like a nightmare to police.
- 15155 11y ago
  "Is this number generating call volumes two standard deviations outside the norm?"
- bhouston 11y ago
  How is this different from the report spam or phishing button that is built into Gmail?
  - eli 11y ago
    Thise spam buttons are a lot more complicated on the back end and they're still a pain for legitimate mailers, which requires google set up and maintain a "feedback loop" program for email providers
arihant 11y ago
Truecaller has that feature.

fletchowns 11y ago

I have been getting some bullshit robocalls constantly recently, some recording about Google+ blah blah blah. I just hang up and block the number. I swear 90% of my phone & snail mail spam comes from the fact that I used my real name & address (PO Box) for domain names I've registered (as required by ICANN). I mean I doubt ICANN can enforce that but it'd be a dumb way to lose my domains so I used real info.

srtjstjsj 11y ago
The Google+ one is a new popular one, and it's impressive that someone things Google+ is worth conning about. WHOIS Privacy FTW