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I'm not sure why they singled out hospitals (and particularly patients) for this article. This is a problem for any business and indeed anyone with a phone. I g

I'm not sure why they singled out hospitals (and particularly patients) for this article. This is a problem for any business and indeed anyone with a phone. I get the calls constantly. While a hospital emergency line getting one of these calls is annoying, and perhaps more detrimental than another business getting calls, it still doesn't stand out enough to warrant any specific focus like this. Police, fire, and ambulance services are all affected as well. Aside from the hospital's emergency number, they're just a big business, and the disruption to their administrative staff is no more harmful to society than the disruption of any office's administrative staff. And the patients are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The FCC just last week started tackling this. They're working on allowing telco providers to implement blocking and also whitelisting. I haven't read all the details, but it seems like there were regulations preventing them from acting, and they're trying to remove those regulations. In the end, this is a technical problem. It simply shouldn't be possible to spoof phone numbers this way. Surely the major telcos know where these calls are originating, at least on a network level. If they're all coming from China, clearly they're not going to block all of China, but they could ensure that calls coming from China's telco(s) are not routed if their source caller ID info is spoofed to indicate a US network. That might not stop the calls, but at least they wouldn't show up as coming from US numbers. If you've never been a recipient of one of these calls, one of the hallmarks is that the caller ID will show it coming from the same area code and exchange as your number. So if your phone number is 917-555-1212, the calls will usually appear to come from 917-555-XXXX. Surely the phone company has a way to identify and handle this situation, at least better than they do now. Mobile phones probably complicate this. Maybe someone who knows how the networks operate can speak about the technical barriers? [1]: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-51A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-51A1.pdf

bredren 7y ago
It isn’t that I disbelieve you. But why do you think they originate from China? Almost all of mine are related to health insurance or small business loans. Is this what you think comes from China?
- deleted 7y ago
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- caymanjim 7y ago
  Literally all the spam calls I receive are in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin, but from what I've read, it's a scam targeting Mandarin speakers, telling them that they or their loved ones back in China are in some legal or immigration trouble, and demanding that money be sent to someone in China. As I don't speak Mandarin, I can't confirm that all my calls are this specific scam, nor does that necessarily mean that the calls originate in China. The "block China" comment was more of an example. For all I know, it's a scam organized and operated from inside the US that just happens to target Mandarin speakers. My comment was for illustrative purposes, with some assumptions backed by various news articles (a few random ones linked below). I should note that I have a NYC phone number and this specific Chinese-targeted scam is the source of basically all spam calls to New Yorkers (anecdotally, but strongly so based on everyone I know in NYC getting the same calls, and on the reporting indicating that SF and NYC are the prime targets). [1]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-all-those-chinese-speaking-robocalls/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-all-those-chinese-... [2]: https://www.pcmag.com/news/367491/chinese-embassy-robocall-scam-rakes-in-40m-from-victims https://www.pcmag.com/news/367491/chinese-embassy-robocall-s... [3]: https://www.npr.org/2018/05/10/609117134/chinese-robocalls-bombarding-the-u-s-are-part-of-an-international-phone-scam https://www.npr.org/2018/05/10/609117134/chinese-robocalls-b...
- stevenwoo 7y ago
  About half of my spam voice mail messages are in Mandarin but I assume they are targeting me because I have a northern California prefix (there was a huge phone scam involving elderly Chinese in San Francisco recently), and have no clue of the country of origin.
lovetocode 7y ago
What I have noticed is that these spam calls follow my geolocation as well. I recently took a trip to Washington DC and within minutes of checking into the JW Marriott downtown I get an insurance spam call from a DC number. I have a Georgia number and I always get spam calls from Georgia numbers. Coincidence? Maybe but, this tells me that either 1) they spam call phones in a LAC with some sort of SIGINT equipment , 2) my Gmail calendar is compromised or my Gmail data is being sold and purchased by these folks so they know where I am or 3) JW Marriott is compromised. I may sound like a conspiracy theorist but I think there is something to it. Honestly I would not be surprised if it was 1 or 2 since it would be easiest to target a large set of people.
Balgair 7y ago
FWIW, the elevators at work have been spammed pretty regularly now. It's about once a week that someone gets through to it when I'm on an elevator. It's not just hospitals, it's any phone at all. I've deleted my voicemail and that seems to have helped a small bit. I'm on the job hunt and as such I get a lot more spam than when I was not in the market. Yes, some recruiters and HR people may fall through the gaps and I may not call them back, but generally anyone that wants to talk to me will send an email as well. I'm kinda using a crummy 2FA for the job hunt.

bredren 7y ago

It isn’t that I disbelieve you. But why do you think they originate from China? Almost all of mine are related to health insurance or small business loans. Is this what you think comes from China?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
caymanjim 7y ago
Literally all the spam calls I receive are in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin, but from what I've read, it's a scam targeting Mandarin speakers, telling them that they or their loved ones back in China are in some legal or immigration trouble, and demanding that money be sent to someone in China. As I don't speak Mandarin, I can't confirm that all my calls are this specific scam, nor does that necessarily mean that the calls originate in China. The "block China" comment was more of an example. For all I know, it's a scam organized and operated from inside the US that just happens to target Mandarin speakers. My comment was for illustrative purposes, with some assumptions backed by various news articles (a few random ones linked below). I should note that I have a NYC phone number and this specific Chinese-targeted scam is the source of basically all spam calls to New Yorkers (anecdotally, but strongly so based on everyone I know in NYC getting the same calls, and on the reporting indicating that SF and NYC are the prime targets). [1]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-all-those-chinese-speaking-robocalls/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-all-those-chinese-... [2]: https://www.pcmag.com/news/367491/chinese-embassy-robocall-scam-rakes-in-40m-from-victims https://www.pcmag.com/news/367491/chinese-embassy-robocall-s... [3]: https://www.npr.org/2018/05/10/609117134/chinese-robocalls-bombarding-the-u-s-are-part-of-an-international-phone-scam https://www.npr.org/2018/05/10/609117134/chinese-robocalls-b...
stevenwoo 7y ago
About half of my spam voice mail messages are in Mandarin but I assume they are targeting me because I have a northern California prefix (there was a huge phone scam involving elderly Chinese in San Francisco recently), and have no clue of the country of origin.

lovetocode 7y ago

What I have noticed is that these spam calls follow my geolocation as well. I recently took a trip to Washington DC and within minutes of checking into the JW Marriott downtown I get an insurance spam call from a DC number. I have a Georgia number and I always get spam calls from Georgia numbers. Coincidence? Maybe but, this tells me that either 1) they spam call phones in a LAC with some sort of SIGINT equipment , 2) my Gmail calendar is compromised or my Gmail data is being sold and purchased by these folks so they know where I am or 3) JW Marriott is compromised. I may sound like a conspiracy theorist but I think there is something to it. Honestly I would not be surprised if it was 1 or 2 since it would be easiest to target a large set of people.

Balgair 7y ago

FWIW, the elevators at work have been spammed pretty regularly now. It's about once a week that someone gets through to it when I'm on an elevator. It's not just hospitals, it's any phone at all. I've deleted my voicemail and that seems to have helped a small bit. I'm on the job hunt and as such I get a lot more spam than when I was not in the market. Yes, some recruiters and HR people may fall through the gaps and I may not call them back, but generally anyone that wants to talk to me will send an email as well. I'm kinda using a crummy 2FA for the job hunt.