5 ms·

The FCC is cracking down on 'auto warranty' robocalls

23 points by ikeboy 4y ago

binkHN 4y ago
I've gotten these calls for years. What's different about this this time and why won't it simply continue by some other pseudo-groups or entities in the future?
- sentientslug 4y ago
  1) Nothing 2) It will continue
r4cec4r 4y ago
Purely anecdotal but I've had some success answering these calls and asking to be put on their do not call list. There was one that called me multiples times per day for weeks and left 30 second voicemails each time. I ignored them thinking at some point they'd give up or think the number wasn't active but the calls kept coming. It wasn't until I actually answered one and told them not to call me anymore that the calls stopped. It seems like the general advice is to ignore these calls but anecdotally I've never found that strategy to work.
- jaredhallen 4y ago
  Interesting. I seem to have had the opposite experience. I tried the method you're suggesting for a while, but there always seemed to be a flurry of additional calls after answering one. I thought that maybe the answered call was noted somehow as indicating that the number was valid. Completely anecdotal, just my $0.02.
  - r4cec4r 4y ago
    It seems to depend on the business that's doing the calling I guess. I had one that I answered and the person literally laughed at me and hung up so YMMV.
unstatusthequo 4y ago
Use the DoNotPay feature to give them a fake card and then DNP files a complaint. Get paid. Easy
- more_corn 4y ago
  Nice
metadat 4y ago
One big question still remains open: > Why can't they crack down on all robocalls? It's become a persistent (or at least seasonal) annoyance. Very harmful to the utility of the entire phone system. It's still the wild west today, like pre-gmail email. The private sector mostly solved email spam more than 20 years ago. The fact that phone spam is still happening means something isn't working right in telco land. And no, I don't want to pay a [super offensive] recurring extra monthly fee to the duopoly mafia that is AT&T and Verizon in order to stop or "fight" the spam calls. The duopolists are already receiving a substantial amount of money every month from each subscriber! The current state of affairs is upsetting. p.s. This has been posted multiple times this week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32194227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32194227 2 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32187228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32187228 1 comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32186971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32186971 1 comment Glad to see it finally maybe catching some attention!
- unsignedint 4y ago
  Yeah, better, ban all the telephone cold calls. Noone answers them anyways... For the fairness, compared to emails, I guess this one's a bit harder one to solve -- There are bit of context to work with -- address, contents, etc., and there are so many to classify and get feedback against. (To be able to effectively filter therm, it'll need a lot of spams, as well as non-spams!) Screening phone calls is hard, considering those systems can only work with a phone number which may be spoofed (although, with STIR/SHAKEN, this is increasingly getting some attention). There's a lot of privacy implications (and perhaps a bit of legal implications) to be able to scan contents of the call.

23 points by ikeboy 4y ago

I've gotten these calls for years. What's different about this this time and why won't it simply continue by some other pseudo-groups or entities in the future?

sentientslug 4y ago
1) Nothing 2) It will continue

r4cec4r 4y ago

Purely anecdotal but I've had some success answering these calls and asking to be put on their do not call list. There was one that called me multiples times per day for weeks and left 30 second voicemails each time. I ignored them thinking at some point they'd give up or think the number wasn't active but the calls kept coming. It wasn't until I actually answered one and told them not to call me anymore that the calls stopped. It seems like the general advice is to ignore these calls but anecdotally I've never found that strategy to work.

jaredhallen 4y ago
Interesting. I seem to have had the opposite experience. I tried the method you're suggesting for a while, but there always seemed to be a flurry of additional calls after answering one. I thought that maybe the answered call was noted somehow as indicating that the number was valid. Completely anecdotal, just my $0.02.
- r4cec4r 4y ago
  It seems to depend on the business that's doing the calling I guess. I had one that I answered and the person literally laughed at me and hung up so YMMV.

unstatusthequo 4y ago

Use the DoNotPay feature to give them a fake card and then DNP files a complaint. Get paid. Easy

more_corn 4y ago
Nice

metadat 4y ago

One big question still remains open: > Why can't they crack down on all robocalls? It's become a persistent (or at least seasonal) annoyance. Very harmful to the utility of the entire phone system. It's still the wild west today, like pre-gmail email. The private sector mostly solved email spam more than 20 years ago. The fact that phone spam is still happening means something isn't working right in telco land. And no, I don't want to pay a [super offensive] recurring extra monthly fee to the duopoly mafia that is AT&T and Verizon in order to stop or "fight" the spam calls. The duopolists are already receiving a substantial amount of money every month from each subscriber! The current state of affairs is upsetting. p.s. This has been posted multiple times this week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32194227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32194227 2 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32187228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32187228 1 comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32186971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32186971 1 comment Glad to see it finally maybe catching some attention!

unsignedint 4y ago
Yeah, better, ban all the telephone cold calls. Noone answers them anyways... For the fairness, compared to emails, I guess this one's a bit harder one to solve -- There are bit of context to work with -- address, contents, etc., and there are so many to classify and get feedback against. (To be able to effectively filter therm, it'll need a lot of spams, as well as non-spams!) Screening phone calls is hard, considering those systems can only work with a phone number which may be spoofed (although, with STIR/SHAKEN, this is increasingly getting some attention). There's a lot of privacy implications (and perhaps a bit of legal implications) to be able to scan contents of the call.