6 ms·

I love Twilio, but every time I get a robocall to my cell phone selling me cheap insurance, I cringe a little, and wonder if Twilio is enabling this. I wish Tw

I love Twilio, but every time I get a robocall to my cell phone selling me cheap insurance, I cringe a little, and wonder if Twilio is enabling this. I wish Twilio had a "is this a Twilio phone number" lookup so that I can report such activity.

nostromo 14y ago
I'm constantly amazed that we don't have "report as spam" for calls and sms yet. Apple could provide this quite easily, and it would be a huge differentiator.
- martindale 14y ago
  We do; it's called Google Voice.
  - zurn 14y ago
    Unfortunately it's not available in most places.
    - soldermont001 14y ago
      and they won't let you block "unknown" numbers.
      - jlgreco 14y ago
        Frankly I am stunned that carriers even let those through in the first place. Has there ever been a person in the history of telephony who wouldn't prefer it if they could never receive calls from unknown numbers? Then I remember that call centers probably rack up huge phone bills...
        zurn 14y ago
        Many countries ban phone spam or have a centralised opt out list. A good side of the regulated telecom world. edit: replying to comment below, many countries have working opt out lists.
        nutanc 14y ago
        The centralized opt out list does not work. We have a centralized "Do Not Disturb" (DND) list in India and it does not work. The marketers always figure out loopholes in the system.
        devcpp 14y ago
        Not with the ban system. Here in France, you can report companies that make automated phone calls and they get strongly punished. I haven't received one in years. Of course, sometimes I get calls from actual humans for polls or advertising a product, but it's much less of a bother since it happens less often and you can reject them.
        jlgreco 14y ago
        I want to know why unknown number, regardless of actual origin (spam or otherwise) is even permitted to go through PBXes or the like. Why isn't everything in the network, including my phone, set to drop "unknown number" calls right on the floor? My phone should be saying to itself "Hold on a second, am I about to turn on the buzzer and display the text "Unknown caller" to the users? /dev/null it."
        zurn 14y ago
        Privacy/anonymity is a basic feature of any useful personal communication mechanism as I hope you know. Snailmail supported it before the phone network, and the internet supported it after the phone network. Though maybe people have forgotten now that they've moved en masse to things like facebook (<rant elided>...) Maybe people don't know how to select this feature when they make calls? At least in GSM based networks you can select it on a per call basis when dialing (#31# prefix). Eg. calling in anonymous tips to your local newspaper, communicating with an annoying company you don't want calling back, etc.
        s_henry_paulson 14y ago
        90% of my unknown calls are people Skyping me. I have no desire to block them.
- Timothee 14y ago
  There is for SMS: forward the spam SMS to the number SPAM/7726. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_spam#Countermeasures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_spam#Countermeasur... Works with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile according to Wikipedia.
- mattmanser 14y ago
  We do in the UK, just forward the spam text message to 7726 (87726 for vodafone). That reports it to your carrier who then reports it to the ICO. No-one knows about it of course, a recent survey found just 3% of people knew it existed or that the ICO were the right people to report these spam messages to.
  - EnderMB 14y ago
    This is the first I've heard of this! I get daily spam texts from PPI companies (I even know what company they're coming from) so this will be invaluable to me. Thanks for posting!
johns 14y ago
If you are getting truly unsolicited calls or messages you can email Twilio and ask them to check it out. However, having worked there and looking up numbers I was getting contacted by, I never had a positive match in Twilio's inventory.
- ryanhuff 14y ago
  I understand these calls could be coming from anywhere, and Twilio isn't the only game in town. Since I am familiar with Twilio, and I know how easy it would be to put up a robo caller, I can't help but suspect. Its what I would use to do it. A self-service search tool would be neat, or maybe a tool to see if any Twilio services have called your number recently. Despite the annoying calls, I don't want to bother Twilio staff with inquiries.
jeffreymcmanus 14y ago
Do you cringe and blame your ISP every time you receive an email spam?
- ryanhuff 14y ago
  Please don't equate email spam to phone call spam. A phone call often requires immediate attention to filter out. Its an interrupt-based process. Email is a different animal.

nostromo 14y ago

I'm constantly amazed that we don't have "report as spam" for calls and sms yet. Apple could provide this quite easily, and it would be a huge differentiator.

martindale 14y ago
We do; it's called Google Voice.
- zurn 14y ago
  Unfortunately it's not available in most places.
  - soldermont001 14y ago
    and they won't let you block "unknown" numbers.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      Frankly I am stunned that carriers even let those through in the first place. Has there ever been a person in the history of telephony who wouldn't prefer it if they could never receive calls from unknown numbers? Then I remember that call centers probably rack up huge phone bills...
      - zurn 14y ago
        Many countries ban phone spam or have a centralised opt out list. A good side of the regulated telecom world. edit: replying to comment below, many countries have working opt out lists.
        nutanc 14y ago
        The centralized opt out list does not work. We have a centralized "Do Not Disturb" (DND) list in India and it does not work. The marketers always figure out loopholes in the system.
        devcpp 14y ago
        Not with the ban system. Here in France, you can report companies that make automated phone calls and they get strongly punished. I haven't received one in years. Of course, sometimes I get calls from actual humans for polls or advertising a product, but it's much less of a bother since it happens less often and you can reject them.
        jlgreco 14y ago
        I want to know why unknown number, regardless of actual origin (spam or otherwise) is even permitted to go through PBXes or the like. Why isn't everything in the network, including my phone, set to drop "unknown number" calls right on the floor? My phone should be saying to itself "Hold on a second, am I about to turn on the buzzer and display the text "Unknown caller" to the users? /dev/null it."
        zurn 14y ago
        Privacy/anonymity is a basic feature of any useful personal communication mechanism as I hope you know. Snailmail supported it before the phone network, and the internet supported it after the phone network. Though maybe people have forgotten now that they've moved en masse to things like facebook (<rant elided>...) Maybe people don't know how to select this feature when they make calls? At least in GSM based networks you can select it on a per call basis when dialing (#31# prefix). Eg. calling in anonymous tips to your local newspaper, communicating with an annoying company you don't want calling back, etc.
      - s_henry_paulson 14y ago
        90% of my unknown calls are people Skyping me. I have no desire to block them.
Timothee 14y ago
There is for SMS: forward the spam SMS to the number SPAM/7726. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_spam#Countermeasures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_spam#Countermeasur... Works with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile according to Wikipedia.
mattmanser 14y ago
We do in the UK, just forward the spam text message to 7726 (87726 for vodafone). That reports it to your carrier who then reports it to the ICO. No-one knows about it of course, a recent survey found just 3% of people knew it existed or that the ICO were the right people to report these spam messages to.
- EnderMB 14y ago
  This is the first I've heard of this! I get daily spam texts from PPI companies (I even know what company they're coming from) so this will be invaluable to me. Thanks for posting!

johns 14y ago

If you are getting truly unsolicited calls or messages you can email Twilio and ask them to check it out. However, having worked there and looking up numbers I was getting contacted by, I never had a positive match in Twilio's inventory.

ryanhuff 14y ago
I understand these calls could be coming from anywhere, and Twilio isn't the only game in town. Since I am familiar with Twilio, and I know how easy it would be to put up a robo caller, I can't help but suspect. Its what I would use to do it. A self-service search tool would be neat, or maybe a tool to see if any Twilio services have called your number recently. Despite the annoying calls, I don't want to bother Twilio staff with inquiries.

jeffreymcmanus 14y ago

Do you cringe and blame your ISP every time you receive an email spam?

ryanhuff 14y ago
Please don't equate email spam to phone call spam. A phone call often requires immediate attention to filter out. Its an interrupt-based process. Email is a different animal.