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The obvious solution is for phones to work on a whitelist basis: only accept calls from a list of known good numbers. Honestly, I'm astonished people put up wi

The obvious solution is for phones to work on a whitelist basis: only accept calls from a list of known good numbers. Honestly, I'm astonished people put up with this kind of thing. If I was getting the kind of phone spam people are reporting, and no phone company was offering whitelisting, I'd just keep my phone turned off unless I needed it to make an outgoing call.

rahimnathwani 12y ago
Whitelisting sounds appealing. I was going to say that it wouldn't be effective due to the ease of faking caller ID. However, I must admit that wouldn't be a big deal unless the scammer already knew one of the numbers on your whitelist. A bigger problem, though, is that I'd like to accept some calls from strange numbers, like couriers trying to deliver something, or emergency calls from loved ones, or customer service reps calling me back about something. For whitelisting to be effective, we'd have to change other things about the way the phone network and its participants work. BTW if all your friends also turned their phones off except when they wanted to call someone, you'd seldom be able to reach them, unless you happened to call just before/after they had made a call.
- SyneRyder 12y ago
  I've been running a whitelist & blacklist on my landline phone (yes I still have one). Whitelisted callers get one ringtone & the phone flashes green, spam numbers are programmed into my phone as I detect them with no ringtone & the phone flashes pink (for spam). All other calls have a quieter ringtone that I may or may not answer depending on my mood - only once or twice have I missed an important call. I realize landline phones are on the way out, but whoever makes a cordless multi-handset phone station with lots of number memory (I've nearly filled my 100 number memory) and features like VIP-callers-only, full disabling of ringer, and maybe even a downloadable spam/charity-call database, they'll get my next phone upgrade.
vacri 12y ago
There are some legitimate reasons to hide your caller ID. Whitelisting from known good numbers will stop those calls, which may not be a problem for individuals, but is a problem if rolled out across a network.
jmccree 12y ago
I know that android smartactions allows you to set the phone to ring for only certain white listed numbers.

rahimnathwani 12y ago

Whitelisting sounds appealing. I was going to say that it wouldn't be effective due to the ease of faking caller ID. However, I must admit that wouldn't be a big deal unless the scammer already knew one of the numbers on your whitelist. A bigger problem, though, is that I'd like to accept some calls from strange numbers, like couriers trying to deliver something, or emergency calls from loved ones, or customer service reps calling me back about something. For whitelisting to be effective, we'd have to change other things about the way the phone network and its participants work. BTW if all your friends also turned their phones off except when they wanted to call someone, you'd seldom be able to reach them, unless you happened to call just before/after they had made a call.

SyneRyder 12y ago
I've been running a whitelist & blacklist on my landline phone (yes I still have one). Whitelisted callers get one ringtone & the phone flashes green, spam numbers are programmed into my phone as I detect them with no ringtone & the phone flashes pink (for spam). All other calls have a quieter ringtone that I may or may not answer depending on my mood - only once or twice have I missed an important call. I realize landline phones are on the way out, but whoever makes a cordless multi-handset phone station with lots of number memory (I've nearly filled my 100 number memory) and features like VIP-callers-only, full disabling of ringer, and maybe even a downloadable spam/charity-call database, they'll get my next phone upgrade.

vacri 12y ago

There are some legitimate reasons to hide your caller ID. Whitelisting from known good numbers will stop those calls, which may not be a problem for individuals, but is a problem if rolled out across a network.

jmccree 12y ago

I know that android smartactions allows you to set the phone to ring for only certain white listed numbers.