How many robocalls do you get each month?
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Get Plenty, While I'm Not Home (Score:5, Interesting)
Thankfully, I'm not in the EST PST zones, so the robocalls originally intended to catch me near dinner time are handled by my roboanswers.
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I generally google those phone numbers and block them when they're known robospammers. What's brilliant is that they get a message that the line has been disconnected and I never have to deal with them again. Typically they're from out of state area codes so I'm not likely to want to hear from them anyways.
Number blocking is definitely something that I couldn't give up.
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Your Yugoslavian National Lottery prize was donated to orphans.
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Good for them :)
I miss the obligatory cowboy neil option (Score:5, Insightful)
I miss the obligatory cowboy neil options. These polls just aren't the same without them
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What Cowboy Neal related option would you suggest for this polI?
I can't think of any obvious ones off the top of my head.
Hmmmm....
* I only get robocalls when I'm at Cowboy Neal's house
* I don't get any because Cowboy Neal ate my phone
* I can't get robocalls because Cowboy Neal ties up my phone surfing for porn on dial-up
Re:I miss the obligatory cowboy neil option (Score:5, Funny)
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I'd have chosen that one.
The missing option that I was looking for (which would be correct for me) is "I don't know, I don't answer my phone." At least the land line. Last I checked, there were 54 messages on my answering machine. I'll get around to checking them one of these years, and then maybe I'll know how many robocalls I get.
Or maybe not.
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Cowboy Neil robodials me.
There is always a good Cowboy Neil option if you just think about it a bit.
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* "Just Cowboy Neal"
[I think it would be completely brilliant if the poll software automatically added "Cowboy Neal" (just the name) as a final option to all polls. In the context of a poll, simply that name in isolation can typically be interpreted in hilarious ways — often much funnier than the slightly lame Cowboy Neal options added by the human editors...]
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Only identitity confirmations (Score:2)
Re:Only identitity confirmations (Score:5, Informative)
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You can call pretty much anywhere in the world for free (or freeish) these days if you have the know-how.
To cell phones? Care to share how? SIP gateways to voipbuster and others will call *landlines* for free, but cell phones?
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It's amazing how few you get . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
. . . if they are illegal where you live.
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Even if they're illegal where you live, you can still (and I do) get robo-calls from my House Representative, my Senator, and my local municipality.
That's because, as is usually the case, the law was written in such a way that our legislators are exempted from its provisions.
It's pretty much standard practice, and doesn't vary with whichever party is in power at a given moment.
Re:It's amazing how few you get . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly it was recently pointed out in another slashdot article, that in my country, while the politicians wrote themselves an exemption to the do not call list, they did not exempt themselves from the robocaller rules... of course that didn't stop every single candidate in my riding from robocalling me last election, one of them nearly 10 times.
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I'm in the US, I only have a cell phone, and my number is also registered on the Do Not Call list. I've gotten 2 in the past month from numbers in Washington state. Legality doesn't seem to stop them. Though it's hard to complain since there's never anyone on the other end by the time I answer.
Re:It's amazing how few you get . . . (Score:5, Informative)
They can still call you for surveys. I had a number of those recently after having purchased a vehicle and foolishly giving them my cell number. I did some research and started telling the humans who eventually came on the line that they had reached a business. This results in your number getting removed from their list (unlike actually asking to be removed from the list) since they don't want to screw their numbers by polling a Starbucks.
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Hong Kong has a do-not-call list and a do-not-fax list, both for automated calls only.
Before the do-not-fax list, I got 4-6 junk faxes a day. Now I get maybe one a month. This against maybe 10 legitimate faxes a month, often less, but as a business you still simply need a fax number. Luckily line rent is cheap.
The do-not-call list is less of an effect, as I never got many robot calls. I still get one or two monthly. Plus a human call or two daily. They're so irritating that I've lowered myself even below th
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My other hope is that they will enter me as abusive in their computer system, so the next time their computer tells them to call me, they might just decide to skip me.
I do seem to get fewer calls than I used to, so I think it is working.
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This is marked insightful??
I get about 10-20 a month... and robocalls are illegal where I live unless you have given the company specific prior consent to robocall you (Which I have NEVER done) In addition, I am on my country's do not call list, which makes all telemarketing calls illegal (except from politicians, newspapers, research firms, or charities) And I get an additional 10-20 a month of those illegal phone calls on top of the robocallers. Being on the do not call list has cut the volume down, it us
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Only a problem in the USA (Score:5, Informative)
This is only a problem in the USA. Ok, we get adverts by fax, but robo-calls? Unheard of.
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This is only a problem in the USA. Ok, we get adverts by fax, but robo-calls? Unheard of.
Yeah. This is an unheard problem in the Netherlands. I do get the occasional call-center trying to get me to switch utility or phone company, but if I understand correctly, those aren't robo-calls as there is a human on the other end of the line.
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Damn humans, I'd rather feed them to an Orat.
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Have had them in the UK, but possibly 5 over 15 years; long time since the last. Now it's stray calls to my mobile from Nigeria - what's the deal there? Some odd call-back feature that costs me money?
"Credit Card Services" (Score:5, Interesting)
I get routine calls from "Credit Card Services", letting me know "there is nothing currently wrong with your credit card", but I am eligible for a reduced rate because of my excellent credit score!
It turns out the culprit is JPM Accelerated Services, Inc. [bbb.org]. The FTC convinced a Florida court to place a permanent injunction [ftc.gov] on them back in February 2011.
Still, I get calls. It's from a different phone number every time. I'm guessing that they are phone numbers from google phone, or some other service that is untraceable.
It's pretty hard to get a conversation with a human. If you press '1' to speak with a representative, it usually hangs up on you. Occasionally you get through, but as soon as they think you aren't interested, it's an instant hang-up.
Last week, I managed to convince them to give me the full credit card spiel. After a 60 second speech, finally I spoke and said I just wanted to hear the information so I could report it to the FTC. I'm hoping that scares them enough to take my number off the list. There's nothing else I can do.
Actually, there is one other thing that can be done. You can file a complaint [donotcall.gov] about the offending number (well, assuming you are in the U.S). I do this for each call I get from them, so that they lose the number that they are using.
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Well, now I know what the rest of the spiel must be when I get those calls. I generally hang after "nothing wrong"....\
But then, I generally hang up on calls on my landline. That's what it's for.
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Yeah, I've flagged at least 4-5 calls in Oct/Nov with the FTC from these clowns. They hang up instantly when you start saying "Take me off your lists" or "This is a cellphone" or "I'm on the do-not call list", etc. And that's not even counting the calls from them I didn't pick up.
I have stopped receiving from them as of Novemberish though. So maybe they had until October to comply with the injunction or some such? (I'm too lazy to read through the court docs you linked)
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Some VOIP services can support Trunk lines or DID lines separately. DID is for calling in. Trunk lines is outgoing only lines. As such, the provider of the trunk line can't provide caller ID so the Caller ID is supplies by the company PBX so return calls can be routed to the company DID lines. This leaves an avenue of abuse as the company can set ANY CID string they desire.
Google DID and VOIP Trunk for more information. If you wish to set up your own PBX, the open source Asterisk is a good start. The
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The fact that these people are still in business and not in jail is proof that the US government has no power over corporations.
Oh, they have power, they're just not doing anything. A fact not at all lost on these people.
There's also the Mexican Lottery, which apparently calls out of Georgia or Virginia.
Some travel agency in southern US.
And soon, billions and billions of election calls - yay!
Guess you mean unsolicited calls (Score:2)
cause Nagios calls me when there's an issue out-of-hours
Solutions? (Score:2)
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I've been looking for an app to filter things properly for me, and I think I've finally found it. I just grabbed Mr Number for Android and have set it to immediately hang up on all "suspected spam" (numbers reported by others) with the exception of anyone in my contact list (in case somehow they end up on the list) and to automatically send to voicemail anything not in my address book, with the exception of anything originating from a local area code (I can't remember the last time I got spam called from a
Less than one (Score:5, Interesting)
But not exactly zero.
Very few (Score:2)
1 a month is probably a generous estimate. The ones I do get are telco spam.
Missing Option (Score:2)
I don't know, because I never answer my phone.
Currently being bombarded with calls from collection agencies looking for someone with similar name, but completely different everything else. I keep telling them I'm not the person they are looking for and tell them not to call back. The keep doing so. I've turned the ringer off. What do you do about these jerks? Someone I can report them to?
Re: (Score:2)
I have an ex-roommate who the collection agencies are looking for (actually, this is the third one in a row... I really should pick better tenants!) The last call I got went somewhat like this:
Collections: Hi, we're looking for __________
Me: She doesn't live here anymore
Collections: How can we contact her?
Me: I don't know
Collections: She must have left a forwarding number?
Me: No, she didn't
Collections: But what if you needed to get a hold of her?
Me: I can't, she didn't leave a forwarding number of address
C
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The one that REALLY pisses me off is at home, where I get calls daily for
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I give them my scam bait GV number telling them the person moved.. You can reach him at.. Set up the GV account voice mail as the deadbeat. Tell them it's his cell phone. It does take SMS text messages. Good for the US only.
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Take down their info, explain that they're calling the wrong person. If they call you again, you can sue for a few thousand in most states. My wife gets nuisance calls on her cell phone because whoever had that number six years ago has some debt problems.
I get a lot of political solicitations because I made the mistake of donatign $20 four years ago. At work, we get all kinds of robo-calls, most of them are solicitations for business loans. We also get a lot of cold calls from people that want to switch
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That is hard to enforce though, some bill collection agencies just work in India or offshore, so they are immune to that.
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The Fair Debt Collections Act does not protect people that they mistake for the debtor, only the debtor.
Primaries in NH (Score:2)
None with Google lookup (Score:4)
I don't answer my phone if you're not in my contact list. I then search the number on the 'net. I've found a majority of the spam calls are identified on one of the 800 number sites with lots of comments. I then add the number to the spammer contact. I've found out how many numbers fill up an iPhone contact entry and I'm on my 4th one now.
Carl
Simple - no calls (Score:3, Insightful)
All one has to do is put an Asterisk based interactive voice response system.
"Thank you for calling. Press 1 for ...."
And the robo callers can't seem to get thru my robot. :-)
None, I guess (Score:2)
I don't remember the last time I received a phone call from an automated (pre-recorded or CG) voice. I'm guessing this is the definition of robo-call being used here. The last such call I received might have been about ten years ago.
I do however get about one unsolicited phone call from a live human being about once a month. Surveys, Microsoft AntiVirus scams, telemarketers and the like. Well, either they're human or a very good AI.
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Letting Robo Talk (Score:3)
Fuckers Started Calling My Cell (Score:2)
When I had a landline I routed it through asterisk, by plugging the landline into a SIP gateway. That handily filtered out all manner of automated calls.
I'd guess 1/4 of my phone spams are bots (Score:2)
Maybe I get 2-5 cold calls a day on my land line. One of the most annoying is some cruise line that opens up with a fog horn. You can try telling them to stop, but that only puts on a temporary hold-off list. I bought one of those compressed air horns to blow back at them, but I never remember to use it!
I don't know (Score:2)
Landline is unplugged (Score:2)
The only reason why I have a landline is so I can have a broadband connection. I know you can get cable, but that's only through the large companies that throttle the living crap out of the bandwidth.
I get none to my cell, although I do get the odd "You may be entitled to compensation for the accident you had", but I just filter those out using GoSMS.
Not one, ever (Score:4, Interesting)
I haven't received a single robo-call in my life. Sure, I sometimes get unsolicited calls but there's always a live human at the other end. Even these are rare -- less than 1 per month. And usually from places I have had previous business with or the occasional survey.
I hate to turn this post into an America-bashing socialist diatribe but the American phone market is a great example how an under-regulated market is not in the best interest of the consumer.
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That's not a socialist diatribe; it is a statement of fact. There is a lot of similarities between robocallers and spammers. Both use someone else's equipment and connection (Internet access or phone minutes) to pitch their message, shifting the cost of advertising from them to the recipient.
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How does getting called cost you minutes?
Or is that an american thing too? I thought the receiving sms costing something was weird enough, but getting called costing money is right out idiotic
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If you pick up, you get billed talk time. In other places, only the sender gets billed. Here, cell carriers double-dip and charge minutes on both the caller and the receiver's lines.
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ouch, that's insane, do they charge extra for the lube too?
Google (Score:2)
Best one I ever got (Score:2)
It was a few weeks ago, and the caller ID identified it as "Phone Scam". I googled the number and "Phone Scam", and it appeared to be just that. It was robocallers just trying to get credit card numbers from India or the Middle East.
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To prevent phone scams, our official policy is based on who initiated the call. If we answer the call, the caller is unverified. No personal info is ever given.
We may take the company name, explain the policy, refuse to take a call back phone number, and offer to call them back using their official phone book number. Ask for the extension number to dial once you dial their published number.
Real companies will understand and appreciate the due diligence. Scams will go way out of their way to close the de
Dropped Land Line Because of it. (Score:2)
One of the big reasons I got rid of my land line was all the auto calling. Was a smart decision and never been happier. At one point for every normal message on my answering machine I got when I got home from work there would be 3 from various businesses, charities, etc... all asking me for money or to buy something. Since I only have a cell, I get a few a year, all from companies I do actual business with (which is bad enough). I don't think I will ever go back.
One thing that has to be done, is the phone c
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Apple won't let you download a call blocker? wow... there are dozens of them in the official android market!
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A friend of mine swears by VOIP, he has had it several times through a few companies. For me however the potential drawbacks out weigh the cost benefit.
Power goes out? No phone. (tho you get that with plug ins)
Internet goes out? No phone. Also if you Don't have a cell, you are totally cut off.
Anyway his internet would go out periodically, so the service seemed pretty lame, as you are left with no alternative.
Though going totally mobile you really have to watch your battery, and be careful/paranoid with your
None since I dropped the land line (Score:2)
Don't get any on my cell yet. However, Sprint feels free to occasionally spam me with texts and calls asking me to upgrade to the next level of service.
Someone's Fax Machine (Score:2)
A lot as of late. (Score:2)
Don't even get me started on my land line, I unplugged it from the wall just to stop the phone from ringing -.-;
Some are actually welcome (Score:2)
CVS uses a robo call to alert customers when a prescription is ready, if they don't go and pick it up within a few days of when they asked for it to be ready. I find this service to be helpful, and don't have a problem with an automated call handling it. I actually prefer it... it feels less judgmental than the local pharma-assistant calling, complaining that they have too many filled scripts on their shelves.
In another matter... should I include the calls from my alma mater's (UMass Lowell) alumni associat
I got only a call (Score:2)
College and time to waste (Score:5, Interesting)
Also in college we would fill out random credit card apps just making up everything since those would come about once a month to all students in the dorm. We would collect all of the ones people didn't want. They were postage paid. Eventually we got tired of filling them out and would just stuff the paper back into the envelope and seal it and sent it on it's way. This is also how I found out that it is possible to stuff an entire USA Today news paper into one of those prepaid envelopes.
None ever (Score:3)
I've never had a single robo-call, not ever. Is this a US thing? Because I'm pretty sure it's illegal in Europe. I've not had a landline for years, maybe that has something to do with it.
I'm all for the above solution of torturing sales-scum or robo-scum with asterisk.
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lots on the land line, none on the cell
I've been getting calls on the cell phone telling me I've one an all-expenses paid Caribbean-cruise for two. What's that about, I wonder? Those are the only robocalls I get on the cell phone.
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Last time that happened I reported them and the FCC decided that they were legit. Which puzzles me because I thought that unsolicited commercial robocalls to cell phones weren't allowed.
Re:land line (Score:5, Insightful)
I report ALL such calls to the FCC and to my state (I'm on *both* do-not-call-lists),
and the FCC has been very, very poor at responding in any meaningful way, IMNSHO.
I've been an FCC licensee for over 40 years (amateur radio operator) and I know how to
read and interpret the Rules and Regulations (codified as Title 47, Code of Federal Regulations),
and Part 68 covers the telephone shenanigans. Yet, when I complained (using the web form)
about unsolicited commercial robocalls to my cell phone, the FCC's response was that they
didn't think it was a violation of the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, i.e.,
Title 47, United States Code. Well, so what? It's still a violation of 47 CFR Part 68, Section 1002(b)
(or whatever it is these days) and it's the FCC's job to enforce it. I know that if I use the wrong
emission in the wrong sub band of the amateur radio spectrum, I'm going to be nailed for a
violation of 47 CFR Part 97 Section , so why *won't* the FCC nail the robocallers?
(FWIW, my state has nailed a few of the perps, but it appears to be a whack-a-mole game, sadly enough)
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See, the mistake you made is in thinking that the government will actually expend anything more than a token effort in enforcing a law that solely benefits the individual citizen over the government or a corporation.
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Same here. It starts a blow horn and then the words "here is your captain speaking...". For fun, I waited once until the end of the message where I can speak with a rep, so I can ask them to take me off their list (I am not on the Canadian Registry so I asked each company that called me to take me off their own list). Anyways, before I could reach someone, there was a couple of questions to make sure I qualified for timeshare (which is what this cruise call was about anyways).
Since I knew that people qualif
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I dropped my land line years ago. I haven't received any on my cell in at least a year. There was one last year sometime, and I waited for a live voice and said:
"This is a cell phone and it's illegal to phone for telemarketing. Remove me off your list."
I haven't had any since then. Not that foreign call centres would care about our country's laws, unless it's company in the country outsourcing, which it must have been.
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None for me :-)
They're illegal in the UK. "Regulation 19 of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 requires that companies or organisations making automated marketing telephone calls have the prior consent of the subscribers they are calling."
(I have had calls from computers -- twice I've been called to verify that a strange credit card transaction isn't fraudulent.)
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The ones that remain (one or two a month) are from overseas numbers which aren't as easily regulated. Most of them are from "windowservices" who try to scam you into giving them VNC control of your machines, I just feign ignorance and keep them on the line for as long as possible. It's fun, and if they're talking to me then they're not talking to 80 year old Mrs Higgins who doesn't know any better.
"OK, yet,
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I missed that whole thing. I dropped my land line in 1999, before spam calling got really big and I've registered my cell number on the do not call list since it was established. I get maybe 3 or 4 random sales calls per year. If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't know about the car warranty scams and such.
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Getting those politco robocalls in Texas. The real annoying thing is when you pick up, they start connecting you to an ACD queue on hold. Downside is that if it happens on a landline, call blocker from the telco refuses to work with 800 numbers. Upside, Mr. Number on Android does, and does it with a cold and ruthless persistence. I'd also recommend iBlacklist, but I've not used that since iOS 5, so don't know if it still working.
Re:What? (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the better solutions I've seen was a friend who has two phone numbers. The first is his private one that will only ring for people on his contact list. The second is a $10 prepaid phone [1] (permanently set on silent) with basic minutes on it. Its sole job is just to be the object of forbidden affection to robodialers. He checks the voice mail from another phone, so the minutes are not burned up, and tosses another prepaid card on the line every 2 months to keep it current. If a spammer sprays text messages, he just clears it out and it doesn't affect minutes, as the texts are not read.
This is a good compromise because a number can be handed out to people/businesses/websites that demand it, but won't take no for an answer.
One interesting loophole around the do not call act: Some businesses with an active relationship will refer other businesses who will robocall, and will say they have an active relationship with the victim because they are part of the transaction (when in reality, the first business just sold their customer list to someone else for some cash.)
[1]: Those cheap Nokia phones are surprisingly well made. For the little bit they do, the UI is decent, they store a fairly decent amount of numbers, and can take a pounding.
Re:What? (Score:5, Interesting)
"This is a good compromise because a number can be handed out to people/businesses/websites that demand it, but won't take no for an answer."
I usually just tell them "No." when they even mention my phone number, but recently Lowe's hardware chain has taken a different approach--they woman ringing me up asked "Can I have your phone number in case you need to return anything?". I responded by asking her if she was suggesting that I couldn't return the items if I didn't have a phone and she replied "No, not at all." Nice try, but the answer is still "No.".
If anything, this indicates the value of my phone number to them--they are willing to deceive me to get it. Somebody should start a clearing house where people can sell their own phone numbers to the business sector and cut out all of these assholes once and for all. Government can follow up by making unsolicited calls to any number that is not listed in a clearing house illegal to call. Businesses can then pay the clearing houses for their phone-lists and the payments are dispersed quarterly to the owners of those numbers...or something to that effect.
Re:None (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the same as giving your real name. To the bank give your full name (including middle name); nobody else. If you EVER get any junk mail with your middle name included, you know who ratted you out.
Re:None (Score:4, Funny)
Better yet, calculate a MD5 Hash of the company to whom you give your information, and write it as your middle name. :D
Hello! My name is : John 9959cc778b980d1131f6589d414c757b Doe
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It's a neat idea, but you'll never know about the last digit, there's no way they are going to dial 10 digits, wait 20 seconds for you to answer, then dial the last 1.
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It's also great when you want to make your phone number spell out something memorable, and you're missing a letter or two at the end. For example, nobody will remember 349-2352,
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I know this... What I was pointing out was that the original poster was trying to use it to ID who has sold his number. That won't work, because even though the number will still connect, you won't hear the last number dialed to know who it was who sold the number.
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Most social engineering is low-tech. That's why it works.
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I had a typo on my car registration one year. The middle initial was wrong. I was going to fix it, but before I could go back to fix it I started getting junk mail with the error. Due to this, I never fixed the error and left it in place until I sold the car. The DMV was responsible for about 1/3 of my junk mail.
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Unfortunately that doesn't work in the UK, but there are still plenty of ways you can catch people selling your data and block them. If you add a letter to your house number, and then if someone starts spamming it just mark the letter "no such address" and shove it back into a post box, at which point the Royal Mail will add it to their blacklist.
Fake names are fun, my personal favourite being "Richard Soul" (you can tell if they are paying attention because they shorten it to "R. Soul").
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My mother had a fun experience once with a telemarketer about the mortgage on her house. The telemarketer kept insisting that they could provide a cheaper mortgage. She wanted to get a written promise from them that they would be cheaper than her current mortgage but they couldn't provide her with one.
In the end she had something else to do so she told them she had no mortgage (which is true btw) and the telemarketer got angry at her for wasting his time.
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I don't think giving out your number makes much difference, dialing an entire area code sequentially is very easy for most telemarketing companies, and knowing how telcos hand out numbers by prefix you can even narrow it down a lot further than that fairly simply. These companies don't care how many disconnected numbers they try.
Now living in Holland may have something to do with it. Though I don't know why telemarketers over there would be any more ethical than those anywhere else in the world (and don't s
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We call it a ring trip... I suppose if you don't care it's not much of a problem right now. But those do have a tendency to become a complete short over time (or with the right weather) so you may find sometime soon that you don't have a phone line at all.
The problem is caused when the insulation between the 2 wires of the phone line partially breaks down, either by getting wet, or by the wires being crushed or rubbed together, the phone line normally operates at 48-52 volts DC which isn't enough to get thr