SPAM/Robocalls on Android

[vox 70]

There is a special place in hell for these fuckers.

In the meantime, I'm looking for the best app to block this scourge.  I get 5 or 6 robocalls/SPAM calls a day for business loans, auto warranties, etc.

Fucking bitches.

Registered with the Do Not Call Registry.  Did exactly NOTHING.  Registered multiple times in fact over the course of the past 4 or 5 years.

Anyhow...which app are you guys using and why?

I'll hang up and listen now.

[Knoxtnhorn 6055]

Just do what I do at school.  Answer the phone in your best Sol Rosenberg voice, prank the caller, and entertain the students.

On a serious note, I'd also like to know how this is still a thing.

[Parliament 14260]

If it isn't from a prefix I recognize, I send it to voicemail. Later, whenever I feel like it, I'll listen to it. If it's spam, I block the number.

Word seems to get around. I was getting 5 a day from all kindsa random callers. Started blocking, and now I get very few.

[TwiceHorn 31495]

I used Trucaller for a while, it's pretty good, but has some ads.  Now using Hiya.  It is free, but there's a paid version but no ads in the free version.  Seems to work pretty well.

 

One thing it doesn't get, that I understand is the latest/greatest type of robocall is calls from your area code with your prefix.  I just ignore those/send em to VM.  Not sure any of the screening/blocking apps get those because they are peculiar to your area code and prefix and the blocking is based on reports from the internet of spam calls.

Edited October 11, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[vox 70]

If it was easy as blocking numbers, I'd be golden.

These fuckers are spoofing numbers continuously with many starting with my originating exchange (214-441-xxxx).

The FCC needs to stop this shit.  This can't be hard.  The telemarketing lobby must be giving out blowjobs with their campaigns donations.

 

[RPM 26322]

My Huawei came with a preinstalled blacklist feature that I didn't find until after I loaded TrueCaller (which is a PITA, btw).  Deleted TC and switched to the preinstalled one. So far, so good. The main problem is the spam callers spoof the number they are calling from to look like a call from someone local. Now if I don't recognize the number, it goes straight to voice mail. No message, no return call.

[RowdyVic 106]

Oh these cocksuckers blow up my phone all the time. It is sooo frustrating. The app i started using is mr. number. It will take some time to block them all but eventually it will slow down.

Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk

[elfenix 34308]

i just don't answer the phone.  everyone i would want to talk to is already programmed in, or google's caller ID function properly IDs it (instead of just the number it shows the business name as well, so if the vet calls to confirm the appointment it says it's from Gulf Coast Animal Eye Clinic)

Edited October 11, 2018 by elfenix

[Mikey4 2476]

I use hiya. It's pretty good, but honestly I just don't answer the phone anymore if it's not a number in my contacts. Of the calls from numbers I don't recognize, probably 95% are spam of some form. The other 5% can leave a message & I'll call them back.

[Gene Parmesan 4008]

I get 3-4 a day.  I can't remember the last time I answered my phone from an unknown number.  It doesn't even register as a minor inconvenience in my mind.  Maybe you guys need a vacation or something. 

[Catpfish 618]

Or you are in a business that relies on customer contact and you really need to answer the phone

[Orange&White 5528]

On 10/10/2018 at 7:20 PM, vox said:

If it was easy as blocking numbers, I'd be golden.

These fuckers are spoofing numbers continuously with many starting with my originating exchange (214-441-xxxx).

The FCC needs to stop this shit.  This can't be hard.  The telemarketing lobby must be giving out blowjobs with their campaigns donations.

 

I'll just go on record as saying that I would give out your number, and anyone else's number, freely, in exchange for blowjobs. Alas, I am not employed by the FCC.

[Brisketexan 105154]

My answer to this is legislative, and simple.

These calls are placed by phone farms, and then any business generated goes to specific businesses (duct cleaners, alarm companies, etc).

Calling from a spoofed number is deemed to be fraud, and any and all business derived from a fraudulent call shall be deemed to be a fraud. Such fraud shall be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 per transaction (that is, per call), to be paid by any/all parties in the chain of the transaction.

A claim may be filed by the Attorney general of any state, or by any citizen as a qui tam action, entitling the citizen to 30% of any recovery.

Start popping your local alarm company for $200k, and shit will straighten out real quick.

[woohorn 1131]

On a serious note, I'd also like to know how this is still a thing.

This. I do not patronize anyone who cold calls or solicits door to door. Only exceptions are neighbor kids/scouts. Only lapse was using a neighbor Edward Jones guy who came around years ago (and I learned my lesson there).

I don't understand who would hire some cold caller that uses spoofing to come into their home for ANYTHING. Probably lonely incels and old folks?

[gsoda3 3263]

On 10/10/2018 at 5:38 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

Just do what I do at school.  Answer the phone in your best Sol Rosenberg voice, prank the caller, and entertain the students.

On a serious note, I'd also like to know how this is still a thing.

you pick up your phone when you have kids in the classroom?

[TwiceHorn 31495]

27 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

My answer to this is legislative, and simple.

These calls are placed by phone farms, and then any business generated goes to specific businesses (duct cleaners, alarm companies, etc).

Calling from a spoofed number is deemed to be fraud, and any and all business derived from a fraudulent call shall be deemed to be a fraud. Such fraud shall be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 per transaction (that is, per call), to be paid by any/all parties in the chain of the transaction.

A claim may be filed by the Attorney general of any state, or by any citizen as a qui tam action, entitling the citizen to 30% of any recovery.

Start popping your local alarm company for $200k, and shit will straighten out real quick.

Remember all the blastfax litigation?

[Knoxtnhorn 6055]

5 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

you pick up your phone when you have kids in the classroom?

Only when I know it's a spam call.  10 second break.

[TwiceHorn 31495]

Oddball thing, but kind of cool.  I noticed Hiya has started flagging calls with the same ac and prefix as my number.

[hayden_horn 11362]

On 10/10/2018 at 7:20 PM, vox said:

If it was easy as blocking numbers, I'd be golden.

These fuckers are spoofing numbers continuously with many starting with my originating exchange (214-441-xxxx).

The FCC needs to stop this shit.  This can't be hard.  The telemarketing lobby must be giving out blowjobs with their campaigns donations.

 

yeah, these are the spam calls i get. all my area code and exchange.

i still answer because it could be AISD for some reason about my kid.

"you've won a 3 day crui-"click

[idigTexas 2289]

I use AT&T Call Protect.  It's free and came installed on my phone with the other carrier apps.  It does a pretty good job, but isn't 100% perfect.

[Post Oak 20245]

I use youmail .  It's ok.  I don't pay for the premium.  I just add a number to the blacklist every time i get a call.

[gsoda3 3263]

On 10/15/2018 at 5:53 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

Only when I know it's a spam call.  10 second break.

i don't know of any district where picking up a phone call in the middle of class isn't a fireable offense.  why do you pick it up, is it worth the risk?

[Dewey 3286]

If it was easy as blocking numbers, I'd be golden.
These fuckers are spoofing numbers continuously with many starting with my originating exchange (214-441-xxxx).
The FCC needs to stop this shit.  This can't be hard.  The telemarketing lobby must be giving out blowjobs with their campaigns donations.
 

This was covered by Nbc nightly, basically they have something in the works for all these robocalls, which are out of control and only getting worse. But yes, telemarketers lobby.
I block every number and then new ones pop up. Most are from my area code 512 and San Antonio 210.

[Knoxtnhorn 6055]

Really?  I've never heard of anyone getting fired for taking a phone call - within reason.  I suppose a teacher could get in trouble for having multiple and/or long conversations OR answering the phone after having been told to not use a phone in the classroom.  I take, maybe, one call every 2 weeks.  Sometimes it's a call from my son's school; sometimes it's a sales call.  It's really not that big of a deal, but I appreciate your concern.

[Prepuce of Doom 21079]

I have had pretty decent success with an open source app called NoPhoneSpam. 

I didn't care for the snooping implications of most of the other apps of that sort, but this one is pretty bare bones and allows you to block calls in batches using the * as a wildcard character, so it can be useful for blocking spoofed numbers that are highly similar to your own, assuming that you can afford to do so. 

I'm in the admittedly rather unique position where I have almost no relationship to anyone in the area code I lived in when I was first assigned my number 17 years ago with the exception of my wife, whose number shares my area code, prefix, and the next digit. It took me about 20 minutes to program a blockage for every single combination of numbers with my area code and interchange except for my wife's. 

It misses a few here and there for some reason (I suspect that there might be different spoofing technologies that can slip past?) but it's decent enough for my needs, considering that Verizon is such a piece of shit nickle and dime operation that they charge for the same blocking technology that other providers give for free. 

[Bernard 879]

On 10/15/2018 at 11:58 AM, Brisketexan said:

My answer to this is legislative, and simple.

These calls are placed by phone farms, and then any business generated goes to specific businesses (duct cleaners, alarm companies, etc).

Calling from a spoofed number is deemed to be fraud, and any and all business derived from a fraudulent call shall be deemed to be a fraud. Such fraud shall be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 per transaction (that is, per call), to be paid by any/all parties in the chain of the transaction.

A claim may be filed by the Attorney general of any state, or by any citizen as a qui tam action, entitling the citizen to 30% of any recovery.

Start popping your local alarm company for $200k, and shit will straighten out real quick.

Most of them are scams. Rachel from Card Services isn’t really trying to get you to switch cards. She’s just trying to get you to give up your account details. 

Death penalty for robo calls is A-OK with me.

Bernard

[thunderlounge 7866]

I also use the AT&T Call Protect as one of several layers in my attempt to thwart these cunt rags. I'm, using the $3.99/mo option, and it's been worth it.

I also use an iPhone app called "wide protect" which allows me to block various ranges of numbers, but any number in your contacts that may be in that range will pass through. For example, I got my current number 15+ years ago when I was still in the Navy. I booked it from there as soon as I was out, and only I have 3 people in my contact list from that area code. I used the wide protect app to block that entire area code.

Blocking an individual number won't work for long. They'll simply spoof another number as soon as all the block apps catch up (usually within a couple of days.)

I started out almost 3 years ago with a custom voicemail solution, and sent any unknown/unlisted/unrecognized number straight to voicemail. I went from over a dozen a day to maybe a couple a week after a few weeks of that. Then it trickled to hardly any over the course of a month. I could always tell when my number hit a new list, as I would get a rush of calls (maybe a dozen in a week) which then died out as it went back to the maybe 1 in a month.

My next step was getting rid of the random surge of calls. This is when I picked up the wide protect app (no ads, free) and blocked the entire area code my number is in. This curbed some of the surges, but not all. I've also added a couple other area codes which I had noticed were hit hard with these types of call. Knowing I didn't need to field any calls from those area codes helped.

Finally, about 6 months ago I added the at&t part. That's taken any remaining surges out, and now I hardly get any at all.

 

I swear I'd need bail money if I ever met one of these fuckers (or email spammers) in person.

 

 

[vox 70]

5 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

I swear I'd need bail money if I ever met one of these fuckers (or email spammers) in person.

 

 

 

On 10/17/2018 at 6:48 PM, Bernard said:

Death penalty for robo calls is A-OK with me.

Bernard

1

 

On 10/15/2018 at 12:13 PM, woohorn said:

 

 

This. I do not patronize anyone who cold calls or solicits door to door. Only exceptions are neighbor kids/scouts. Only lapse was using a neighbor Edward Jones guy who came around years ago (and I learned my lesson there).

I don't understand who would hire some cold caller that uses spoofing to come into their home for ANYTHING. Probably lonely incels and old folks?

 

THIS!

 

[ROFL BOX 6649]

On 10/15/2018 at 11:58 AM, Brisketexan said:

My answer to this is legislative, and simple.

These calls are placed by phone farms, and then any business generated goes to specific businesses (duct cleaners, alarm companies, etc).

Calling from a spoofed number is deemed to be fraud, and any and all business derived from a fraudulent call shall be deemed to be a fraud. Such fraud shall be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 per transaction (that is, per call), to be paid by any/all parties in the chain of the transaction.

A claim may be filed by the Attorney general of any state, or by any citizen as a qui tam action, entitling the citizen to 30% of any recovery.

Start popping your local alarm company for $200k, and shit will straighten out real quick.

This is quite easy, actually.  All you need is to have  someone follow through & find out where the inbound call came front.

On 10/15/2018 at 8:04 AM, Catpfish said:

Or you are in a business that relies on customer contact and you really need to answer the phone

Right here, this is why I answer  every call.  With WNP (Wireless Number Portability (mandated in November, 2003), that meant I could have a potential customer who now lives in the 512 but moved to this area from anywhere else in the USA & retained their MIN for a wide variety of reasons.

@ 1st it was irritating as shit, but as time moved on it's just like the hassle of having to put fuel in your vehicle when you'd rather simply get to your destination.  I'll answer & if it's the robo-voice, I press 2 on the phone & more often than not, it's the magic # that tells their system to spit out the recording that they will remove me from the database.  Now, whether they actually DO remove me is an entirely different sub-topic. 

The calls that I cannot dissect are the ones that are dead air.  I'll answer & there is no response.  The call stays active for probably 15 seconds & then drops.  I have made a WAG that it's some kind of listening software & it is trying to determine if I'm average Joe citizen on the line or a business.  If it's for a business, they want to know how to sort out my company or line of work so they can better target the outbound calls; I get capital funding, professional insurance & Google AdWords / "front page listing" stuff on a daily basis.

In the end, I've gone Zen about it all & simply ignore the nonsense because there's not a lot I can do other than go about my life.  It's the live human that gets me talking; if I can make a good guess & tell they are domestic (i.e. no heavy accent), I'll be friendly about it & interrupt with "Hey, I know call center work sucks - did it myself for awhile - but really, take me off the list, this is a HARD REFUSAL & get yourself a better job."

PS:  I got a shit-tacular robo call the other day telling me the IRS was gonna arrest me if I didn't call back to this # & get my life in order.  Ignored it, hung up, got the same call back within 20 minutes, double ignored it as well.  It's my MOM falling for that bullshit that scares me.

[Vic Mackey 47081]

The Do Not Call Registry matters zero for these spam/robo calls. That was for legit telemarketing calls, which is that even really a thing much anymore? I read an article that because all of these originate from overseas in phone farms or whatever you call them, there isn't much the FCC can do. Or so they claim. And it will only get worse. I do not use any apps. I just block the number after they call. My spam list is fucking deep with all these spoofed numbers. Many being the same area code and prefix as mine since that is really common. My phone carrier does label a lot of these spam calls as Spam Likely when the call is coming through.

I thought this was pretty funny

 

[PilotsError 2294]

Blocking the calls is fine, but they're leaving about ten voicemails a day.  I'm getting constant VM notifications.  It's a pain having to delete all of them.

[immortal13 4059]

What's sad is that number spoofing is currently legal and they are even usinf occupied numbers. I own a small business and it's becoming a real problem on a daily basis. I used to return any missed calls(even if no voicemail) and found this out when I talked to someone who did not call but their number was used. Infuriating that this is legal

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

This shit is getting out of hand.  I have received several calls from people claiming that I'm calling and harassing them

[Wally Fairway 5559]

I got one yesterday, for life insurance. I listened to the first 25 seconds, then you only have to tell them your age for a quote.

So I said I'm 900 .... they hung up

(sorry ArmyBrat for claiming to be your age)

[HRSchenker 2271]

I get these calls all the time but they never leave voicemails so it's not a big deal to me. If it's important, they'll leave a message right? I don't even like talking on the phone because the time people always want to call me is when I'm driving and I am the worst driver/phone caller on the planet.

[crash_davis 23113]

i'd like the ability to block an NPA/NXX range.  90% of the spam i get on my work phone is from 817-343 numbers.  fucking fort worth robocalls.

[Updawg 2268]

Google's call screen is an option for pixel owner's

Call Screen on Pixel 2 works very similarly to how it does on the Pixel 3. When a call is coming in, the update has the standard options for answering or rejecting the call, but there’s also a Google Assistant button which allows users to screen the call. From there, Google takes over with a disclaimer for the caller and asks them why they’re calling. Everything is transcribed in real-time and users can decide to answer the call if they choose.

It’s unclear when this feature will roll out more widely, but if you’ve got a Pixel 2 or a Pixel 2 XL, keep an eye out next time you’ve got an incoming call.

https://9to5google.com/2018/11/16/call-screen-pixel-2-rolling-out/amp/

[Prepuce of Doom 21079]

On 11/15/2018 at 1:44 PM, crash_davis said:

i'd like the ability to block an NPA/NXX range.  90% of the spam i get on my work phone is from 817-343 numbers.  fucking fort worth robocalls.

If you're on an Android, check out the NoPhoneSpam app that I posted about up thread. 

[vox 70]

Bump:

https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/fcc-initiatives/fccs-push-combat-robocalls-spoofing

The FCC is working to, as Chairman Pai says, "stop the scourge of illegal robocalls." He has made combatting unlawful robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing his top consumer protection priority. By proposing and implementing effective policy initiatives and pursuing targeted enforcement actions, the FCC has been taking a bold stand to protect and empower consumers.

A Top Priority

Unwanted calls are far and away the biggest consumer complaint to the FCC with over 200,000 complaints each year—around 60 percent of all the complaints we receive. Some private analyses estimate that U.S. consumers received approximately 2.4 billion robocalls per month in 2016. Unfortunately, advancements in technology make it cheap and easy to make robocalls and to "spoof" caller ID information to hide a caller's true identity.

Chairman Pai and other FCC staff get these calls too. He told NPR's Planet Money recently: "So every now and then, even on my work Blackberry, I'll see a call that seems to be coming . . . from the 202 area code, which is here in Washington—and then our prefix for these Blackberries. And I know for a fact that, you know, it's probably not someone calling from the office. Sometimes, I answer just for the heck of it. And it's—lo and behold, I've won a vacation… ."

We know that these calls are a major concern of millions of Americans, and scam calls in particular can result in very real financial losses and serious consumer frustration. We are therefore committed to using every resource in our tool box and working closely with private, public, and international partners to combat unlawful robocalls and spoofing.

FCC Action

Chairman Pai has launched several important public policy initiatives to help combat unlawful robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing. The Commission under his leadership has also taken unprecedented enforcement actions to punish those who flout consumer protection laws.

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21079]

Fuck that guy. 

[kevwun 15797]

He only gives a fuck about what the telcoms tell him to.

[gyroprotagonist 2594]

blackberries are still out there and functioning in the wild?

 

[ROFL BOX 6649]

[Cloak]I absolutely love (actually don't) that every press release published by this shithead administration has something about how "the head of _________ agency is doing the best ever" type bullshit cooked into it, vs. simply telling you what they may or may not be doing.[/Room]