Doctors are worst offenders by not having a caller-id, e.g. “Dr. Soso”, for their phones just the # and most of the time that # in not on their card!!
My guess is that Verizon Call Fiulter may be managed by an outside company. In any event, I assuume that they take peoples indications that a call is a telemarketer or spam and if there are a few entries, they add the number to their list. It may age out after a while. I could be wrong, but that is one way to track numbers. Also, unused area codes and unused telephone prefixes should be added, but who knows.
However, many/most telemarketers and collection agencies and spammers just pick random numbers. If that random number is used for a bunch of calls and gets added to the list of spammers, the valid owner of that number may not get their calls passed through to people because the system thinks THEY were the spammers.
If the service is only managed by Verizon, then that would cause problems. They would need input from other lists to be more accurate.
I get emails with numbers to call (because that way they skip the up to date listing on a spam reporting system and avoid postal issues if mailed). I recognize the scam because I do not use the services (like “Geek Squad”. Also I have had calls and emails with numbers from my area code and I know the company has no reps or office here. These are the calls I return and harass the person. Often the toll-free number is disabled within hours of the message as people have reported it.
My telco friend has said all along that verifying the origin of the call is critical, also whether it is coming from overseas or not. I hear the FCC is now attacking companys who are supplying these numbers and those carriers or turning a blind eye.
First off, DoNotCall.gov is all but worthless today. This is because it was intended for landline only, and no one that I know has a landline anymore. They have since expanded the site to accept mobile numbers, but the implementation on the carrier end is far different.
STIR/SHAKEN from the FCC is supposed to deal most effectively with mobile end-to-end verification, but it’s just not showing up much yet.
Here’s a tactic that I learned long ago: Record the old Bell System disconnect tone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI_wyiY4vyk) as the first thing on your voice mail message, then record your usual message. Robo-dialers will hear that tone and remove you from their list. These lists get propagated a lot, so you’ll start to drop off the call lists. Meanwhile, human callers will hear your message right after that and leave a message.
I was disappointed that the article appeared to only address spam on mobile devices. I don’t accept calls on my cell phone and am on the Do Not Call List. Despite this, I have been getting over 100 spam calls per month since September on my LAND LINE. I would like to see suggestions for dealing with this problem.
I get about ten per day, and probably 20-30 on Mondays. The interesting aspect is they almost never go to voice mail. After a certain number of rings, they click off.
Well, their computer clicks off.
Try this. When the phone rings answer it and get a person on the phone. Tell them politely “No Thank You” and hang up. Don’t wait for their response. I had my mom do this and it made a dramatic difference. It was places like our local PBS station, newspaper, YMCA, etc. They would call multiple times per day every day. Once they got a NO from her they took her off the list. It cut down a lot.
Of course my mom thought saying No Thank You and hanging up was rude. But I let her know that calling and bothering her incessantly is also rude.
No, the National Do Not Call Registry (Database #1) does not cut down on ANY calls, landline or cell phone. It appears to be designed for the exact opposite: to provide a ready-made US database of valid names and phone numbers to telemarketers, scammers and other organizations.
The Do Not Call Registry also has another, not-talked-about database (Database #2) of all the telemarketers, politicians, and other businesses that sign up to get access to the stored phone numbers. That is supposed to be so they can avoid calling the numbers. But there is no enforcement actions, and nothing is done if some of the entities on Database 2 do call some (or all) of the numbers on Database 1. What do you suppose happens?
There is no method provided on the National Do Not Call Registry to REMOVE your name from the registry. Once on there, it stays there forever, as far as I can tell. If you have not yet fell for this government-sponsored scam, then think twice before you put you name on the un-erasable list.
As someone on Medicare, I receive 8-20 calls a day from people trying to sell me added benefits. No matter what I tell these people they won’t stop calling me. I tried reporting them to the FCC twice, what a waste of time. They have been calling me for over 6ths. Yes, I put my phone on DND. Yes, I use Scam Shield, but it is an actual phone call with an actual person, Now I am going to opt for something like Robokiller. But my thought it, why do I have to do this? They are harassing me! They call 7 days a week, starting at 8am and not stopping until 9-10pm. I have asked to speak to a supervisor and they hang up. I feel like this should be some type of crime, but I don’t know what? I can’t possibly be the only person they are harassing this way. What good is the FCC if they aren’t doing anything about this? I gave them complete info, dates, times, 15-20 numbers each time! I rarely answer the phone when they call, just to tell them to stop. They will call, hang up, and call back, 3-4X. These people have made my phone a nightmare, truly!
I feel your pain, Redhedkat. I have the same problem. I bought a phone attachment called CPR Call Blocker, for around $100. It sets on the table next to my phone. I got the 100K version, which means in addition to the 100,000 scammer numbers already pre-recorded in the memory of the unit for known fraudsters and scammers, it has additional memory for 10,000 more numbers that can be added by the user.
If a scammer on the official government list calls, my phone rings one time, then the call is blocked and a message pops up on the screen saying “Probably Fraud!” If a scammer calls that is not on the list, I answer and as soon as I determine that it is someone or some machine that I never want to talk to again, I hit the big red button that is labeled “BLOCK NOW”. The unit then flashes “Successful”, meaning the caller number has been added to the blocked list. Then I hang up. If that caller tries again using the same number, he gets a busy signal or a message saying “number is not available”. So far, in addition to the 100,000 built in numbers, I have blocked 339 callers that were not on the original list. The unit has blocked hundreds more calls that only show up in my AT&T phone Call Log as missed calls.
CPR Call Blocker devices are available for cord or cordless phones, but not for cell phones as far as I know. It makes me glad that I don’t use cell phones except when traveling.
The CPR Call Blocker is not fool-proof. Scammers have computer programs that cycle through a list of spoofed numbers that they can use to show up on my Caller ID as their phone number. They can use any number in their computer memory as their calling number, so any call blocker has to be able to add lots of numbers. Usually, the Caller ID will show the spoofed number first, then when the call is ended, the REAL number will pop up. I usually hit the redial and call the real number back, and as soon as it shows up on the Call Blocker, I again hit the big red button, blocking that number too. That makes it more difficult for a scammer to get a call through to me.
I simply don’t answer the phone if I don’t know the number or if I do but don’t want to talk. On my Android phone I can press the # and you get a menu. Click block and you’ve blocked that #. Of course these scammers can use another #, I block that too.
I’m 67 and we were taught to answer the phone. We didn’t have caller ID then. Blindly picking up the phone simply is not feasible anymore.
Unfortunately, scammers and telemarketers can and do just choose a random number to show up in your caller ID. Getting a telephone number is easy and cheap.
I can buy a telephone number in pretty much any area code and most towns and areas for 50 cents. I would be able to make thousands upon thousands of calls before that number gets added to a list or a device. Yes, I could even show my called-id as the White House or IRS.
I also get calls over and over and over. If I answer, they try to tell me that they want to send me knee and back braces (I do not have knee or back issues); I tell them I don’t need them; occasionally ask to speak to a supervisor, who gives me the same runaround. On rare occasions when I answer, they hang up. Finally I looked into my phones call blocking programs, and one of the options is “call screening” where the phone answers the call, says it is screening my calls, and asks who is calling. It records any answer, and shows me a transcript. I’ve had one real call come through, that I was able to answer knowing it was real. The screening continues until they hang up, so no more voice mail on being completely filled with garbage every few days.
The sophisticated telephone scammers do not bother to buy more than a few numbers. What they buy is a calling program that spoofs any number in its memory. It cycles through those stored numbers on each call until it finds one that is not blocked. I have watched my Call Blocker block the same call from 4 or 5 numbers, before they give up, or I answer so I can block a new number not in my Call Blocker memory. When their call finally hangs up, my Call Blocker can detect and display the real number that was making the call. That is the one that is important to block. After blocking that number, when they try again, their call is blocked after 1/2 or 1 complete ring.
I use Hiya on my android cell phone, works great.