Robocall Madness

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfudtuckerpucker The FCC says controlling robocalls is a "top priority"

I seem to remember Congress saying a long time ago that balancing the budget was a top priority, too. One of these days I should check on how well they did on that.

Seriously, there are some excellent software solutions to blocking these calls. Well worth your time to look into them.

[GrayHare]

Might be time for a tariff on all calls coming from outside the country. A few cents won't bother real callers, but will add up for the robocallers.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Does he have caller ID on the landline? If so, he'll love this call blocker. We bought one a bit over a year ago and it's been wonderful, and made a difference immediately after plugging it in. We're now up to 102 additional numbers blocked in addition to the ones it comes with. Yes, the robocallers do periodically change the originating number that is shown on caller ID but evidently not all that often. Yet. https://www.amazon.com/CPR-V5000-Cal...70_&dpSrc=srch

Thanks! I'll let him know. That said, I'm trying to persuade him to ditch the landline entirely. He is paying over $40/month for it, and gets virtually nothing on it but junk phone calls. I just don't see the point.

[scrabbler1]

I always wonder if anyone who gets one of these calls actually moves forward with obtaining any of the services offered by the robocallers. How miniscule does a positive response rate have to be in order to make any money? One in 100,000? That means 99,999 people become annoyed to some degree for every sucker who engages with them. And I don't mean the IRS scammers or any of those live caller scams, just the pure robocallers.


What a business model, annoying thousands and thousands of people every day in order to find the one sucker who will engage with them.

[REWahoo]

Maybe I found a smoking gun.

An hour or so before all these calls started I enrolled in Walmart Pay, which included providing my cell phone number. No way to know if that is the source of the sudden explosion of robocalls, but the timing is suspicious.

I'm going to try to cancel the account but I think Pandora's box is already open.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Maybe I found a smoking gun. An hour or so before all these calls started I enrolled in Walmart Pay, which included providing my cell phone number. No way to know if that is the source of the sudden explosion of robocalls, but the timing is suspicious. I'm going to try to cancel the account but I think Pandora's box is already open.

I had a marked increase in spam phone calls a few years ago when CVS absolutely INSISTED on having my cell phone number if I was to get a flu shot there. They already had my land line number, but claimed that Medicare required my cell phone number too. That sounded fishy to me, but finally I gave up and gave it to them. A few days later, I started getting (seemingly unrelated) spam phone calls. I asked a manager to take my cell phone number off my account, and they did, but the calls continued.

My wild guess is that in my case, it was the individual employee, not CVS, who sold my cell phone number to spammers.

The silver lining to the cloud is that the calls slacked off in a month or so.

[Another Reader]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I had a marked increase in spam phone calls a few years ago when CVS absolutely INSISTED on having my cell phone number if I was to get a flu shot there. They already had my land line number, but claimed that Medicare required my cell phone number too. That sounded fishy to me, but finally I gave up and gave it to them. A few days later, I started getting (seemingly unrelated) spam phone calls. I asked a manager to take my cell phone number off my account, and they did, but the calls continued. My wild guess is that in my case, it was the individual employee, not CVS, who sold my cell phone number to spammers. The silver lining to the cloud is that the calls slacked off in a month or so.

No, it was CVS or a hacker targeting them. It's a great source for picking up phone numbers. They insist on you agreeing to receive phone calls to get your prescription. My number? 000-000-0000. Someone else mentioned using the local IRS number in another thread. When people insist on getting my cell phone number I tell them I don't use one. If you want to talk to me, use the land line.

[txtig]

This past weekend, I started receiving robo calls from “Apple Support”. I hung up on them each and every time, but they left voice messages telling me that my iCloud account had been compromised and that I needed to press 1 to be connected to customer support to reset my account. Over a two day period, they called almost every hour or two, from different numbers, but always showing up as “Apple Support” on the caller ID. I kept blocking the numbers, but the calls kept coming from new numbers. And then (finally!), the calls stopped. Thank goodness, because I was about to throw my new iPhone out the window. It’s hard to put up with this kind of nonsense when there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by txtig This past weekend, I started receiving robo calls from “Apple Support”. I hung up on them each and every time, but they left voice messages telling me that my iCloud account had been compromised and that I needed to press 1 to be connected to customer support to reset my account. Over a two day period, they called almost every hour or two, from different numbers, but always showing up as “Apple Support” on the caller ID. I kept blocking the numbers, but the calls kept coming from new numbers. And then (finally!), the calls stopped. Thank goodness, because I was about to throw my new iPhone out the window. It’s hard to put up with this kind of nonsense when there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

That had nothing to do with your iPhone or iCloud account. I got a message once, checked my account, nothing suspicious, decided it was phishing.

[REWahoo]

Final count for yesterday was 37, with 12 of those from the same number.

The count for today is up to 11, with only one of those from the number that called me a dozen times yesterday. Maybe they are giving up...

[kgtest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by txtig This past weekend, I started receiving robo calls from “Apple Support”. I hung up on them each and every time, but they left voice messages telling me that my iCloud account had been compromised and that I needed to press 1 to be connected to customer support to reset my account. Over a two day period, they called almost every hour or two, from different numbers, but always showing up as “Apple Support” on the caller ID. I kept blocking the numbers, but the calls kept coming from new numbers. And then (finally!), the calls stopped. Thank goodness, because I was about to throw my new iPhone out the window. It’s hard to put up with this kind of nonsense when there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

I got this one too! And I have never owned an Apple product.



I've found that if its the same # calling repeatedly its easiest just to block it. My phone has an internal feature via Android to do this.


I (usually) never answer unless it's a number I know or a name I know. I feel like answering the robot just confirms to the bot that its a valid # and keep spamming.

[jim584672]

I have been telling the robo scammers to add me to their "do not call" list. It seems to have helped. I am also on the "do not call" registry. They can get fined $16k for DNC violations.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 I have been telling the robo scammers to add me to their "do not call" list. It seems to have helped. I am also on the "do not call" registry. They can get fined $16k for DNC violations.

My bold..do you really believe they will be caught, tried and fined?

[jim584672]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 My bold..do you really believe they will be caught, tried and fined?

Probably not. I would file a complaint anyway.

[scrabbler1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 I have been telling the robo scammers to add me to their "do not call" list. It seems to have helped. I am also on the "do not call" registry. They can get fined $16k for DNC violations.

I have never found this helpful. Before I switched my land line to an internet-based system capable of adding Nomorobo to block calls (and my system has its own call-blocking feature), I sometimes "entered 1" to ask the live human to stop calling me and add me to their do-not-call list. They always just hung up on me before I could get more than 4 or 5 words out, they must get this all the time. And the robocalls keep coming.

With the call-number spoofing, you can't track down the source of the call to report them as a violator anyway, making the already-worthless DNC registry even more worthless.

[Lakedog]

Usually have a few calls a week but with a different twist the last two days -- my own cell number shows as the caller. I never answer calls from unknown numbers (or my own number lately) but sometimes add them to my block call list.

[CoolRich59]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Final count for yesterday was 37, with 12 of those from the same number. The count for today is up to 11, with only one of those from the number that called me a dozen times yesterday. Maybe they are giving up...

Wow. Those numbers are off the charts for me.

I get one or two a week; they are almost always the spoofed local prefix calls. I generally don't answer the phone for anyone who is not an identified contact, but when I see the call is from the same prefix as mine, I immediately know it's spam.

[CoolRich59]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakedog Usually have a few calls a week but with a different twist the last two days -- my own cell number shows as the caller. I never answer calls from unknown numbers (or my own number lately) but sometimes add them to my block call list.

I wonder what would happen if you added your own number to the blocked call list?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolRich59 I wonder what would happen if you added your own number to the blocked call list?

I did it a couple of years ago and it worked. I no longer call myself.

[braumeister]

But what do you do in an emergency when you really need to talk to yourself?