Recent uptick in Robocalls and Junk calls

[scrabbler1]

The last few months of the year is a time where I have found a sharp spike in robocalls. Remember all of those "Health Care Hotline" calls many of us get during the open enrollment period for the ACA (Medicare, too)? I would get 10 per day for a few days from nearly identical, spoofed numbers from all over the country, often unable to have Nomorobo keep up with them.

 

[Spock]

I used to have hope for community sourced black lists.
But then my call screening software started showing that legit calls from known numbers for legit companies had been community tagged thousands of times a "scam" number.
Humans are stupid. "This is why we can't have nice things".

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

The nuclear option is becoming more prevalent.
1. Put your smartphone on do-not-disturb.
2. Set it so only numbers in your contact list can get through do-not-disturb.
No apps needed.

Been doing this for about a year now. Works great for me! I have yet to have an issue where someone who isn't a "allowed contact" didn't leave a message for something important.

We have the ringer turned off on our landline. Only keep it for hurricanes, and because our security system is hooked to it.

I don't get many on my cell at all. Never even daily. Maybe google is doing a good job.

Almost all alarm systems (even the older legacy systems) can be modified to have cell based communications w/ the service center. There are lots of good companies out there that have information on how to modify these systems for a fairly cheap $ amount and can be done fairly easily.

 

[eytonxav]

Call "spoofing," the ability of the caller to change the actual number which he is calling from to another one to get around call clockers and/or increase the chance of the call being answered instead of ignored, is the item which has greatly put the junk callers ahead of those who are trying to counteract the junk callers. It is what makes call-blockers such as nomorobo (which I have had for just over 2 years) less effective.


From what I heard in some FCC hearings in 2017, the phone companies have the ability to require that the actual number used to make the call is the one which gets transmitted to the recipient. But nobody is forcing them to.

This spoofing is really unbelievable, and these clowns could even be using your number to call other people around the country. I have to believe the carriers have the technology to put a stop to this and I do not understand why the FCC does not raise a fuss over this. We too have seen a huge uptick in these robocalls and I suspect many are using spoofed numbers. Sometimes it gets so bad, we just unplug the landline which makes me think why continue with the service.

 

[W2R]

We too have seen a huge uptick in these robocalls and I suspect many are using spoofed numbers. Sometimes it gets so bad, we just unplug the landline which makes me think why continue with the service.

That is one of the main reasons why I cancelled my landline service forever when I moved to my Dream Home in 2015.

Funny thing - - I haven't missed it a bit. I notified a half dozen contacts and have had zero missed calls or other adverse consequences.

These days nobody even expects you to have a landline. More and more people just don't want the hassle.

 

[scrabbler1]

This spoofing is really unbelievable, and these clowns could even be using your number to call other people around the country. I have to believe the carriers have the technology to put a stop to this and I do not understand why the FCC does not raise a fuss over this. We too have seen a huge uptick in these robocalls and I suspect many are using spoofed numbers. Sometimes it gets so bad, we just unplug the landline which makes me think why continue with the service.

Neighbor spoofing is an awful type of spoofing, the only thing worse than that is the spoofing of official agencies such as law enforcement, the IRS, or the Social Security Administration by scammers to scare people into giving them money.

 

[target2019]

This spoofing is really unbelievable, and these clowns could even be using your number to call other people around the country. I have to believe the carriers have the technology to put a stop to this and I do not understand why the FCC does not raise a fuss over this. We too have seen a huge uptick in these robocalls and I suspect many are using spoofed numbers. Sometimes it gets so bad, we just unplug the landline which makes me think why continue with the service.

Consumer has little say. I'm on the fence about continuing with my Landline number (it's on a Tracfone now).

 

[kcowan]

W2R, I had a similar experience with misdialed phone numbers back in my early working days in the mid-1980s. My office number was similar to both Egypt Air and a home-care nursing service. I was tempted to take a flight reservation for the former. Thankfully, I moved to a new desk and they changed my office number, freeing me from these minor annoyances.

My direct dial business number was one digit different than the CEO of a tech company and I would get 6 calls a day. Then I started answering that the CEO was no longer with the company. The calls stopped immediately!

 

[Amethyst]

I've recently been using the smartphone a lot...which I didn't, before.

Now I am getting junk calls and texts, which I didn't before. :-(

Edit: The problem with smartphone is that the caller's name/business doesn't display; just the number. So unless I recognize the number, I don't answer. Then I have to go look it up to see if they are someone I want to call back.

 

[EastWest Gal]

One of the issues with blocking all robocalls is the occasional municipal notice of a “boil water” alert or city water main work, which affects our use of water for a day, would get missed. We let most of our land line callers go to voice mail, unless we recognize the name and number. We have two stories and a basement with 5 phones connected. Only 2 phones have ringers on and none in the bedrooms.

We never answer a call with a number and the name of a town. Also, we Ooma set to state the name of the caller as part of the ring tone. This allows us to virtually ignore the landline.

 

[FIYes]

My hairdresser has her business number on a cell phone that she uses exclusively for business. Her number was spoofed and she started getting lots of calls from people wanting to know why she had just called them! Obviously a problem for her! Unlike a personal number she could not just ignore numbers that she did not recognize.

 

[FIYes]

EastWest Gal, you bring up an issue with blocking robocalls that I hadn’t considered...occasional needed alerts. I guess that explains why I haven’t received calls from my garbage company about holiday schedule changes in a long time. However, I have had 4 blocked robocalls this morning before 10 a.m. I am sticking with the call blocker.

 

[statsman]

Edit: The problem with smartphone is that the caller's name/business doesn't display; just the number. So unless I recognize the number, I don't answer. Then I have to go look it up to see if they are someone I want to call back.

I'm nastier about it. For such calls, I answer the call, don't listen or say anything, and then hang up 2-3 seconds later. If it is important, they'll call back. Have had a callback once in the last year since I started doing it. If I don't do this, I end up with enough voicemails that I waste time dialing into, listening, and then deleting.

 

[statsman]

EastWest Gal, you bring up an issue with blocking robocalls that I hadn’t considered...occasional needed alerts. I guess that explains why I haven’t received calls from my garbage company about holiday schedule changes in a long time. However, I have had 4 blocked robocalls this morning before 10 a.m. I am sticking with the call blocker.

If you know the number of the garbage company, you can enter that into your contacts and most call blocking systems will bypass the blocks. We had to do that with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) where we lived in CA. One of their phone numbers notifying users of electrical outage information managed to find its way into a block list.

We chose the solution to let all blocked calls go to voicemail. In 9/10 spam calls, they never leave a voicemail. Most of the remaining leave a short 1-3 second call as they figure out to hang up. Those are easy enough to delete from the PC without needing to listen to them. The problem now is we can't keep up with the personal blocks for numbers not caught by the call blockers, so we're thinking about sending all calls to voicemail for anyone not in our contacts list.

 

[GrayHare]

I hate to admit there are moments when a gov't sanctioned monopolistic phone company starts sounding good.

 

[Spock]

EastWest Gal, you bring up an issue with blocking robocalls that I hadn’t considered...occasional needed alerts. I guess that explains why I haven’t received calls from my garbage company about holiday schedule changes in a long time. However, I have had 4 blocked robocalls this morning before 10 a.m. I am sticking with the call blocker.

I have never gotten one of these in 57 years.
If a boil-water notice ever happened it would be on the news, web, radio....
and local gov would be incapable of doing a targeted notice anyway. Despite a distributed well system they would not be able to only notify users of a specific distribution point.

 

[kgtest]

Keep getting called for medical grade braces. I am 37 with a 6pack, completely healthy. Not a bad joint or bone on me. Talk about poor marketing.

 

[GrayHare]

Keep getting called for medical grade braces. I am 37 with a 6pack, completely healthy. Not a bad joint or bone on me. Talk about poor marketing.

At least you now know the health status of your identity thief.

 

[scrabbler1]

I'm nastier about it. For such calls, I answer the call, don't listen or say anything, and then hang up 2-3 seconds later. If it is important, they'll call back. Have had a callback once in the last year since I started doing it. If I don't do this, I end up with enough voicemails that I waste time dialing into, listening, and then deleting.

I do something like this, too. When I get an unblocked call on my land line from an unfamiliar number, whether it is local (probably but not always spoofed) or not, I answer it but remain silent. A "legit" robocaller, such as one from one of my local governments or from the electric company, for example, will make its announcement if I stay silent or not. A junk robocaller often does that, too. But many junk robocallers do not begin their speeches until the receiver says something, such as "hello." Staying silent seems to confuse those robocallers into hanging up themselves (and, heaven forbid, not calling again?)!

I don't do this with my cell phone because only about 20 people have the number. Any caller not in my tiny contacts list is met with my lifting the receiver a half inch then releasing it, ending the call. I'm not burning up my pay-per-minutes to listen to junk.

 

[MBAustin]

John Oliver's HBO show had a great piece on robocalls this week available on Facebook: LastWeekTonight

Language NSFW. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, the last few minutes are hilarious.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

John Oliver's HBO show had a great piece on robocalls this week available on Facebook: LastWeekTonight

Language NSFW. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, the last few minutes are hilarious.

That was quite entertaining. I wonder what the FCC thought about his calls?