Robocall Madness

[kgtest]

Just found an interesting stat, 48 BILLION robocalls were made in the USA 2018. Of those over 50% were scams and likely unwanted telemarketers.

48 BB RoboCalls / 254 Million adults in the US = 189 Calls/ Adult / Year!!

So if it seems as though you are getting a lot, on average we are getting one every 2 days.

I admit lately they have died down a bit...maybe summer break for the robots?

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...ding-to-youmail-robocall-index-300782638.html

 

[RobbieB]

I get like 2 to 3 a day. That's why they all have to talk to the box. Few do.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

I get like 2 to 3 a day. That's why they all have to talk to the box. Few do.

Mr. Robbie, I am from IRS. You need call back today or we sent cops to your house and arrest made on you. Call me back now. Or I come to house with cop for you arrest with real hand cuf.

 

[RobbieB]

Get in line. I've already got 5 warrants out for my arrest. And 10 lawsuits filed.

Maybe you'll be the first to show up?

 

[TrvlBug]

Just found an interesting stat, 48 BILLION robocalls were made in the USA 2018. Of those over 50% were scams and likely unwanted telemarketers.

48 BB RoboCalls / 254 Million adults in the US = 189 Calls/ Adult / Year!!

So if it seems as though you are getting a lot, on average we are getting one every 2 days.

I admit lately they have died down a bit...maybe summer break for the robots?

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...ding-to-youmail-robocall-index-300782638.html

We average about 5 a day. The most in any one day was 22, a couple of months ago . They simply don't want to talk to the machine and insist we pick up.

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

Supposedly the Feds are finally taking some action on robocalls. We'll see.

 

[scrabbler1]

Supposedly the Feds are finally taking some action on robocalls. We'll see.

I saw on C-Span two events about robocalls. One was a congressional committee hearing and the other was a brief press conference from some state AGs about it, The hearing was more interesting because there was this one expert guy testifying about how these need to be stopped at the source, where prevention efforts would be more fruitful.

 

[Rianne]

When we moved to a different state, we kept our cellphone numbers and now know any unidentified calls from our old location area code are spam. This has been pretty handy.

Bingo! We moved from MI 7 years ago, kept our MI cell #'s. Very few if any robo calls. The unidentified callers, I assume, are people in MI who dialed incorrectly or by accident. Rarely get the same call from the same #. Never a weird VM. We cancelled our landline-peace!

 

[Spock]

I saw on C-Span two events about robocalls. One was a congressional committee hearing and the other was a brief press conference from some state AGs about it, The hearing was more interesting because there was this one expert guy testifying about how these need to be stopped at the source, where prevention efforts would be more fruitful.

While catching spoofed phone numbers at the source would be more fruitful
one of the groups lobbying for keeping the ability to spoof numbers is law enforcement. They want the ability to call a suspect while spoofing Grandma's phone number so they can find out where the suspect is. If the system is wired with backdoors to allow spoofing, the software to exploit it will be available.

 

[camfused]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned here yet (https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/06/ios-13-silence-unknown-callers/ ), but in the next iOS (out next month), you will be able to silence anyone that is not in your address book. Between this and the CID authentication efforts, we might be getting a little closer to relief.

 

[Lakewood90712]

There is something to be said for getting cell phone service with an obscure area code where no one you know actually lives or has a number. Then when you see that area code and your prefix on the caller ID, you know it's a robo and don't have to answer anything.

I wonder if area code 666 exists ? Maybe it is where the robocall predictive dialer computers are actually located

Sorry , I couldn't resist.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

[Warning: Do not try this at home!]

This guy is my hero when it comes to handling robocalls. I found an article about him and he has actually made this his full-time job streaming scambaiting on Twitch and posting to Youtube. He's using a virtual machine and has coded fake websites for an ersatz bank and Amazon, so he's not really doing what it looks like. Some scambaiters will sabotage the scammer's computer but this guy just tries to waste their time and have fun in the process.

 

[Another Reader]

NoMoRobo is ineffective against spoofed numbers. Some days I get 10 or more calls from numbers with my prefix. They hang up after the fourth ring so as not to get voice mail. I do get a couple of one ring calls a day. Those are probably being caught by NoMoRobo.

 

[camfused]

^^^^ Ok, so what mobile phone software do we recommend here then?

 

[Another Reader]

^^^^ Ok, so what mobile phone software do we recommend here then?

Sorry, I forgot to specify this is the Comcast VOIP fake land line. I don't get a lot of spam calls on the cell.

 

[rk911]

I've experienced more telemarketing, scam, and fraud calls in the past four hours than I normally do in a week. It's nuts.

The tally so far...

20 total calls from nine different numbers
Mr Number blocked 12 of the calls
Two of the numbers called four times each
One number called three times
Four numbers called twice

None left a voice mail message

Oh, and I also got a spam text message.

since we dropped the AT&T copper line and switched to a Comcast VoIP robocalls to our "landline" have dropped from 5-10 per day to one or two per week. why? NoMoRoBo. plain and simple...it works. Comcast includes it at no xtra cost with their voice option. NMRB works so well I added it to my Verizon wireless phone (well worth it at $1.99 p/m) spam calls to that number although not as frequent as those to the LL also dropped off to nearly nothing. in both cases if a spam call does get through the number is easily added to the NMRB database.

i understand a bill in congress would give the FCC the power to allow the telcos to proactively block those calls. but until then life is much better since the phone has stopped ringing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/stopping-robocalls.html

https://www.zdnet.com/article/house-passes-bill-to-stop-unwanted-robocalls/

 

[CaptTom]

My father (92yo) got the "grandson in jail" call Friday. He also RE'd long ago, and apparently he's got time on his hands nowadays. He said he's been waiting for this one. He knew just what to do...

First, he played along. He explained that it would take him an hour to get ready, drive to the bank, and get back home to do the file transfer or whatever it was they wanted. He claimed not to have a cell phone, so they had to call him back when he got home. Then he went back to whatever he'd been doing.

An hour later, the phone rang. He claimed the teller had expressed concern, and suggested maybe he go home and think about it for a while. The scammers (there was a "grandson" and a "lawyer" scammer involved, now) urged him to go back to the bank and tell the teller to mind her own business. And to just take out the cash. By now the required amount had gone up another $900 (originally around $8,500.)

My father told the scammers he agreed with the teller that he should think about it for a while. The two scammers kept playing off each other with more and more urgent demands that he had to act right away.

Eventually he said something like "That kid is always getting in trouble, it would do him good to spend the weekend in jail." The scammers didn't have a good answer for that one.

At one point he told the "lawyer" scammer that he'd decided to bring the cash down to the court house Monday, and asked where the "grandson" was being held. They resisted that one, and he'd grown tired with playing the game by this time, so he said he was going to call the "grandson's" parents and family, to see what they thought he should do.

That pretty much put a damper on the whole scam, but he'd had an entertaining afternoon, probably saved a bunch of other seniors on the scammers' list from getting a call that day, and has a great story to tell.

He clearly doesn't need a call blocker!

 

[marko]

Just had to chime in.
Two minutes ago, I got a robo call. Sometimes I try to play with them and keep them on the line for as long as I can.

As I was doing so, my phone beeped with another call coming in...put the first on hold and......another robo call!! I got double teamed!!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned here yet (https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/06/ios-13-silence-unknown-callers/ ), but in the next iOS (out next month), you will be able to silence anyone that is not in your address book.

They don't have that on iOS yet? Surprising since that has been an option on Android OS for quite a while now...and it's been fantastic. Phone only rings if it's someone that's in my contacts list.

 

[scrabbler1]

The robocallers have been busy today! Today, on my cell phone, I have gotten 4 calls. Two of them are from those neighbor spoofed numbers, #122 and #123 since I have been keeping track of them a few years ago. (That's 4 in the last 3 days, too.)


Then, while I was cooking dinner, I got 2 more calls in less than 15 minutes. One of them, according to the website 800notes.com, a website I and many others post their stories about any phone number, is from some Indian scammer posing as someone from the electric company promising to lower your rates in order to gain personal info. The number is 203-201-8993.


As I do with all of these junk calls on my cell phone, I lift the receiver for half a second and let it close, ending the call without burning up any of my cell phone minutes while stopping the phone from ringing, and preventing any voice mail messages which are a minor nuisance (but at no charge) to retrieve.

 

[rk911]

The robocallers have been busy today! Today, on my cell phone, I have gotten 4 calls. Two of them are from those neighbor spoofed numbers, #122 and #123 since I have been keeping track of them a few years ago. (That's 4 in the last 3 days, too.)


Then, while I was cooking dinner, I got 2 more calls in less than 15 minutes. One of them, according to the website 800notes.com, a website I and many others post their stories about any phone number, is from some Indian scammer posing as someone from the electric company promising to lower your rates in order to gain personal info. The number is 203-201-8993.


As I do with all of these junk calls on my cell phone, I lift the receiver for half a second and let it close, ending the call without burning up any of my cell phone minutes while stopping the phone from ringing, and preventing any voice mail messages which are a minor nuisance (but at no charge) to retrieve.

yes, but all you're doing is verifying that yours is a working number. you must be on some sort of plan like consumer cellular since you're concerned about minutes. there are any number of free call blocking apps to try.

 

[scrabbler1]

yes, but all you're doing is verifying that yours is a working number. you must be on some sort of plan like consumer cellular since you're concerned about minutes. there are any number of free call blocking apps to try.

Sometimes, I hit a button on the side of my low-end flip (cell) phone which triggers a "call rejected" message. Would that be any better to do intentionally when one of these calls comes in? It's a shame that even a less-than-one-second of actual connect time tells the robocaller that my line is active, and that my cell phone is more of a garbage basket for all of these junk calls and a few texts.

I use TracFone's pay-per-minute plan because I very rarely use my cell phone, only in emergencies or when I am out or make a rare text. I buy new minutes very rarely but add service time (# days) more often, at about $5 per month. I can't put any apps on the phone. I can't even download any of the few pictures off the cell phone onto my PC, I tried it.

 

[EastWest Gal]

[Warning: Do not try this at home!]

This guy is my hero when it comes to handling robocalls. I found an article about him and he has actually made this his full-time job streaming scambaiting on Twitch and posting to Youtube. He's using a virtual machine and has coded fake websites for an ersatz bank and Amazon, so he's not really doing what it looks like. Some scambaiters will sabotage the scammer's computer but this guy just tries to waste their time and have fun in the process.

He's great entertainment, even just listening to the YouTube videos while doing housework.

 

[EastWest Gal]

One of the problems with using a "white list" system, which only lets through calls on you contact list, is that if someone is coming to the house to say, clean the carpets, or perform a complex repair, we have them call first with an ETA. They often use their personal cell phone to call ahead, and it shows up as "Cell Phone <State>" I answer when I'm expecting a call like that. If we used a white list system, we would not receive some important calls.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Famous last words, perhaps, but I really have a hard time understanding how people fall for these scams.

I've been watching these scambaiter videos on YouTube to get an understanding of how it works, and typically it involves getting the victim to download and install software to allow the scammer to remotely access the victim's computer, then the victim is told to log onto their bank's website with the scammer having access to their computer. Then the scammer initiates a "transfer" of funds to the bank, telling the victim the screen will go black for several minutes during the "transfer."

Really?? Who agrees to this?

While the screen is blacked out, the scammer edits the html code of the web site to make it appear that the account balance has increased. However, they add a zero to the amount, then demand the "extra" money be refunded to them. But only via gift cards such as Google Play store cards. And the victim is instructed to withdraw cash from their bank with the scammer on the phone, but not to mention to anyone in the bank why it's needed.

Really?? You could electronically transfer money to my account but you can't receive an electronic transfer? And what kind of legitimate business accepts payment in gift cards? And why must I hide from my bank the purpose of a large withdrawl, with the "company rep" on the phone?

Sorry, but even most Grandmas know how to use the internet these days. But I suppose enough people fall for this to keep them in business. Apparently, they have large call centers in operation running all day running these scams.