General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy in the year of our lord 2022 am I still getting robocalls???
Someone out there really, really wants to help me avoid expensive car problems.
Their recorded voice tells me that theyve been trying to reach me about an extended warranty my car doesnt have, yet which is somehow about to expire. I just have to press 1 to learn more. Theyre persistent: I get multiple calls a day from multiple phone numbers across the country.
If you own a phone, youve probably had a similar experience. Maybe the call was about something else, like the IRS warning you that your arrest is imminent unless you buy a bunch of gift cards right now, or Amazon asking you about a large purchase you never made, or Marriott offering you a free vacation. (In case it wasnt clear: These calls did not come from the IRS, or Amazon, or Marriott.) Or maybe it wasnt a call at all, but a text message about a hold on an account with a bank you dont even have an account with or a prize for a contest you didnt enter. Just click on a link or call a phone number to learn more. Maybe youve noticed that youre getting a lot more of those texts than you used to.
By you, I mean pretty much everyone in the US who has a phone. Americans are barraged with tens of billions of unwanted robocalls and robotexts every year. As a result, many of us have stopped picking up the phone at all when it rings. According to a recent robocall report from Transaction Network Services (TNS), which offers robocall identification and mitigation services, people accept calls from unknown numbers only 10 percent of the time. Like a hiker in Colorado, who was missing for 24 hours last October because he wouldnt answer calls from an unknown number (in this case, that number happened to be the Search and Rescue Team).
The Colorado hiker is an extreme, if relatable, example. But unwanted robocalls and texts are more than just a pervasive annoyance or a reason a man was lost for longer than he might have been. They cost me a little bit of time and patience, but they cost the millions of people who fall for robocall- and text-related scams money a lot of it. Truecaller, a call blocking app, estimates Americans lost nearly $30 billion to phone scams in 2021 (its difficult to know the real number, as most people dont report being scammed).
How can this possibly be a problem, still, in this modern world of technological wonders? Our phones have become tiny computers that are more powerful than what NASA used to land people on the moon. Why cant they stop an unsolicited phone call? How hard can it possibly be?
https://www.vox.com/recode/22882647/robocalls-robotexts-scams-stir-shaken-voip-extended-warranty
Irish_Dem
(47,453 posts)onecaliberal
(32,902 posts)albacore
(2,406 posts)... and I'm wondering why we've become passive about this.
Where are the entrepreneurs who will invent something to not only block those calls, but will punish the caller somehow.... tying up their phone... automatically blocking not just the spoofed number they call from, but the actual originating phone...pinpointing the actual number and electronically bombing it. Or something. There are minds out there more tech-savvy than mine.
My guess is that if you could offer such a product, the world would beat a path to your door. I don't want to ignore or screen such calls.... I want to destroy the caller.
Hostile much? Bet your ass. I can't count the number of times I've had to stop my bike, fumble for the phone, only to discover that I wasn't going to answer it anyway.
Or went to take my first bite of dinner, and ....
Or nodded off in my chair over a book....
Or .... was about to get lucky!!!...
Fuck them. Then kill them.
mopinko
(70,238 posts)just when we started to get a handle on unwanted calls, we all got cell phones and had to go back to square one.
after years of never using credit cards, i have been using them for the last several months. i have 2. i was expecting to get bombarded w offers, and i have. i wasnt expecting a whole new category of spam trying to get me to consolidate my debt.
Initech
(100,104 posts)Please press 1 so we can close out your file. Ill tell you what I would like you to do with it!
Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)My adult daughter, same phone service, identical phone, same area code and same first three digits, gets a dozen a day or so.
I don't know why.
Chipper Chat
(9,693 posts)Saying ive won 2 million. I was to go to a cvs and buy a vanilla visa card and read off the numbrrs to him. Yeah right.
XanaDUer2
(10,754 posts)Do not call is a joke. We get calls all day long. One is from a very aggressive human for a charity who will not stop.
Hang-up calls. Robocalls. It's abusive. I need my landline for business, and I need to answer it.
I'd like some action on this from the government. I know it's a small thing, but affects daily quality of life
LogicFirst
(572 posts)HariSeldon
(456 posts)It is really hard for a digital device to reliably identify the party on the other end of the connection. We have a system that more-or-less works for the World Wide Web (TLS)...except if there is DNS cache poisoning, or if rogue certificates are issued, etc.
Effectively implementing remote digital identity would require, at minimum, a centralized coordination for exchanging and attesting public keys. In today's world, who would be trusted to do that? And any leak of the corresponding private key would allow impeccable impersonation, a significant and very fragile condition for accepting this authentication. I'd say it's better to leave people guessing whether they are talking to someone legitimate than have the communication technology incorrectly verify the caller's identity.
world wide wally
(21,755 posts)It took them 30 days to process, but it has made a big difference.
You can register your numbers on the national Do Not Call list at no cost by calling 1-888-382-1222 (voice) or 1-866-290-4236 (TTY). You must call from the phone number you wish to register. You can also register at add your personal wireless phone number to the national Do-Not-Call list donotcall.gov.
PSPS
(13,617 posts)The Stir/Shaken deadline kept being extended by the FCC but now they're sounding more serious. Instead of June 30, 2023 as the deadline, it has been moved up to June 30, 2022. So there could be a substantial drop in spoofed robocalls then.
See: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-122A1.pdf
marybourg
(12,637 posts)says Ill only pick up if they announce themselves, and they always hang up. The occasional authentic caller simply announces their name and I pick up.
multigraincracker
(32,727 posts)cans of air with an air horn attached. You can find them in the Fishing and Boating dept of your local box store.
Plan is to push 1 to talk to a representative and start the conversation with "this is just what I need". Going to get their attention and give the first 4 numbers(not my real ones) so they will be listening carefully, and then blast the air horn into the speaker.
I wonder if they will take me to court.
treestar
(82,383 posts)but I am wrong apparently.
Elderly need to learn that the phone is to be ignored. If it's important, they will leave a message. Some of them live in the 50s when it comes to the phone. You don't have to get it or talk to them.
I picked up a couple and said this number is on the do not call registry and they did hang up immediately. These obviously weren't robocalls. It always took them a few seconds to say anything, though.
You can also report the number to the registry. But the callers have likely gone on to another number.