Community Chat

[lmt]

No one has my cell number so I never get any robo calls on that.

We bought the Call Blocker from QVC and for the most part it's been wonderful. The phone may ring once or twice but Call Blocker blocks it. Some days we get no calls, other times we can get 12-15 calls a day. These robo callers still manage to get calls through. 

[dooBdoo]

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@haddon9 wrote:

I really don't understand the point of robo calls.  Most of the time they are recordings and many times there is no one there...most people either just hang up or never answer....how is this making these callers any money?

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            It's a lucrative business, @haddon9.   

            The robocall technology is available and easily obtained and used -- it employs software to spoof fake caller IDs and to dial thousands of numbers a second (in some cases tens of thousands), usually randomly scrolling so they don't even need to know our specific phone number.

            One perpetrator, identified and fined, was able to make 96 million calls in 3 months offering fake travel deals.   

            Some people answer or call back, and that almost guarantees their number will be marked as valid and one to follow up on with more aggressive calls.   

            And far too many people fall prey to the scams and hoaxes, actually send money or submit their personal and financial information, and then become victims of identity theft...  so it has turned into a numbers game that pays off big time for criminals.   

            As others have said, many of the callers are located outside the U.S.A. and that makes it almost impossible to track them down and then to effectively prosecute.

            The numbers are staggering and on the increase, one example from various sources:  "YouMail, a company that blocks robocalls and tracks them, estimated there were 4.9 billion unwanted U.S. calls last month after nearly 48 billion in 2018, which was up nearly 60% from 2017."

[haddon9]

@dooBdoo   It's believable isn't it?!!

[dex]

I can’t believe with all of the knowledge and warnings that people will still fall prey to these calls.I wish the scammers would get some nice jail sentences.I hate the thought of unsuspecting people keeping these scammers in business.

[Spurt]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

Most robo calls originate overseas.  I don't know how they can be controlled by Congress. 

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@Kachina624   @SXMGirl 

Yep, your right about the international scammers who are based overseas.  But there was something some of the phone carriers are working on regarding a special code we would need to enter from our end in order to receive an international call on our number, and without this code we can't receive international calls on our phone....Hopefully this and other things will work, but Im sure the scammers would find a way to work around it....

[Spurt]

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@this is my nic wrote:

We've been receiving more if those annoying calls lately.  Maybe the callers are afraid the law will be approved so they're getting as many done now as possible.  A call came through on my cell the other day, out of curiosity I picked it up.  It was a woman speaking in Chinese;  I do not speak or understand Chinese!  Couldn't tell if it was a recording or a live call.  

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@this is my nic @MarieIG 

I have had this happen on my cell phone too, and since I dont answer they leave a voicemail in Chinese...I don't know the purpose that they think this is going to serve, I dont speak the language, defintely wont call that number back, and just block the number...!!!!

[Spurt]

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@haddon9 wrote:

I really don't understand the point of robo calls.  Most of the time they are recordings and many times there is no one there...most people either just hang up or never answer....how is this making these callers any money?

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@haddon9 

Sadly because of the many people that do pick up the phone and believe the scammers.......and they are out there...You have wonder though, come on, think would the IRS want someone to pay a supposed overdue tax in gift cards....SMH 

And then there's those that imitate well known charities using a similar sounding name, banks, credit cards. And believing their legitimate, people give personal info, credit card numbers and scammers use it for identity theft.....A good rule--always call the company using the number from the back of the bankcard or website to make sure the call is legit, never the number they gave you...

[dooBdoo]

               The proposed law is 2-pronged.   First, "...it would raise the fines the FCC is permitted to levy on robocallers, and increase the statute of limitations for bringing those cases."

               Also, "...it would also create an interagency task force to address the problem, and push carriers like AT&T and Verizon to deploy call authentication systems like the pending STIR/SHAKEN protocols into their networks..."

               "...STIR/SHAKEN (short for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and Signature-Based Handling of Asserted Information Using Tokens) is a pair of network protocols that use digital certificates to ensure that the calls a customer receives aren’t coming from spoofed numbers.   

               Once calls are widely authenticated, consumers will know when a number is likely to be a robocall, and agencies like the FCC will have a head start in tracking the caller down..."

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               Here's one description of and thoughts about the technology proposed for all carriers to use, which automatically -- with no actions needed by customers -- could block suspicious calls or flag them:

               "...Industry groups led by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions have been working since 2016 on a pair of standards, dubbed "STIR" and "SHAKEN," that will be used across landline, mobile, and VoIP carriers to cryptographically authenticate the source of calls.

               Basically, this means that the "spoofed" phone numbers robocallers rely on to ramp up their call volume—also the reason so many robocalls appear to come from your area code—will be easily flagged as untrustworthy.

               A spoofed call is really just one that displays inaccurate caller ID information, using one of the numerous web portals and apps that enable obfuscation.   VoIP software also allows robocallers to bounce their calls around the telephony network a few times before connecting, making it more difficult for law enforcement and service providers to trace robocalls back to their origins.

               In addition to authenticating that calls are really coming from the numbers they claim, STIR and SHAKEN will also append an "Origin ID" to every call, making it much easier to track robocalls to the source.

               ATIS and the newly formed governing bodies of STIR and SHAKEN are still figuring out what exactly consumers will see on their phones when a number pops up—maybe a green check mark or red alert, depending on the source.

               They're also coordinating how to share their findings with third-party robocall-blocking apps.

               ATIS hopes that STIR and SHAKEN will begin to reach consumers by the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020, but the process of setting up the platform's cryptographic checks and deploying the protocols across every telephony provider in the US is, as you might guess, complicated.

               Still, it's doable.   Comcast and AT&T demonstrated the first cross-carrier call with the authentication check in March, and other carriers like Verizon have announced that they'll implement the protocols.

               An FCC official told WIRED, though, that it will take time for the process to trickle down to every small and medium-sized provider.   The agency has recently pressured large carriers to make the initial investment.   

               FCC Chairman Ajit Pai specifically threatened "regulatory intervention" in February if carriers don't adopt STIR and SHAKEN.

               Both the private sector and government are also managing expectations about what the protocols will actually achieve.   "I think that some people are hoping that, 'poof,' robocalls will just be gone, and that’s the wrong mind-set," says Jim McEachern, a senior technology consultant at the communication industry standards body ATIS.   "It's more like email spam. It’s still there, but it’s more manageable now.   We have the tools in place that the curve will peak and begin to go down to a manageable level."

               And while STIR and SHAKEN will make it harder for robocallers to rely on spoofed numbers, they'll still be able to use legitimate phone numbers for their scams.   

               The protocols will also make it easier to track the reputation of a given phone number, but both the FCC and industry developers emphasize that the change will also inevitably spur criminal innovation in robocalling to evade or manipulate the new cryptographic baseline..."

sources are the 2 articles in @Mindy D's OP and also:

wired.com/story/robocalls-spam-fix-stir-shaken/

[Montana]

Sadly, I think scammers are much smarter than regulators.

And I never believed the Do Not Call List would ever work. To me, it is simply a database kept up to date by the victims themselves. 

[Spurt]

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@shopperqvc wrote:

I've written to one of my Senators several times about both robocalls and spoofed number calls, and all he ever does is say that's been taken care of with the Do Not Call Registry. Not much help there. 

That registry is nothing more than a way for these scammers to look up your number and then verify that it's a working number. Once they do that, they call you until you block them yourself. That's the thing about people that break the law, they break as many of them as they want. It's only legitimate businesses that see your number and then don't use it.

My very first robocall was from Barbara Bush when her son was running for President and she asked (via recording, of course) that I vote for him. Politicians can still get through, I think unless that's been changed.

It's these spoofed number calls that are going to be rough to stop. So many have that app on their phones, and they just change whose number they use when you hang up on them. There never was a legal reason to be allowed to spoof. That app never should have been legal. Every time I answer one of those calls, I ask why aren't you in jail yet, and hang up. 

It's about time Congress get busy and do something. This has gone on much too long.

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@shopperqvc 

ITA ....

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend and she said she would call me right back with some information I was looking for.  Now normally I don't answer my phone and let my answering machine screen calls on my landline, and reject unknown numbers on my cell....but since it was just a couple minutes later figuring it was my friend I picked up the phone...MISTAKE...it was a telemarketer....and first thing out of her mouth....I'm not a telemarketer, Im just asking for a couple minutes of your time to take a quick survey about timeshares (like she wasnt going to try to sell me a time share or invite me to a meeting about timeshares with a free dinner including a gift card--- like I heard they do)...so I stopped her in her tracks and asked:

Are you a charity?

Are you running for public office?

What company that I do business with are you affiliated with?

You're certainly not a friend or family member!!!!

Then I said: These are the only people tht are supposed to be calling this number...it's a donot call number!!!...And why would I even want to talk to someone representing a company that cant even abide by the do not call laws...take this number off your list!!!---And I hung up!!!!!