VoIP to Fuel Plague of 'Dialing for Dollars'/Spam

Ant writes "Broadband Reports says Internet News is exploring how telemarketers world-wide are realizing they can dodge long-distance costs (and U.S. "Do Not Call" restraints) by voice spamming VoIP users. Different from SPIT (spam over internet telephony) because it's not automated, an analyst in the article predicts homes and businesses could see some 150 calls a day from overseas call centers."

Comments

Herm wait . . .

[OverlordQ]

so the DNCL only covers POTS Spam? IMO my number is in there, so no matter where they're coming from or through, be it POTS or VoiP they can't call me, further more theres'a nice tidbit on that DNCL site:

33. Are telemarketing calls from overseas covered?

Yes. Any telemarketers calling U.S. consumers are covered, regardless of where they are calling from. If a company within the U.S. solicits sales through an overseas professional telemarketer, that U.S. company may be liable for any violations by the telemarketer. The FTC can initiate enforcement actions against such companies.

Re:Better fix this

[blanks]

To answer your question, most telemarketing is either collections or credit cards, or charities. I have had many friends that have worked in collections and charities and you wouldnt belive the amount of positive sales they would get.

We need laws, but tools too

[Frater 219]

We're going to need some basic trespassing legislation here: in brief, a recognition that my phone is my property and that your freedom of commercial speech does not extend to the use of my property to carry your speech at my costs.

However, we're also going to need some software tools. A lot of sites, my own workplace included, are rolling out VoIP systems. Some of these are COTS systems of various levels of quality. Others (like us) are using open systems like Asterisk PBX and SIP Express Router (SER). Currently, as far as I have seen neither the proprietary nor the open tools have what it takes regarding abuse rejection:

• Dictionary attack rejection. Any caller who makes a vast number of wrong numbers in a day is just trying to guess numbers, and should be rejected.
• Call rate limiting. A single caller IP address should not be able to make a vast number of simultaneous or near-simultaneous inbound calls.
• Site-local blocklisting. One good way of telling if an IP address is going to spam me is if it has spammed the guy the next office over. The VoIP PBX is a good place to aggregate abuse information. Asterisk has the beginnings of a blocklist system, but it's not quite there yet.
• Distributed blocklisting. DNSBLs have worked very well in the email world, where a single highly reliable list such as Spamhaus SBL-XBL can deflect over 50% of spam. We will need this ability in VoIP.
• Abuse reporting. If I'm getting VoIP abuse from your site, I need a way to report it to you or your ISP. Likewise, VoIP sites that want to be reputable should offer call recipients a way of reporting harassment, spamming, and other sorts of abuse.

Re:New MaBell filter

[edudspg]

Anyone that runs a voip system can always have the system route UNKNOWN or ANONYMOUS callers to a computer based screening tool. One bored gent wrote an elaborate voice-mail maze for telemarketers to wander into.

Telemarketer Torture

So far the only prank SIP call I have received was one from a buddy that was testing his SIP knowledge and wanted to see if he could really make my phone ring.

Re:Since it's Voice over IP...

[Big_Breaker]

The article is talking about marketting spam launched using VOIP on the caller side. The receiver will get the call on any old telephone hook-up IE POTS or VOIP.

A firewall won't do a thing to protect you. A caller ID based black list of challenge/response system could though.

Sad, But True.

[Threatis]

As someone who worked as a Telemarketer for about a year, i can tell you that this will happen. the company that I recently worked for was putting together a "voIP team" to tackle all the new tech popping up around it. Sad that this is the world we live in now, where people feel the only way to sell a product is to market it directy to someone over something as personal as a Telephone.

150 calls per day

[NoGuffCheck]

I dont think this will ever happen, Ive been in telemarketing for 5 years and the hardest sells are always the customers who receive more cold calls a day from other telemarketing companies. Now if everyone was getting 150 calls per day I dont care what the call costs are, paying my wage is too expensive for my boss if im never going to make a sale.

Re:IP Blocking?

[Big_Al_B]

It depends on how the telemarketer connects to the VoIP network. If they're coming in from the PSTN, then the source IP will be the PSTN gateway where they enter the IP world.

While this isn't so bad if the telemarketer is running their own analog-to-IP telephone adaptor/IAD/Asterisk etc., it is quite problematic if the gateway belongs to a major carrier for a large exchange (say, for example, in NYC.)

PSTN carriers can't risk common carrier status by filtering or denying access to telemarketers (e.g. they can't operate like an ISP with an AUP against spamming) so they can't stop the traffic themselves. And you could be cutting off connectivity to large portions of the PSTN every time you apply a filter. Even if it worked for awhile, eventually you would notice severe end-to-end connectivity problems.

Re:Sue them!!!

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Go to the Sheriff with the judgement and hire him to go in and start confiscating property. Show up with the Sheriff to helpfully point out particular items that they should take. The Sheriff with sell the items at auction, take his cut, give you the rest. At that time you will have the opportunity to purchase (along with the rest of the public) some of the choice items that you suggested the Sheriff should take, cheap. If it weren't for mechanisms such as this, nobody would pay any judgements. Make the system work for you.