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New Gadget Blocks 'Spam' Phone Calls
Smivs writes "The BBC report on a new gizmo that can block/filter spam phone calls. The system basically intercepts all calls. If it recognizes them as a friend or a member of the user's family — numbers on the so-called star list created by the user — it lets them through as normal.
If the caller's number is on a zap list — numbers of telemarketers or other nuisance callers — the device answers it, and all future calls from that number, with an automated message which means the phone does not ring at all.
If the system doesn't recognize the caller's number, or the caller withholds their number, it asks them who they are, puts them on hold and then rings the user's phone.
The user has the option of taking the call, having the system take a message, or they can reject the call and add the number to the 'zap' list.
Users can add callers to their 'star' list by pressing the star button on their phone at any point during a call." So wait, they can't spam me twice? If I press a button? And if they actually show their phone number on my caller ID? What about the auto insurance scammers that hit me 10x/week?
I'm pretty sure that all the above and more is possible with an asterisk setup.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
First of all, don't EVER give money to these "firefighters" and/or "police" charitable funds. Many, many scammers pose as these charitable organizations, and they only want your credit card/checking account info. Also, even if such a charity is legitimate, there's no reason to fund their administrative costs, money that doesn't go to the police or firefighters, money that pays for them to—you guessed it—make more telemarketing calls.
If you want to support your local firefighters and/or police, call them and tell them that you'd like to make a donation. I assure you that they will be more than happy to accept your kindness, and best of all, they will make use of 100% of the money you donate, not pay people to bother yet more people by making unsolicited calls.
Second of all, you're missing part of how this gadget works. If you're not on the whitelist or the blacklist, you'll be asked to say your name. It then rings your line and tells you what the name of the person is who is calling. Or, at least, what they recorded as their name. At that point, you can either answer, whitelist them, or blacklist them.
I suppose your phone might still ring, which could be considered a nuisance, but you're never actually talking to the idiot who is calling you, and there's a measure of satisfaction knowing that they're getting a message that says something like, "This person is refusing to take your call. Have a nice day!"
The most annoying calls now are the "robo-calls." What really infuriates me about them is that I can't seem to hang up on them (if you try to hang up and pick up the phone later, the message is still playing). This pisses me off because it means that my phone company is somehow in cahoots with these bastards and is essentially letting them hijack my phone line without my permission. What if I needed to make an emergency call and had to wait for the robo-call to go through all its "great offers" before I could even dial out?
I write robo-call software and when something like that happens it is the fault of your local carrier. Many of the local carriers in the US have been getting lazy about sending the proper signals when a connection is disconnected. It is up to the carriers to send this signal. I can regularly call my boss' landline and get a difference of 30 seconds between when he hangs up and when I finally get the signal has been disconnected.
Programming: Its not just a job - its an indenture.
I have a similar box (Caller ID Manager) from PrivacyCorps.com which intercepts the first ring and checks the caller ID. We have a Panasonic wireless setup with 4 handsets from which the base station is fed from the CID unit. Bad CID? We never even get that first ring. The call is routed to another plug on the device where we have an answering machine telling the caller we don't take calls from their number.
We've blocked all 800, 866, 888, 000, 123-456-7890, etc. The thing works beautifully.
Trolling is a art,
I work from home and get tons of robo calls, and even if it's not a robot talking on the phone, marketing firms usually have some machine dialing the call and then hand it off to someone once the machine determines there's a human on the line. Ever wonder why you say hello and it takes the person on the other end a few seconds to respond? That's why. Phone captcha would eliminate these calls... at least for awhile until someone beats the captcha.
Buy a Telezapper.
http://www.telezapper.com/
When you (or your answering machine) picks up the phone, the telezapper plays a dialtone.
Humans just hear a tone, auto-dialers interpret it as "this line has been disconnected"
I got one for my parents, long before the Do Not Call list and after around a month, as your number gets taken off of auto-dialing lists, it makes a huge difference in the volume of calls that come in.
You can also do it, like I did for myself, by recording the tone onto the beginning of an answering machine message, but the telezapper works whenever you pick up the phone. So if you're fine with letting every "unknown number" go to the answering machine (my parents were not) you can implement the Telezapper's $40 functionality for free.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I do this on my Asterisk system by having an answering machine on my POTS line give out an 0870 (expensive to call) number that forwards to my VoIP phone number. My friends and family have the real number (so don't pay the 0870 call rate). The ringer is switched off (as is the speaker) on my answerphone so I don't hear it ring, it doesn't disturb me and the call spammers don't generally like to call 0870 numbers. It's a win-win. :)
Also, whocallsme.com is a very useful site in looking up the caller IDs of call spammers, and isn't restricted to USA or UK.
-- Soruk