FTC Announces $50k In Prizes For Robocaller Trap Software

crazyhorse44 that the Federal Trade Commission announced this week that it is launching two new robocall contests challenging the public to develop a crowd-source honeypot and better analyze data from an existing honeypot. A honeypot is an information system that may be used by government, private and academic partners to lure and analyze robocalls. The challenges are part of the FTC's long-term multi-pronged effort to combat illegal robocallers and contestants of one of the challenges will compete for $25,000 in a top prize. As part of Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back, the FTC is asking contestants to create a technical solution for consumers that will identify unwanted robocalls received on landlines or mobile phones, and block and forward those calls to a honeypot. A qualifying phase [launched Wednesday] and runs through June 15, 2015 at 10:00 p.m. ET; and a second and final phase concludes at DEF CON 23 on Aug. 9, 2015.

Comments

my solution

[slashmydots]

Way ahead of you there. My spam call trap is called me. When I answer, suddenly I go from Wisconsin suburban turbo-white computer repair to solomente hablamos en espanol. Then when they apologize and transfer me to their spanish department, suddenly, I only speak english.

Re:Dial *666

[germansausage]

"That last bit might be a tad extreme..."- Saturation kinetic bombardment from orbit, followed by mop-up squads with flamethrowers and nerve gas. It might cost a little more, but it sends a message.

Solution: $5 wrench and the phone company's CEO

[Theaetetus]

As per the XKCD comic, the solution is a social one, not a technical one. Spam callers spoof their numbers, which is why they're so difficult to block, but caller ID spoofing is explicitly allowed by the phone companies, who let the spammers specify a "calling from" number to be included in the caller ID data. However, the phone company knows exactly where the real call is coming from and who is making it - that's how they bill the company for the 20,000 phone calls they make every month.

And why does the phone company do this? Because the spammers pay them decent money, and most people don't realize that the phone company's involved, so they get mad at the spammers and not AT&T or Verizon.

So, the solution is to send a burly man with a wrench to the CEO's office and ask him politely to stop letting companies specify different caller ID numbers, if he would like his kneecaps to remain intact.

Re:Not a good idea.

[Applehu Akbar]

The policy on Belize was modeled on Nigerian law, which requires membership in a royal family to get email addresses.