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.
There already is a feature for that, ANI, where the information is sent by the phone company rather than by the caller themselves over the "voice" portion of the call. It costs more than caller ID, and I'm not sure you can even get the phone company to offer it to you as an individual, but many business use this feature. Probably the spam callers themselves are using it to avoid receiving unwanted calls...
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The anti-call script script
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.