Slashdot Mirror
FCC Calls On Phone Companies To Offer Free Robocall Blocking (fastcompany.com)
The FCC chairman on Friday pressed major U.S. phone companies to take immediate steps to develop technology that blocks unwanted automated calls available to consumers at no charge. Chairman Tom Wheeler, in letters to CEOs of Verizon Communications, AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular, Level 3 Communications, Frontier Communications, Bandwidth.com, and T-Mobile, said that so-called robocalls, automated pre-recorded telephone calls often from telemarketers or scam artists continue because the industry isn't taking any action. Wheeler demands answers with "concrete, actionable solutions to address these issues" within 30 days. A report on FastCompany adds: Wheeler also urged carriers to create a list of institutions like government agencies and banks that are commonly impersonated by scammers and filter out overseas callers impersonating them through falsified caller ID data
They will offer free robocall blocking and the sudden and completely unrelated rate hike will be completely unrelated.
if legit companies were required to prove that their contractors followed ALL laws (with epic fines for violations) then these boiler room companies would go "POOF".
What does Analysts: These are the new features that will make you upgrade to the iPhone 7 this fall have to do with the summary? Why is there a link to it?
Using just technology, there would always be an arms race to create robots that emulate humans and new ways of detecting robots. The real way to handle it is to create an open source shared black list, have people sign up for a service, and vote when they answer a call on whether or not it is a telemarketer or robo-call. Multiple votes gets your number put in the black list, and then the service blocks that number for everyone else. What I'm not sure about is that there are two different caller id's, the spoofable (ISDN) one and the real one used for billing. The service would need access to the non-spoofable id, otherwise telemarketers would just change their number for every call.
Modify the phone system such that all calls are traceable. Then, when scammers robodial, trace it back and send in the troops and fucking shoot the fuckers. They're all low-life scum.
Yeah, they want to block impersonators. I want to block the real thing. Just give us the ability to white-list calls and the problem will be solved.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Just a non-fucking-spoofable caller ID would go a long way to fixing this, the assholes couldn't hide behind spoofed numbers and would be thus made easily reportable to authorities.
As soon as I heard that caller ID was FUCKING USER MODIFIABLE, I realized it was an absolutely worthless "feature".
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
The real way to handle it is to create an open source shared black list, have people sign up for a service, and vote when they answer a call on whether or not it is a telemarketer or robo-call.
Caller ID spoofing already broke block lists. By the time a call gets to your local telco there is no way even for them to tell where it really came from. They regularly spoof their identity - often as others they're robo-calling, or even as the phone they are calling.
IMHO the only way available currently is to trace back a particular call, from telco to telco, to see where it DID come from - then go after the actual robocaller. (Good luck getting that implemented, though. Or getting it to work across all countries, rather than letting the spammers run from safe havens.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I'm using this and have set it up for other family members. It works well. I miss some robo calls like from the doctor's office. So I asked them to call my cell when they need to talk to me
There's already a free solution for land lines: nomorobo.com. Been using it for about 6 months. Works great!!!
If the Federal Communications Commission, an agency of one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on Earth, can't figure out a way to legally ban robocallers, what the fuck am I paying them for? If I needed someone to bitch and whine to the phone company, I would do it myself and it would have exactly the same effect: 0
During elections I am bombarded by candidates, their wives, their friends, and more - all robocalls.
And none of the calls are worth listening too. Yak yak yak ... all the same talking points that I've heard over and over again.
And of course there are the scam calls for credit cards and other debt calls to lower your debt and other nonsense.
When you think about it, robocalls are just used by scammers. So, they should be blocked by default.
1. Secure the caller ID system to prevent faking caller IDs.
2. Implement the *666 calling feature -- if you get a robo-call you hang up, then pick up and dial *666. The phone company then blocks all calls from that number after receiving some number of *666 complaints.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Put some teeth into the do-not-call list:
Upgrade callerID to use ANI or some other tech to prevent it from being spoofed or blocked; so we can find the bastards. Remove the exemption for charity and political fundraisers and pollsters. Remove the "existing relationship" loophole so that when you add your number the calls STOP unless you explicitly exempt them (And that exemption should be revocable.). Remove the 31-day wait when a number is added (Seriously, WTF? I'm not buying a gun here. I don't need a cooling-off period.) And crank up the penalties for violations such that it will hurt even a SuperPAC... maybe add in some criminal penalties too.
Imagine all the people...
Stop ordering the free market to do your bidding. If the free market wants robocalls to be gone, they will be gone, but they don't want that, so we continue to have them. That's the Free Market making up its own mind. Tom's FCC is the antithesis of free market capitalism and who ever becomes the next president should get rid of him.
Most companies just need to configure their services to allow nomorobo.com to work. It's been amazing for my home phone, but no joy on cell.
Alternative approach: a phone would only ring if a) a number is on a person's contact list or b) the caller answers some questions correctly.
tldr: Nobody wins an arms race. they just continue forever.
The USPS's primary customer is bulk mailers. Then a little package delivery. Individuals sending love letters or paying bills aren't even on the radar.
Each evening I pass by my trash can on the way from the mailbox to the house. Very rarely are my hands full at the back door (watch it).
Then email turned into a shitpile of spam and we have spam blockers that (kinda) work.
The web has been a swamp since the invention of the blink tag.
And we have adblockers and the incessant whining of users and advertisers who both think they're entitled to control what appears on a user's screen.
Somewhere Usenet became completely useless for its original purpose. Some of my friends say it's a cheap substitute for bittorrent, so maybe it has a new funciton.
Now, the phone. Do you think it will be *any* different?
Hey--if they come up with a free and effective solution, great--I'll take two and color me wrong.
But I ain't holding my breath!
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
There's a difference in that you pay a significant amount to your phone carrier for the ability to receive calls -- unlike the USPS or email, which is free. Any company that introduced a robocall-blocker while its competitors did not would eat up the entire market in no time.
This is just another time he didn't eat the baby. But he's still a Dingo.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
It's bitztream, the autism-hating Slashdot troll!
Congress passed a new regulation, EXEMPTING THEM OR THEIR CONTRACTED SERVICES when a politician makes a robo call.
They'll spend months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to nab a guy halfway around the world for sharing music, but won't lift a fucking finger to hunt down real, actual scammers causing real, actual harm.
Say I'm being unreasonable, but here's my immediate reaction: infrastructure providers, whether they're fiber or cellular, should just provide the infrastructure. Voice service should be decoupled from the physical infrastructure. It should be competitive VoIP products based on open standards. The expectation should be that I can get a phone on Verizon's network, but my phone service might be through services like Google Hangouts or Skype, but that Google Hangouts and Skype can talk to each other the same way that Gmail can send email to Office 365. Same with video calls and messenger apps, frankly.
If you start from that viewpoint, then it's not about forcing Verizon to filter calls. All the questions boil down to "What should these open standards look like?" and "How do we get people to agree to use these standards?" If you have a set of good, secure standards, then you should have better luck verifying the identity of the source of the messages, and thereby identifying abusers. You'll still have some of the same problems we have in filtering spam, but (a) if you're building these standards from the ground up with modern knowledge, we can do better than what we've done with email; and (b) if you don't like your spam filtering, you can easily switch to a different provider that does a better job, and providing a good spam filter becomes a competitive edge.
Of course, this isn't going to happen. Everyone wants to lock their users into walled gardens. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are all trying to strong-arm users into using their services rather than giving them a free choice to use the best provider. If the web were being designed today, it would all look like the early AOL, with everyone walled into the garden that they signed up for, completely unable to access content or services unless they are offered by their ISP. It's absurd.
I'm all for any measure to put a stop to the robocalls and other spam calls. But how does a phone company identify a robocall?
For those demanding unspoofable caller ID; how does one do that in the age of VoIP?
Why would phone companies want to block their best customers?
Make it so that the person placing the call potentially pays to call me. I get to set the price. I agree to split that price with the phone company. The phone company agrees to play an automated message to the original caller informing them of the price and giving the caller the option to to complete the call or not. When my phone actually rings I get the option to press a key to waive the charge. Fun and entertainment ensue.
Wasn't the "Do Not Call" list thing supposed to take care of this already? Instead of asking the phone companies to deal with unwanted calls, how about enforcing the Do Not Call list and go to after the source?
Make it so that the person placing the call potentially pays to call me. I get to set the price. I agree to split that price with the phone company. The phone company agrees to play an automated message to the original caller informing them of the price and giving the caller the option to to complete the call or not. When my phone actually rings I get the option to press a key to waive the charge. Fun and entertainment ensue.
This is almost a good idea. What we actually need is a 'white list' on phone contacts who are allowed to call. Anyone not on the white list goes to voice mail without disturbing you. Could possibly offer the caller the option to pay $1 to get through. Seems like this could easily be implemented on the handset, no need to bother the phone company. Can Android apps intercept phone calls and route them? App idea for someone to exploit if they have the know how and if the capabilities are there.
The problem lays with the ability of being able to spoof where calls originate from. I could go out and get a cheap VOIP service and spoof the source number to my hearts content. The technology needs to change so you can only set your number to ones registered to you or having it show as unlisted.
If they call you and it is a scam and the number shows up, you would then know it was a valid number and could file a complaint against it. If it shows up as unlisted, then you should have the option to allow/disallow calls to your number from private numbers (similar to the way you use #69, so you wouldn't require any 3rd party devices/software). Then if a private number calls you and you disallow private calls, it will play a automated message to the caller that "this number does not accept calls from private numbers, etc, etc".
Almost all spam calls, robocalls, and illegal calls to cell phones that I receive are traced to VoIP services offered by Level 3 subsidiaries or Level 3 themselves. They do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to fix any of this.
Shut down Level 3 and ban the easy scam-hiding that is VoIP telephony, I can guarantee you the majority of this bullshit will stop immediately.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I don't have mod points so I can't mod it down. And the shooters were right-wingers yelling hatred for Turks.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Sure, it's just a simple matter of programming to re-architect the signalling system that's driven the phone companies since the mid-80s. Unfortunately, number spoofing has been an important feature for legitimate businesses - it lets them do things like always give you the number of their main office as caller-id, even if the person is calling from a remote office, or let you give the direct number of the caller, even if the call is getting routed through the company's main office PBX VOIP gateway. It also provides the ability to do a lot more complicated things. And (this mattered more back then than now) it let them run phone switches on processors that were made in the 1960s and 1970s, and with mainframes that might have 10 MIPS of CPU power (compared with the wimpy 1 MIPS VAX I was using in 1980.) My wristwatch probably has less RAM than that, but probably a much faster CPU, and my wimpy Android phone has about as much RAM as my VAX had disk.
And yes, within the next decade we may well have re-architected the world's phone systems away from the designs we used back then (and much of the implementation has changed radically already), but interface standards stick around a lot longer than implementations, and are a lot harder to get rid of.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
We have had the same increasing number of robocalls everyone else has, gradually spilling over onto my cell, but what finally put me over the top was a new type of call. The phone rings, I pick up, and before I say a word it just says "We are sorry. An application error has occurred. Goodbye."
We have all comm services bundled with cable, so the landline came 'free' on the account. the only use we had for it was as the notifier output for an old leak sensor. Now we're replacing the sensor with one of the newfangled Homekit models that beams its notifications through our router to a smartphone app.
I find it ironic that a submission about nuisance calls has the main link erroneously redirecting people to some fluff piece advertising iphone features.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
The Public Switched Telephone Network exists mostly to push unwanted advertising and scams on unsuspecting victims, due mainly to an inclination by the Federal Government of The United States of America to let it happen. They've even carved out a special place for themselves in the Do Not Call list that makes this list mostly useless. As reputations go the PSTN deserves zero trust and zero consideration by ordinary people. Curb your curiosity when the phone rings. Only answer calls from numbers or people you know. Let everything else go to voicemail. If the calling party doesn't leave voicemail then it must not have been very important. Use privacy-oriented apps like Signal or WhatsApp (or FB Messenger if you must) to make your calls where you can.
8 Simple Rules For NOT Dialing My Number:
1. If you're selling something don't call me. Period. If I want something I'll call you.
2. If you're a politician or a pollster don't call me. Period.
3. If I don't recognize your number you're going to voice mail. Get over it and leave a message.
4. If Caller ID is blocked, missing, or obviously spoofed you're going to voice mail. Get over that, too, and leave a message.
5. Every carrier should have the ability and facility in this day and age to "Back Bill" any call, anywhere. If a "boiler room" (or even my own mother) calls me I should be able to dial "*BACB" (or something similar) and charge them some nominal amount for the call to the device that I'm paying the bill for if I don't want them contacting me. *BACB call charges from the original calling party go into the Universal Service Fund to prevent dishonest back billing.
6. Spoofing Caller ID information should be considered Wire Fraud and therefore illegal.
7. I'm paying for my air time on my cellular phone even when you call me, that makes it trespassing if I don't want you there and I should be able to prosecute you if you become a nuisance.
8. Unsolicited Text Messages are no different from Unsolicited Voice Calls and therefore no exception to the above rules.
9. Bonus Rule: Wireless carriers should enact voluntary number blocking/filtering systems with no arbitrary limits (like, say, MORE than 5 numbers, Verizon Wireless) with Opt-IN policies rather than Opt-OUT policies by default. The same goes for scam services like Premium Text Messaging.
What other rules or etiquette can you think of to compliment this list?
my own robocall blocking system. Basically, I don't answer anything outside my area code that isn't in my address book so it gets identified. Got about 6 calls today that I refused. Works for me.
Would be nice to have a way to block the robos, tho...
The federal government's position is "There is nothing we can do about it" even though most of the calls- if you play along- switch you to an America-based phone salesman working on commission. Almost all these folks work and live in Palm Beach County, FL, where boiler room phone scams are the biggest private employer (30,000 people the last time I heard). This has been going on for 30-40 years and started with timeshare and commodities options. The companies use standard credit card merchant accounts the government can quickly find and shut down. The local phone systems can be easily wiretapped. For the few big-wigs in India who are involved ("Hello, my name is Bobby") a few secret international arrest warrants that snag them on vacation in Europe will suffice. This is a huge illegal business, easily shut down. Why it isn't is a bit of a mystery to me.
So here is the thought experiment: Imagine if you picked up the phone tomorrow morning and heard that cheery female voice hidden behind two layers of Skype say "Hi, I'm from the Should We Legalize Presidential Assassinations? Project and we're doing a survey to gauge public support for Presidential assassinations and to see if you would like to make a small contribution to our campaign. To continue press one" . Note that "Presidential assassinations" can mean either assignations authorized by "A President"- (of what isn't specified) or assassinations aimed at a President. A bit ambiguous, but heck, no harm intended.
Exactly how many minutes do you think it will it take before the FBI gets a report, hits the "trace" button, finds the location and comes through the splintered doorway with guns drawn to take away everyone involved? Needless to say, no bail, multiple federal conspiracy charges each worth 20 years in jail on the way. My guess is 30 minutes unless the FBI decides to trace every cellphone call the perps have made in the past 10 years to see if anyone important is involved. Then it may take a few days. The claim that these operations can't be shut down is sheer silliness.
If Trump ever gets up in a debate with Hilary and said "I'll end these calls in the first 90 days of my Presidency" he'd be elected in a landslide. Hilary could do the same but she never does anything spontaneous.
I've got a Panasonic land-line phone that does this now. The only downside is that the block list is limited to 30 numbers.
What I really want is for the cellular companies to get off their ass and implement caller ID. Further, I want Apple to add live number lookup and a one-touch way to google a phone number in my recent list instead of forcing me to copy & paste the text. How hard is that?!
This message hereby announces a new protocol, the Conversation Charge Protocol. Any person may participate in this protocol. Individuals choosing to participate value their time, and assert a right to charge others for wasting that time. Any business or other organization making an unsolicited offer with protocol participants -- whether to sell goods, services, a cause, a religion, or a political party or candidate -- shall be liable for $1000. This amount shall double with each additional unsolicited offer or conversation or interaction regarding that offer. This fee shall apply whether the interaction occurs via phone, email, smail, or door to door. Similarly, persons attempting to collect an erroneous debt will be charged for each unsolicited interaction. Persons responsible for robo-calls and calls or other interactions made by mistake still must pay the fee, so don't make mistakes in programming your software or databases.
Opening an unsolicited conversation or other interaction - that makes an offer or attempts to sell anything as described above - with any participant in this protocol constitutes agreement to these terms.
In the USA, as an exercise of rights arising under the 9th Amendment, phone companies, ISPs, mail delivery services (including government services), and so forth are required to notify third parties when this protocol is in effect, and shall be liable for the full amount should they either fail to do so, or allow unsolicited calls etc from other countries that do not respect this protocol, or if they fail to keep and provide records sufficient to ensure prompt and accurate billing.
All costs associated with collection will be added to the amount charged.
As with the exercise of any other right protected under the Bill of Rights, this protocol supersedes all contracts, and all lessor law, when any conflicts occur.
Obviously it would be unethical practice of law for legal professionals to claim that their time has value while denying the right of others to make similar claims: any law, practice, or precedent that would disallow the operation of this protocol in general is unethical and hence illegal.
This protocol generalizes and replaces the previous Garbage Disposal Assistance Protocol, which was intended to deal with unsolicited mail such as junk mail by charging those that require others to dispose of garbage created by a third party. As technology has changed, individuals are being forced to deal with a wider variety of forms of garbage, and the previous protocol is now obsolete.