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T-Mobile Kicks Off Industry Robocall War With Network-Level Blocking and ID Tools (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-things dept.

T-Mobile is among the first U.S. telecom companies to announce plans to thwart pesky robocallers. From a report on VentureBeat: The move represents part of an industry-wide Robocall Strike Force set up by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last year to combat the 2 billion-plus automated calls U.S. consumers deal with each month. Other key members of the group include Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Verizon. T-Mobile's announcement comes 24 hours after the FCC voted to approve a new rule that would allow telecom companies to block robocallers who use fake caller ID numbers to conceal their true location and identity. From a report on WashingtonPost: The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed new rules (PDF) that would allow phone companies to target and block robo-calls coming from what appear to be illegitimate or unassigned phone numbers. The rules could help cut down on the roughly 2.4 billion automated calls that go out each month -- many of them fraudulent, according to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "Robo-calls are the No. 1 consumer complaint to the FCC from members of the American public," he said, vowing to halt people who, in some cases, pretend to be tax officials demanding payments from consumers, or, in other cases, ask leading questions that prompt consumers to give up personal information as part of an identity theft scam.

76 comments

  1. lol wat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >Robo-calls are the No. 1 consumer complaint to the FCC from members of the American public

    Is it that only old people complain to the FCC? How is this the #1 issue Americans have with the communications industry?

    1. Re:lol wat by DickBreath · · Score: 0

      The No. 2 consumer complaint the FCC receives is to express concern about the feet of young people upon their lawn.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re:lol wat by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      #1 issue is not equal to #1 consumer complaint to the FCC.

      Example: bitching about anything related with the communications industry here on Slashdot doesn't register as a consumer complaint with the FCC.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:lol wat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Robo-calls are the No. 1 consumer complaint to the FCC from members of the American public

      Is it that only old people complain to the FCC? How is this the #1 issue Americans have with the communications industry?

      Sure, just like it's (practically) only old people bugging the staff when you go to the store, asking questions amounting to "read to me what it says on this package I'm holding" as though illiterate - if you have a request that actually requires the staff, well you get to wait for that. It's practically only old people running homeowner's associations, dealing with such important matters as taking neighbors to court over subtle paint color differences. It's practically only old people who decide "say, is this a wide straight road built like a drag strip, and are these good bright sunny conditions with no hazards/obstacles? What a great time to go 10+mph under the speed limit, after all I have no boss to please or clock to beat anymore, so screw everyone stuck behind me!"

      I know a guy who works at a department store to help pay for his college expenses. He happens to be black. He helped an old woman put her items in her car and was very kind and respectful to her. You know what she said to him? She said "you know you're really nice, for a colored boy". This woman was old enough to remember the 1960s, Civil Rights, and all the progress made since then. No young person would say a thing like that unless they were just trying to pick a fight (and even then probably not - there are ways to pick fights that don't stain your reputation by making you known as a bigot).

      Generally old people in America have this irritating habit of constantly getting in the way and obstructing others, talking down to them, and acting like they're so much better than anyone around them. At the same time they act completely starved for attention, asking the dumbest questions just to talk to someone. With so many aging Baby Boomers they should have PLENTY of likeminded company, but they seem afraid of dealing with fellow people as equals which rules out all that likeminded company. Basically this generation of old farts proves that age and wisdom have no real connection. I'm glad I knew my grandparents (Greatest Generation that fought WWII) and got to admire their humble natures, their quiet strength of character, and most of all their fiercely independent do-it-yourself nature. Otherwise I might think all old people are self-important entitled inconsiderate yet helpless assholes.

    4. Re:lol wat by OffaMyLawn · · Score: 0

      I can verify this.

    5. Re:lol wat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A simple "yes" would have sufficed.

    6. Re:lol wat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No.

  2. There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    here at T Mobile. I work for their NA headquarters in Bellevue, WA, and we make tremendous amounts of money from these calls. Just one call for ten seconds costs me over $2 if I'm 90 miles to the north and pick-up a signal from a Canadian tower. Of course we don't want to block that profit stream.

    1. Re:There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This, plus another local company (Microsoft) which is the source of most of the calls with their Skype product makes a lot of money off of spam calls. That is why Microsoft refuses to stop the calls since the callers are paying per minute to Microsoft. Microsoft and T Mobile here in the Seattle area love spam calls. They fight hard to make sure the annoying calls continue.

    2. Re: There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Local? I work for Microsoft in a T Mobile building at Eastgate neighborhood in Bellevue. Very close.

    3. Re:There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      I don't understand what you're saying... is it that your company likes the calls because, as a user, you pay $2 extra if you're up near the border? Maybe it was just Toronto, but one of the reasons I like T-Mobile was my international service was no additional charge in just about everywhere I would likely travel. Back on subject, I use a brain enabled white list.... if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer it. If they leave a message, and it was something I wanted, I add them to my contacts so I know who it is.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    4. Re:There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      Except most t-mobile plans include unlimited Canadian roaming, and the plans that don't only cost $0.59 per minute... so no, you don't pay $2 for ten seconds of accidental roaming.

    5. Re:There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was just giving roaming as an example of something very profitable for us. Any user that pays per minute is profitable especially with robocallers because of the vast number of calls they can make in a short period of time.

    6. Re:There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet you're a lot of fun at parties.

      His example was an extreme one where yes they do make a lot of money, but in any case they make money from calls so they want to encourage lots of spam calls. When I worked for Sprint in 1992, we guessed that about half of the calls we terminated were either wrong numbers or bulk unsolicited calls. We never blocked any callers since we would have been hurting our profits even though our customers were mad at the number of calls they got.

    7. Re: There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. Unsolicited bulk calls are way too profitable.

    8. Re: There's a reason we don't block spam calls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does microsoft and tmobile fight exactly to make sure the calls continue?

  3. Block on the phone. by sycodon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just provide a feature to automatically send to voice mail or block altogether calls from numbers not in your contacts.

    Kinda like a White List.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Block on the phone. by the+simurgh · · Score: 1

      it';s called block mode on android. turn it on and nothing but the people in your contact list will ring.

    2. Re:Block on the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do Not Disturb mode on iOS.

    3. Re:Block on the phone. by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      True story: I already have a feature to indicate that a call was a Robo Call. When this new feature was introduced on Android, I began using it. Each time I flagged a call as a Robo Call, I had a sense of satisfaction. Before long, Robo Calls would show up on a red screen, so I could choose not to answer. Then they stopped completely. Android 7.1.1

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    4. Re:Block on the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's already built into android. Works great.

    5. Re:Block on the phone. by green1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That't technically easy, but socially difficult.

      It may work well for some people, but it doesn't work for many others. My phone is often used as the emergency contact number for events that I volunteer on, as a result I need to receive calls from many different numbers that are unknown to me ahead of time. Not answering isn't really an option, and I won't get a list ahead of time that I can program in to a whitelist of the hundreds of people that will be on or near the event.

      Other people use their phones for their business, if you don't answer when a customer phones, they'll phone someone else, and while that may make your business easier, it also makes it quite unprofitable.

    6. Re:Block on the phone. by sycodon · · Score: 1

      On my Droid Turbo, it appears I have to add each number to a list...so a black list.

      I'd like a White list.

      But then I guess this has nothing to do with T-Mobil.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    7. Re:Block on the phone. by Sloppy · · Score: 2

      I like the idea of moving as much decision making as possible to the phone, but I don't want a whitelist. That would require me to make the effort to whitelist people, plus having the prescient power of anticipating which strangers I want to hear from (e.g. whoever found my dog and called the number on her collar). I'm ok with getting a call from a stranger, as long as their "return address" isn't forged. If the return address is correct, and they are annoying, I can blacklist 'em. Allowing strangers to call me is the best default. Not perfect (it's easy to imagine some failure scenarios), but best.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    8. Re:Block on the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That't technically easy, but socially difficult.

      It may work well for some people, but it doesn't work for many others. My phone is often used as the emergency contact number for events that I volunteer on, as a result I need to receive calls from many different numbers that are unknown to me ahead of time. Not answering isn't really an option, and I won't get a list ahead of time that I can program in to a whitelist of the hundreds of people that will be on or near the event.

      I know this may shock you, but there's lots of people out there that aren't you. Even if a whitelist cell phone address book will not work for you, there is no reason to not create such a tool and make it available for other people to use who will not find it a hindrance in their professional lives.

    9. Re:Block on the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some people really hate receiving calls, and you're obviously not one of those people.

      On average I get less than 20 valid calls per year. I used to get an average of three spam calls per day until I switched from a dumb phone with a limited number of call blocking numbers to Android where I can set it to only ring for contacts. Callers that aren't on my list go to (Google voice) voicemail, which further lets me blacklist spam numbers to never accept, and then it sends me an email of the voicemail transcript, so I don't even have to listen to it.

      FWIW, I use T-mobile prepaid and a $40 unlocked Android 6.0 phone, and I have my T-mobile voicemail completely disabled. I don't give out that number, so anyone that calls it is either a spammer or someone I know. If they're not on my contacts list, then Android prevents the phone from ringing, and they get whatever message T-mobile gives when nobody answers and there's no voicemail box.

      tl;dr: Android already does what GP wants.

    10. Re:Block on the phone. by green1 · · Score: 1

      Then use the already existing tools that do that, they've been built in to the OS on Android for ages, and available as add on programs for ages before that.

      The point is that for a large portion of the world, they simply can't do that, so telling people to do so is pretty naive.

    11. Re:Block on the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's stupid. I don't know the number someone might call me from during an emergency. I want all calls to come through, except for the ones made by jerks.

    12. Re:Block on the phone. by jafiwam · · Score: 1

      That's stupid. I don't know the number someone might call me from during an emergency. I want all calls to come through, except for the ones made by jerks.

      Both tools should be available.

      Nobody depends on me. "Emergency" is not something anybody would call me for.

      Others, with job, family, etc. may need to be available from a wide variety of places (i.e. some random school administrator)

      Voicemail will be fine for any non-contact list communication for lots of people.

      Really what needs to happen is a DNSSEC-like signature system between phone companies and the switches and the phone so that spoofed numbers are automatically blocked no matter what. Not that I do this, but there is far too much easy-to-break-into phone equipment out there still.

  4. What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by slashHandle · · Score: 1
    What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? .. Could that be a justification to permit robocalls?

    "With Republicans now in charge across the government, AT&T and Comcast are also poised to benefit from further deregulation. Since the presidential election, the companies have pushed the new Republican-led F.C.C., lawmakers and the White House to roll back net neutrality, the requirement that broadband providers give equal access to all content on the internet, saying the rules hamper their ability to invest in new networks and jobs."

    1. Re:What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by DickBreath · · Score: 0

      The RoboCall industry needs to refocus its efforts. The Trump administration has expressed that one of its policy goals is to put coal miners back to work. If there are not enough coal mining opportunities available, then put the RoboCall industry onto an isolated telecommunications system such that they can only call each other.

      Please hold to speak to an ignorant robot.
      Press zero to be routed to a call center in a third world country.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re: What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would rather just put the robocall center employees into a coal mine. Pack them in tight enough and bury the mine. Later generations cam then dig it back up for more coal!

    3. Re:What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by swb · · Score: 1

      I've long suspected that the fact that we're where we are now with rampant robocalls, spam and (still!) huge volumes of junk paper mail that literally nobodylikes is because business interests want it that way.

      Further, I think it's somehow ingrained in the hucksterism of American culture, this notion that all you really need is a good sales pitch and anyone who gets in the way of delivering one is somehow anti-business.

    4. Re:What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing justifies robocalls. If a 'product' needs robocalls to sell, then it isn't worth having.

      There is no point in 'jobs for their own sake'. If it was, I'd rather pay these people to not make calls. The only jobs worth funding, are those that achieves something beyond getting the workers some pay. Something like making useful stuff.

    5. Re:What if RoboCall industry creates jobs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "...is because business interests want it that way."

      From the article:
      "It’s worth noting here that it’s not about blocking nuisance telemarketing calls; instead it’s aimed at blocking suspected scammers and automated robocallers that typically dial hundreds of numbers at any given time."

      Note that this does not prevent PACs let's say from pretending to be taking surveys, in order to cull personal information and/or solicit contributions. In fact, this does nothing about political telemarketing or robocalling, which is still exempt. Since they tend to get lost in the cruft, by eliminating scuzzier commercial competition, PACs get a better shot at your attention, your privacy, and your wallet. (From what I gather locally, all of these calls in the last year to my phone came from just one Political party...)
      Ajit Pai, a Republican, is _not_ your Friend. Among other things, he opposed opening up the Cable Modem and Set Top Box markets to competition.

  5. FCC says wha? by goombah99 · · Score: 1

    I'm kinda dumbfounded this consumer freindly move wasn't squelched yet. After all the logic for the FCC nixing net neutrality and consumer privacy was because this stifles innovative revenue streams for productizing consumers. Actually I think they just said "bussiness innovation" for short. In anycase stopping robocalls seems like it will hurt someones revenue stream. You should write your congessman and demand to be productized more! Seriously, what's the angle here. My guess is that maybe the carrier's and google and all the rest want to prevent all the free robo calls and create a partner channel for authorized, paid, robocalls.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:FCC says wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > paid, robocalls

      That's probably why we changed so drastically from being pro-spam to now appearing at least somewhat not pro-spam. So, upper management has decided on a new way to make annoying calls even more profitable.

    2. Re:FCC says wha? by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      It hasn't been squelched because it isn't consumer-friendly. It actually causes even bigger problems, because the obnoxious scammers have already changed their tactics, and now are using actual phone numbers that belong to other people.

      About two weeks, I got a text message from somebody asking why I called them. I had not made any phone calls in nearly a day at the time, as verified on my phone. And I keep getting telemarketing calls from random assigned phone numbers in the area that belong to random individuals, all of whom are innocent victims.

      It is not sufficient to ban calls from unassigned numbers. Our phone network is hopelessly insecure, dating back to the days when only trusted carriers could add calls into the system. The only way to fix this is to ensure that at every injection point, the system verifies that the call is really coming from where it claims to be coming from—one wire, one or more fixed number blocks. And because there are probably major carriers complicit with this abuse, doing this right would require some sort of authenticated source check further down the line as well. This would probably require a major rearchitecting, which is why it probably won't happen any time soon. Basically, we need the equivalent of TLS and CAs for the phone network....

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  6. Good job! T-mobile by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2
    It is good. I wish other companies and landline phone companies will follow suite.

    Robo calls are killing the phone industry. People stop using phones and turn them off due to this nuisance

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Good job! T-mobile by dknj · · Score: 0

      maybe, i just worry how they go about doing it and what options the little person has if they get caught in the trap. my business is small, we only have 5 lines. i don't need to spend $500/month on phone service. my voip service costs me $24-$29/month and it allows me to set our outbound phone numbers to our sales people's personal cell phones. this measure, to me, sounds like my company will be swept up in the mess and not given two shits meaning i'm going to have to spend $500/mo with some major provider to prevent being swept up.

      and $5 says robocalls won't end, they'll just make a smarter robo

      -dk

    2. Re:Good job! T-mobile by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I'd think if you have a legit number then it's not a problem. I get calls to the tune of 10 or 15 a day now on my cell from fake numbers. I'm one of those people that only talks to people I know so I never answer, in fact I'm sending them all to voice mail now and they don't even ring. Some people though aren't able to do this. I don't care if the shit asses call me 10 million times a day as I never see it except in the log or if they leave a message which 1 in 50 might do.

    3. Re:Good job! T-mobile by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      You may not like what I say here, but don't blame me. Blame the people who abused the phone system.

      All these years you were getting 6000$ a year worth of phone services for 288$. Were you passing it on to customers or were you pocketing it as profit? The small business people have developed a sense of entitlement. Why everyone must act deferential and accommodate small business people. No body owes you a living, Nobody owes you a profit. I don't have to put up with robocalls so that you can make 6000$ more. You are in a business do what it takes, pay the going costs. Pass on the cost to your customers or eat your losses.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  7. Robocalls aren't a problem in other countries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Identify the difference that causes robocalls, eliminate it.

    1. Re: Robocalls aren't a problem in other countries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is in Canada. It is absolutely a problem.

    2. Re: Robocalls aren't a problem in other countries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can be the control group then.

  8. Robocalls, scammers, ID theft, etc. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    All good reasons to not have a phone number at all.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  9. Good by b0bby · · Score: 2

    I get at least 2-3 calls a day now from unknown numbers. A few months ago it was all out of state, but now they seem to be using local numbers. I never pick them up, and they never leave a message, but it's pretty annoying.

    1. Re:Good by hojo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I no longer answer the phone, ever, unless I know who is calling.

      It really works.

      I also add any "unknown number" to a new contact that I call e.g. Detroit Blocked, or NYC Blocked, or Louisiana Blocked (whatever google says is the caller), then "route to voicemail" all calls from that number. Plus I disabled voicemail, so it's really just a new version of the old killfile. :-)

    2. Re:Good by clonehappy · · Score: 1

      So, just out of curiosity, what happens when someone who legitimately calls you from an unknown/new number needs to get in touch with you but you won't answer the phone, and they can't leave you a voicemail so you can call them back?

    3. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never pick them up, and they never leave a message

      Oh, if only.

      I also get 2-3 calls a day from unknown / spam numbers, but apparently the botnet that calls me waits too long before disconnecting, so I do get a message each time -- 5 seconds of silence. Sure, it's easy to delete voicemails, but I'm tired of having voicemail spam all the time now.

    4. Re:Good by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Not the OP, but if an unknown number immediately calls me a second time I'll pick up. So they can just try again. Obviously the spam callers could do that too, but so far they haven't.

      Also, I'm not sure why they wouldn't be able to leave me a voicemail.

  10. AT&T already there by stevel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    AT&T has had their Call Protect feature for a few months now, including telemarketer identification and network-level fraudulent call blocking. I use it and it works very well.

    1. Re:AT&T already there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So i tells me it's spam but still rings? what am i missing here?

      Blocking any specific number is pointless.

  11. I reported them for 2 months. They went away. by michaelcole · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://complaints.donotcall.g...

  12. Re:Trump calls Ryan Pussy - Wants to GRAB him! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so trump is a pedo?

  13. Already solved! by slasher999 · · Score: 1

    Isn't this what free apps like HiYa and TrueCaller do? Why spend money on something that is already solved?

    1. Re:Already solved! by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 1

      Isn't this what free apps like HiYa and TrueCaller do?

      With apps like that, you're still getting the robocalls, you just don't see them. The carrier still has to carry them. They take up bandwidth on the trunks and frequency allocation on the cell towers. The ones that originate as VOIP sessions from some boiler room in Bangalore clog up valuable spectrum on transatlantic cables. The earlier in the process they can be blocked, the better.

      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    2. Re:Already solved! by jafiwam · · Score: 1

      Isn't this what free apps like HiYa and TrueCaller do?

      With apps like that, you're still getting the robocalls, you just don't see them. The carrier still has to carry them. They take up bandwidth on the trunks and frequency allocation on the cell towers. The ones that originate as VOIP sessions from some boiler room in Bangalore clog up valuable spectrum on transatlantic cables. The earlier in the process they can be blocked, the better.

      Those are all still problems, you are right.

      But, they are now the CARRIERS's problem, not mine.

      It's their problem to fix anyway, so that's right where the pain should be to get the issues resolved.

  14. Re:Trump calls Ryan Pussy - Wants to GRAB him! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not surprising. Typical Repug reaction to, well, anything in life.

  15. in 2017 Robocall war was starting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "Star Wars" style opening crawl:

    Somebody set up us the call.
    Caller ID turn on.
    All your annoyance are belong to us.
    You have no chance to survive make your time.
    Take off every 'VOIP'.
    For great justice.

  16. For those people not in the USA by ukoda · · Score: 1

    I guess most people outside the USA are now aware that the USA is unique in that pay for calls made to you. As an outsider you may think it is just a simple case of double dipping, but actually it is a lot worse. I purchased a prepaid SIM on a trip to the USA with enough credit to get me thru a week there. When I have done this in other counties it has worked out well however in the USA it was a waste of money. I was aware of the need to register the number with their do not call service but for a short trip that did not help as it has a lag in being activated. The first time I need to make a call I found all my credit had been consumed by unwanted incoming telemarketing calls.

    Also be aware that cheap prepaid SIMs in the USA may come with limitations. For example it you use Google Voice for number persistence you may not be able register your new number with that service depending on the account type and company.

    1. Re:For those people not in the USA by gaiageek · · Score: 1

      What prepaid SIM were you using that you couldn't register it with Google Voice? Sorry but I'm doubtful of your claim. I've never had this problem with *any* number, including ones tied to virtual phone apps like Talkatone, nor have I heard of anyone having this problem.

      --
      www.gaiageek.com
    2. Re:For those people not in the USA by ukoda · · Score: 1

      From memory it was T-Mobile but it was about 2 years back and the issue appeared to be because I had chosen the cheapest option they offered. I made the same assumption as you, until I couldn't register it. Things may have changed since then but I clearly remember my surprise that I couldn't use Google Voice because I walked into the wrong store for my SIM. My warning still stands, check before you buy a SIM.

    3. Re:For those people not in the USA by gaiageek · · Score: 1

      My best guess is that the "previous owner" of your number (of the SIM) had registered it to Google Voice. They cancelled/lost their service and the number was freed up, which you unluckily chose. But because GV had it registered elsewhere, it didn't allow you to register it (you can't have 1 number connected to 2 different GV accounts).

      If it wasn't that then I'd say it had something to do with your Google account, maybe being connected on VPN or maybe just that the account was initially registered overseas. Not the SIM card or the plan you chose though.

      --
      www.gaiageek.com
    4. Re:For those people not in the USA by clonehappy · · Score: 1

      It sounds like a stretch, or this person was just extremely unlucky in which recycled phone number they received. It sounds like he may have been using some ultra-cheap MVNO based on the Google Voice limitation.

      I've never seen a USA-based number that couldn't be registered with GV, nor have I ever gotten a number that upon receiving a few unwanted calls (not robocalls, but usually bill collectors, banks, and other services the previous owner of the number signed up for) I couldn't just call up and get the credit refunded and be assigned a new, fresh number.

    5. Re:For those people not in the USA by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The first time I need to make a call I found all my credit had been consumed by unwanted incoming telemarketing calls.

      You don't pay unless you answer the calls. Don't answer unknown calls. Let them go to voice mail. No robocallers leave messages any more.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  17. Gated telecommunications by swb · · Score: 1

    I wonder how long until we have deliberately gated telecommunications, where you pay extra and your phone number is "protected" -- no incoming calls from poor countries, poor neighborhoods, hell, they could probably reference some kind of database profile that estimates the socio-economic status of the caller and if it falls below your preference threshold, they get blocked.

  18. Re:Trump calls Ryan Pussy - Wants to GRAB him! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean, a fart? Most definitely.

  19. Re: Trump calls Ryan Pussy - Wants to GRAB him! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just imagine all the cobwebs when Bill grabs Hitlery.

  20. I predict ... by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 1

    I predict communication industry start offering services to bulk callers ways to punch through that block.
    There's nothing more profitable than selling to both sides of a conflict.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  21. Use the Google Voice method by clonehappy · · Score: 1

    It shouldn't be hard to set up a procedure systemwide wherein if you'd like to use a particular number as your outgoing caller ID, you have to verify that you can receive inbound calls TO that number first.

    1. Re:Use the Google Voice method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the case where a call center makes (legitimate) sales calls for a business, they have to be able to spoof their caller id. :-\ But, I like where you are going with this and think that there should be a way for legitimate call centers to do what they need to do, and us to choose to not get the calls and for that to be honored.

  22. Re:I reported them for 2 months. They went away. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    from your link:

    "Reminder: Even if your number is registered, some organizations may still call you, such as charities, political organizations, and telephone surveyors. For a full description of who may still call you, please consult our Consumer FAQs."

  23. That bitch Rachael... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    has been using our phone number as their callerid for the last 3 weeks. Then, everyone calls us back (why the hell are they calling a number they don't know) to tell us to quit calling them.

    Anyone working for this kind of call center should have to perform community service after the call center gets shutdown. Management should go to jail.