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Google's Phone App Is Getting the Power To Send Spam Calls Straight To Voicemail (9to5google.com)

According to 9to5Google, Google's dialer app for Pixel, Nexus, and Android One devices is being upgraded with the ability to send spam calls straight to voicemail. "In 2016, the app began alerting users to potential spam callers by flashing the incoming call screen bright red, with another 'Suspected spam caller' alert just underneath the phone number," reports 9to5Google. The new spam filtering feature goes a step further. From the report: [U]sers will not receive a missed call or voicemail notification, though filtered calls will appear in call history and any voicemails left will still show up in that respective tab. This feature is rolling out worldwide over the next few weeks, but those who join the new beta will have initial access to it. Like its other programs, Google notes that the test allows you to use experimental features before they're released. Google warns that features will still be in-development, might be unstable, and have "a few problems." Meanwhile, users will have the ability to submit in-app feedback throughout the process. Head to the Google Play listing for the Phone app and scroll down to "Become a tester" in order to join.

85 comments

  1. NO!!! by TiberiusKirk · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't want the call going straight to voicemail. I want the fuckers to have to wait for 4 rings, then get sent to voicemail.

    1. Re:NO!!! by Scutter · · Score: 2

      I don't want them to go to voicemail at all. Let them listen to 4 rings and then hang up on them.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    2. Re:NO!!! by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      Same, I like to get connected to an operator and then make hideous noises, or act out extremely awkward scenes with co-conspirators such as 'getting fired'. Nothing too violent, just plain awkward. My father, on the other hand, enjoys engaging them (by giving every indication of a legitimate hook at first) to see how far he can get into their heads. I also enjoy that the dialer on my CM-flashed firephone lets me dump whole exchanges (same-exchange spoofing bullshit is history), or even area codes, and it only takes a few dozen extra entries to work around actually allowing throw a single number from problematic prefixes.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    3. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Make that six rings.

    4. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This raises a good question, if phones ring long enough, will they get trained out of the system?

    5. Re:NO!!! by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

      Somewhere another phone is getting a scam call at the same time...
      connect the two calls together and let them tell each other about the virus that has been detected, or overdue tax bill, or grand child in jail...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    6. Re: NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By design. Voice spam

    7. Re:NO!!! by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 1

      Wait for 20 rings and then hang up.

    8. Re:NO!!! by RandomFactor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why hang up on them? Just let it ring. But whatever - absolutely DO NOT give me spam voicemail. Why would i want that?

      --
      --- Mercutio was right.
    9. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, this is exactly what I do. If I know the number I'll answer it. If I don't know the number I let it ring. Originally I had voice mail, later on I got rid of it. The number of calls from unknown numbers dropped drastically after I got rid of voicemail.

    10. Re:NO!!! by RhettLivingston · · Score: 2

      I'd rather autoforward them all to Ajit Pai.

    11. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      it's a machine calling, so it doesn't matter too much to them

    12. Re:NO!!! by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1

      I use Ooma for a land line, and it has had this same feature for quite some time.

      On rare occasions its spam filter has a false positive, and it would be rather annoying if a call I was expecting got dropped with no trace. Ooma lets you do several things with suspected spam messages including continuous ring and "number disconnected" messages, but I keep it set to voicemail for this reason.

      At any rate, the vast majority of spam calls that end up in voicemail simply hang up. We delete ones that do leave messages after about three seconds of listening.

    13. Re:NO!!! by ls671 · · Score: 1

      I use asterisk and also freeswitch. I just send those calls to a queue that plays music and "please wait" messages and then, it hangs up after five minutes.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    14. Re:NO!!! by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      I want them to enter a menu system maze or get sent to the Lenny telemarketer bot.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    15. Re:NO!!! by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      I would rather government regulation, targeting the caller and the advertised product. I would rather it be answered by a bot to confirm the nature of the call, letting me check it after the call is over, before forwarding to the appropriate authority for action. Don't penalised them and they won't stop. Really want it to stop, there has to be regulation and penalties. Other country the source, then penalised the country, the country pays the fine, for bad digital exports and it is up to them to recover the money from offenders.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    16. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mortal spam, bound to die? Better make it nine rings.

    17. Re:NO!!! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Voicemail is 100% spam now. Ask your service provider to disable it. Anyone you actually want to talk to can use SMS or email. The only people who leave voice messages are spammers who don't have any other means of contacting you.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    18. Re:NO!!! by registrations_suck · · Score: 1

      Voicemail is 100% spam now. Ask your service provider to disable it. Anyone you actually want to talk to can use SMS or email. The only people who leave voice messages are spammers who don't have any other means of contacting you.

      I already block all SMS messages....both because it blocks that spam channel, plus I think text messages are lame anyway.

      My preferred communication channel is e-mail. Fortunately, I can set up and tear down new email addresses on my domain name any time I want.

    19. Re: NO!!! by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      I like to let it ring for as long as possible, and then pick up and string them along... for as long as possible.

    20. Re:NO!!! by rgbscan · · Score: 2

      This is basically the premise of the "HoaxHotel" twitch stream :-)

    21. Re: NO!!! by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Not for me. T-Mobile's call blocking feature (checks whether they're number is coming from a real carrier network) works quite well, only failing for calls from St. Jude. And yes, these guys spoof their caller ID, DO NOT DONATE TO THEM! THEY NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE AFTER!

    22. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're no fun. Send them to Lenny. ;)

    23. Re:NO!!! by John+Napkintosh · · Score: 1

      Needs upmod. I'd prefer if my phone never even let it reach voicemail. If you have the ability to detect a spam caller, then I want my phone and/or network to make it appear that my number is dead altogether.

      --

      Long signatures suck.
    24. Re:NO!!! by Woldscum · · Score: 1

      Better yet. On the Moto phones. Don't know about all Android phones. Even if you have a number blocked they can STILL leave a voicemail. You have no way to block a number from leaving annoying spam voicemails.

    25. Re:NO!!! by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Well, yeh. Hence the reason for the reference to Ajit Pai who is very pro business-over-consumer and recently trashed some of that regulation.

    26. Re:NO!!! by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      What about a false positive?

    27. Re:NO!!! by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      I want them to listen to 4 rings and then have their call center hit with an EMP blast that fries all of the electronics in the building.

    28. Re:NO!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some phones do support a pickup-hangup mode, with the caveat that it eats a minute of airtime. A minute well spent, IMO.

  2. Just getting started by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there an app that will do this for all my calls?

  3. Not Compatible by crow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too bad the app isn't compatible with many Android phones. I know it's asking a lot to support obscure phones like the Samsung Galaxy series, but it would be nice.

    1. Re: Not Compatible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad they can't hook it into their audio parsing AI systems, a chat bot, and a text to speech system.
      The more of the spammers time you waste, the better off everyone is.

    2. Re:Not Compatible by Luthair · · Score: 2

      Maybe it would be if Samsung didn't ship their own version of every single piece of software on the phone.

    3. Re:Not Compatible by The+Raven · · Score: 1

      This is Samsung's fault, not Google's.

      --
      "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
  4. NO Voicemail by markdavis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would I want it to go to voicemail?????? What a pain in the a**. I get a repeating alert that I have new voicemail or a missed call, then I have to open that app, and deal with finding it and deleting it. GIVE US CONTROL, let us choose to send it to an anti-spam announcement-only message or something! More control is better. I would even like an option to have it send calls and texts from unknown sources (those not in my contacts) to an announce-only (or autoreply text) for unknown numbers (those not in my contacts).

    1. Re: NO Voicemail by Wycliffe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I would love for it to go to a special gate where I could specify questions like âoeplease type the name of the personâ(TM)s daughterâ(TM)s name.â or âoeplease type the company of the person you are trying to reachâ. Most people should be able to come up with a question or two that legitimate callers would be able to answer.

    2. Re: NO Voicemail by markdavis · · Score: 1

      Exactly. There are a zillion possible useful tools and ways to deal with spam calls and texts.... none of them include just dumping spam calls into voicemail and doing nothing for texts.

    3. Re:NO Voicemail by Luthair · · Score: 3, Informative

      Usually these automated systems are designed to disconnect when they detect voicemail.

    4. Re: NO Voicemail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a number that gets a lot of wrong calls so I forward it to an online service, toktumi.com, where I have an assistant that says "press 1 for Steve, press 2 for Janet."

    5. Re:NO Voicemail by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Usually these automated systems are designed to disconnect when they detect voicemail.

      Alas, I get several automated message fragments on my voicemail every week. And yes, it's a cellphone on the do not call list, why didn't you bother to ask? :p

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:NO Voicemail by eliphalet · · Score: 1

      Particularly since most of them stay on the line just long enough to leave 2 seconds of dead air.

  5. I already do that (sort of) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My default ring tone a few seconds of silence. Everyone on my contact list gets a custom ring tone. If I don't have the number on my contacts I don't hear it.

    1. Re:I already do that (sort of) by FudRucker · · Score: 1

      thats basically a whitelist, it is better than letting anyone call and only blacklist the bad callers, i just checked my phone to see if i could set that up but no dice on mine or i would,

      --
      Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    2. Re:I already do that (sort of) by sheph · · Score: 1

      Similar to what I do. I have an app called Whitelist Call Blocker. When it's running only people in my contacts will ring through. Everything else gets disconnected. Since I installed that app I hardly ever get spam calls now.

      --
      I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
  6. And avoid the already existing DNCR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Better.. allow any android phone (and yes you jesus phone purchasers) to access the National Do-Not-Call registry.. and reject any call that isn't in your contact list? My new LG phone already does this marking them "spammer" but to keep it for more than 30 days.. I have to pay for the Caller ID function.. which is what the NDNC registry was supposed to solve.

    Peace out.

  7. Already got that on my Samsung S8 by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 1

    That came built-in with my Samsung S8. Spam calls are announced with a pink background, non-spam calls are announced with a black background.

    Unfortunately, it's impossible to simply block spam calls; they go to voicemail. So several times each day I get a bunch of voicemails... "Press 1 to connect with a live local Google search expert" and so forth.

    A simple hang-up when an incoming call is on my block list or the spam list would be far less annoying.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:Already got that on my Samsung S8 by Scutter · · Score: 1

      I had a really good third party app for that called Extreme Call Blocker that you could configure to do a hangup-no-voicemail on blacklisted calls. The app is still available but it doesn't work reliably anymore and the maintainer appears to have vanished. I haven't found a replacement app yet.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    2. Re:Already got that on my Samsung S8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even my old Samsung has this .. hold your finger on that last call-log and select last option 'Add to automatic blocklist"
      On top of that "Unknown Numbers" are blocked by default in my settings

  8. *this* is a canonical example of google's evilness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That an 'open source' phone did not get 'basic advanced' call handling, for this many years, is one of several perfect example's of google's core evilness.

    The fact that my android phone cannot configure THE NUMBER OF RINGS BEFORE USER GETS VOICEMAIL on a global let alone custom per contact group basis, IS THE NEXT EXAMPLE.

    THERE ARE MORE

    GOOGLE IS EVIL

    but not as bad as microsoft.

  9. How about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Forwarding the calls to whatever piece of shit is running the call center? Sometimes I like to sexually harass the people. One chick said her name was Raven so I said she sounded hot and to send some selfies since she had my number.

  10. Well it's no drone strike by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But it's a start. A small start, in the occasionally decent direction.

  11. Where there not already apps for this? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    I thought Android apps could intercept calls - I know there are iPhone apps (I use one) that can block calls it suspects are spam (though like this system it just goes to voice mail, not truly "blocked")...

    With one exception. If my phone number is 888-476-3059, Any call with the same "476" code (so 888-476-1234) cannot be blocked, though it can be marked as spam in the callerID. Does anyone know why those calls cannot be blocked? Is there a technical reason for that?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Where there not already apps for this? by RhettLivingston · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't know if there is a technical reason, but there is a good reason.

      Spammers are now spoofing numbers in your local exchange in hopes that you'll think they might be someone you know because it's a local number. If you call the number, you'll find that it is a real person's number, not the spammers. If you start blocking all of those numbers, you're not blocking spammers - they'll use a different local number every time - you're blocking your neighbors.

    2. Re:Where there not already apps for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No one I know has the same exchange as me. I have no interest in ever receiving a call from such a number. Every single one will be a spoofed spam call.

    3. Re:Where there not already apps for this? by timholman · · Score: 2

      Spammers are now spoofing numbers in your local exchange in hopes that you'll think they might be someone you know because it's a local number. If you call the number, you'll find that it is a real person's number, not the spammers. If you start blocking all of those numbers, you're not blocking spammers - they'll use a different local number every time - you're blocking your neighbors.

      Yep. I got a somewhat annoyed text message from someone just the other day, wondering why I called his number. Same area code, same prefix. I explained to him what had happened. The entire Caller ID concept is falling completely apart under the new spammer attacks. I've even had one friend say that she's been repeatedly called by her own phone number.

      What I don't understand is why the spammer problem hasn't long since been dealt with. It's not as if the technology is particularly new or novel. I've got an Obihai Obi110 attached to my home landline, configured as a call screener. If someone calls my number, they hear "You've reached xxx-xxxx. Please press 1 to continue." Unless 1 is pressed within 30 seconds, they'll get the "disconnected number" message, but my phone will never ring. In nearly three years, not one robocaller has made it through the screener, because the human in the call center never hears the opening message due to the switching delay.

      Why can't cell phones do something similar? The economics of robocalling rely on the call pick-up switching delay. The spammers can't afford to have a person listen to every phone message and punch the proper number to ring through. Make it so the challenge can be modified by the end-user, with whitelisted numbers from the user's directory, and you'll have a filter that will cripple the industry, at least until someone constructs an AI that is smart enough to listen to the challenge and answer it correctly.

    4. Re:Where there not already apps for this? by havana9 · · Score: 1

      Some spammers are actually local calls, made by some local brick and mortar shop trying to advertise you something.
      One of them is my bank, and sometimes happened to be an useful thing, like a new bond subscription
      They have treated me nicely, because they owe me some money and there are two other banks in the same street they're, I think.

    5. Re:Where there not already apps for this? by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      What I don't understand is why the spammer problem hasn't long since been dealt with.

      IMO, one reason. Campaigns. The politicians don't want to be in the position of being the only ones spamming us.

  12. Cost them real money instead!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The one and ONLY way to get spam and scammers to stop bugging all of us...is to cost them money. A robocall can interrupt a thousand of us for a couple of pennies. When you get a real person on the other end of the line, that is costing the scammer some dough. I automatically press 1 whenever I get a span call so that it connects me with a live person. I then play a little game called "how much can I make you say with just a one word response like 'WHAT?'" Pretend you can't hear them or are interested in their scam. Keep them on the line as long as possible, but never fall for their scam. If everyone did this, then they would stop doing it. It simply would cost too much to find that 'sucker born every minute' that P.T. Barnum told us about.

  13. Nice, but too late by srichard25 · · Score: 2

    The Spammers are already on to the next tactic: spoofed numbers. I have Call Protect (powered by Hiya) installed. It used to catch the majority of spam callers and flag them as such. But lately, the spam callers are coming in using spoofed numbers that seem like valid phone numbers in my area code. It's a different number every time, so you won't find them in a spam caller registry. It's very difficult to determine whether it is a spam caller or someone from work calling me, so I pretty much have to pick up during the daytime.

    Why do the telephone companies allow callers to spoof the originating number?

    1. Re:Nice, but too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Why do the telephone companies allow callers to spoof the originating number?"

      Because phone systems are interconnected masses of heterogeneous technologies. To a first approximation, if you run your own PBX you are basically a phone company with respect to the things you can do, and there's very little going on to mitigate that. There's more to it, but it's fairly hard to authenticate a phone number when it may well have been routed through a pre-1970s switchboard (at the end of the day, whether or not it has been is immaterial, for reasons.)

    2. Re:Nice, but too late by mjwx · · Score: 2

      Why do the telephone companies allow callers to spoof the originating number?

      Because they're making money from the spammers.

      Phone companies could kill spam and scam calls dead, but they don't want to because it makes them money.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    3. Re:Nice, but too late by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Why do the telephone companies allow callers to spoof the originating number?

      Because the design was to allow companies and other entities with multiple phone lines to have them all present the same phone number when an outgoing call is made. Most PBX's don't maintain a 1:1 mapping between phone numbers and internal lines, so when you make an outgoing call, it randomly picks a free phone line and connects your call using it. Being random, if the phone company provided ANI directly, you'd get some oddball number that won't answer (because the PBX wasn't configured to allow those phone lines to "ring"). Instead, the PBX would tell the phone company what number to show, in this case, say the main phone number of the company.

      The same goes for DID (direct inward dial, aka direct line) numbers. Again, there's no 1:1 mapping between phone lines and numbers (and many companies maintain far fewer lines than numbers - in this day and age, they may get away with say, 10 phone lines despite having say, 60 people/phone numbers assigned). In this case, an outgoing call will cause the PBX to assign one of those random lines to your call, and the PBX will tell the phone company to use your direct number for caller ID (so people will know it's you calling). On the reverse side, the same thing happens - if you call the direct line, the phone company picks one of the random lines and tells the PBX what that line is supposed to connect to. This also makes it trivially easy to upgrade phone lines - if the company discovers that calls are dropping because all 10 lines are busy, they can easily upgrade to another few lines by calling the phone company to give a larger fraction of the T1 or so and configuring the PBX to recognize the new lines.

      What phone companies need to do is source filter the numbers, just like how we source-filter IP addresses. I.e., the numbers that can be reported for the caller ID can only be the numbers assigned to the company, and any attempt to spoof a different number is simply dropped.

  14. I want them sent to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /dev/null

    Fuck filling up my voicemail box.

  15. why.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It was set into the telco system that originating callers could send out their caller ID as the number the organization wanted return calls to go to, not all their lines individually.

    I.e. all calls from the white house, whatever line they use,
    display as the telephone# on caller id for inbound calls to the white house switchboard.

    if you get a call from someone at the New York times NYC office, the number will be, the NYC office switchboard.

    1. Re:why.... by Smask · · Score: 1

      OK, here in Sweden you get some controlled spoofing. The difference is that you have to own the number that will be shown. And I think there have to be a day delay when registering a new number.

    2. Re:why.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So? The originating phone company just needs a database of which numbers each outgoing source can use as a caller ID, and if it is using one that isn't in the database, the caller ID info gets stripped/blocked/defaulted/whatever. If any originating company gets too many valid complaints of letting false IDs through, they get fined and/or kicked off the network.

  16. Re: *this* is a canonical example of google's evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Excellent points, all. Also, the fact that today Starbucks had chocolate chip but NOT oatmeal raisin cookies. AND they only apologized twice!!! If you ask me, it's the millennials.

  17. Will it work? by plumwhite23091 · · Score: 0

    I hope so. Looking forward to using this power. But hackers always find their ways.

    --
    WilliamReview.com
  18. Eliza 3.0 (Re:NO!!!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can they forward the call to an AI program that keeps the caller on the phone for as long as possible and records the call to help train the AI with a goal of making the calls longer?

  19. how I handle spam calls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I handle spam calls as below
    I f I see the name or recognize the number when the phone is ringing I will pick the call. If I do not recognize the number I will cut it. An application like true caller will indicate the source and was it spam call. If it is spam call I will block it immediately. This way I have blocked a lot of annoying calls and answer none of them

  20. Red Cross by Daralantan · · Score: 1

    The only spam calls I ever get are Red Cross. I've been happy since Google started labeling them as spam. Not because I can't tell (I never answer their calls anyway)... but just because that's what I see them as now. I can donate blood and get 3 calls within the next 7 days. Leave me alone, why are you calling when I'm at work daily? Or then sometimes on the weekend and/or super early/late hours????

    1. Re:Red Cross by toddestan · · Score: 1

      I don't understand this either. I used to donate blood to the Red Cross, and to thank me they spammed my phone endlessly. 1-2 times a day, everyday, and almost always within a few hour window when, of course, I was at work. They would never leave a message either. After a while, I set up an old PC with a modem that could do caller ID. Whenever it saw one of their numbers, it would pick up the line, then immediately hang up. They still didn't get the message. It only ended when I dumped that landline and went to a cell phone with a different number. And I haven't donated blood to them since.

  21. Ruined e-mail, now voice mail by registrations_suck · · Score: 1

    The spammers have all but ruined e-mail. Despite very protective measures, I think 90% of my email is spam.

    Now they want to move on to voice mail. While that IS an improvement over making my phone ring (or vibrate), it will just make voice mail worthless too. I predict a lot of people setting a message along the lines of, "Thanks to spammers, I no longer receive voice mail. Please try to reach me another time." and then keeping their inbox full so no one else can leave a message.......or turning off voice mail entirely, if that is an option for them.

  22. How about a special app ... by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    ... called "Google Spamaway" that tracks the location of the caller and let's you demand an airstrike on their location. If enough users request an airstrike, the data get send straight to the US Airforce for realistic target practice.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  23. Lame attempt by Stan92057 · · Score: 2

    Here,s the thing, when we block a number it should be BLOCKED not sent to voicemail. Their is no way in hell the phone industry is going to tell me they cant just end the call period end of story. They are already mining our conversations who we call when they call for how long,if we send files,images shared yet cant prevent a number from being blocked?? ....Lame attempt to pacify our Goverment to do something about telemarketers. This attempt will just allow the scumbags to deliver their messages nothing more.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  24. They are still too far behind by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2

    When will I get the ability to send numbers not in my contacts straight to voicemail? Why do I still have to look for an app to do this?

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  25. This already happens by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    I get unsolicited calls on a regular basis that don't ring and leave voicemail.

    Currently I get calls offering to purchase property they assume I own. I do, and I know why these are coming, and it's disappointing that so many third parties share data in a way that exposes me to now daily calls asking to buy my property. I tell them to remove me from their list, but so far most immediately disconnect, apparently thinking this shields them from having to honor my do not call request. I'm already in the national do-not-call program, that's not solving this because it's caused by contact with a third party.

    I also get the inevitable calls related to my age, and these will only increase in frequency. It's impossible to report them when they change numbers so frequently, and of course VOIP spoofing is trivial.

    Winning this, we are are not.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    1. Re:This already happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, that sounds terrible.

      BTW, I buy properties for cash!!! $$$ I've already reviewed your case and we're prepared to give you $$$ today! Just give me a call at 888-NOT-SCAM!

    2. Re:This already happens by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      Sure you are. If it weren't for positive cash flow, appreciating resale, and a rising rental market, I'd consider dedicating another synapse to this offer.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  26. Greate by arnoldsmith007 · · Score: 1

    Thais good news. Is this work also use for app that use in PC

  27. Truecaller used to be this by schwit1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Once upon a time Truecaller was a useful, simple phone spam app only needing access to your phone calls. These days Truecaller is a security abomination that constantly throws ads at you, requires access to everything on your phone and tries to replace your dialer and text messaging apps. It no longer has any redeemable value.

  28. Caller ID Spoofing / Collateral Damage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How are the real owner of numbers used in Caller ID spoofing protected against this?

    The Android Phone app (recent update) is now asking if a call from a number that isn't in your contacts was spam.

    There seems to be a lot of "same area code" caller ID spoofing to UK mobile numbers going on at the moment, so if your number is 07123 , a spammer will spoof caller id to be from 07124 to make it look like a genuine mobile call (but it's not of course, it's some robo over VoIP).

    However, if 07124 is used repeatedly (which it looks like they are), and enough people start reporting 07124 as a spam caller, what for the person who's number is actually 07124 who everyone has started flagging as spam?

  29. It'd be nice to get VM notifications by msk · · Score: 1

    . . . to have the _option_ to get them, that is. With a non-factory OS on the Sprint network (via Ting), I never get voicemail notifications, because they depend on Visual Voicemail for smartphones. They don't offer the app in a usable form, plus it requires data access.

    I want my phone to receive the same kind of VM notification that a feature phone would. And then have the option to turn it _off_.

  30. How about a different voicemail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. such as an automated one complete with tones that mimics "The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected."

  31. signature on caller ID by ai4px · · Score: 1

    I have to ask because maybe someone knows. Could the phone companies have a way to attach a digital signature to caller ID data? Or maybe send the caller ID data out of band? That way my phone could discern between some spammer's VOIP bot and a legitimate caller. For example, many spammers spoof the phone number LATA to look like they are calling from the same area code / city. If there wasn't a digital signature attached to that caller ID data, I would hope I could tell my phone to not ring. I realize in the POTS days, the data was sent between 1st and 2nd ring as 1200 baud data... .but what about to a mobile phone today?