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Phone Carrier Apps Can Help Fight Robocalls -- Sometimes, Even For Free (cnn.com)
Friday CNN reported on "what you can do right now to stop robocalls."
"Short of throwing your phone in the garbage, there's no way to avoid them altogether. But wireless providers and smartphone developers offer tools to filter out at least some unwanted calls." - Verizon's Call Filter app is free to download on iPhones and Android devices. The company announced Thursday the app will offer some free features -- including auto-blocking calls from known fraudsters, showing warning banners for suspicious calls, and a spam reporting tool. For $2.99 a month per line, the Call Filter app can use a phonebook feature to look up the names of unknown callers, and it can show a "risk meter" for spam calls.
- AT&T's Call Protect has similar free features and add-ons with a $3.99 per month subscription. (iOS and Android)
- T-Mobile phones come loaded with Scam ID, which warns customers about suspicious phone numbers. It's also free to activate Scam Block, which automatically rejects calls from those numbers. An additional app called Name ID offers premium caller identification for $4 per line monthly. (iOS and Android)
- Sprint's Premium Caller ID , which comes pre-installed, looks up unknown numbers and filters and blocks robocalls for $2.99 per line.
- Google's Pixel phones also give you the option to have your voice assistant answer suspicious calls for you. The phone can transcribe the conversation and lets you decide whether to answer.
"Short of throwing your phone in the garbage, there's no way to avoid them altogether. But wireless providers and smartphone developers offer tools to filter out at least some unwanted calls." - Verizon's Call Filter app is free to download on iPhones and Android devices. The company announced Thursday the app will offer some free features -- including auto-blocking calls from known fraudsters, showing warning banners for suspicious calls, and a spam reporting tool. For $2.99 a month per line, the Call Filter app can use a phonebook feature to look up the names of unknown callers, and it can show a "risk meter" for spam calls.
- AT&T's Call Protect has similar free features and add-ons with a $3.99 per month subscription. (iOS and Android)
- T-Mobile phones come loaded with Scam ID, which warns customers about suspicious phone numbers. It's also free to activate Scam Block, which automatically rejects calls from those numbers. An additional app called Name ID offers premium caller identification for $4 per line monthly. (iOS and Android)
- Sprint's Premium Caller ID , which comes pre-installed, looks up unknown numbers and filters and blocks robocalls for $2.99 per line.
- Google's Pixel phones also give you the option to have your voice assistant answer suspicious calls for you. The phone can transcribe the conversation and lets you decide whether to answer.
I have T-Mobile, and currently use Hiya and NoMoRobo for hobocalls (left amusing typo in there).
They both work pretty well, but it seems like an app tied to a carrier might be able to work better in some ways, and reporting calls from multiple people in the network might cause a system-wide block on T-Mobile's behalf sooner than if they didn't know a particular caller was bothering a lot of people with unwanted calls.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, they charge your for caller ID which is a known defective product. Now they want to charge you again for an application that tries to make up for that known defective product.
Isn't it time TO SUE THE TELLY COMPANIES????
my Samsung Galaxy S9 has it built in from the factory , plus there is an app at Google playstore for phones that dont come with it from the factory https://play.google.com/store/...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I get enough bogus calls and faked numbers to know that almost all calls are spam or robocall.
It is not much value to let my phone ring and give me an assessment.
I need a way to filter blocks of numbers or prevent the phone from ringing altogether for these kinds of calls.
The carriers already know who they are.
I’ve used AT&T Call Protect and it does help, only about 50% of the time at best though. I’ve tried non-carrier apps as well, and they also help for some subset of all spam calls. Right now I’ve been keeping my phone in DND mode with contacts allowed to bypass. That has been perfect so far.
Dear carriers, charging your customers even more money for a service that tries to solve this problem from their side isn't how this works.
You should know the traffic that crosses your network. You already know your paying customers, and you should know your network peers. The problem you are having is that you don't know the traffic that is coming from your peers. You should be able to trust your network peer and their traffic, and your network peer should be able to do the same for you. If that's not true, drop that peer link. Over a few iterations, the shitty untrustable peers will be readily identifiable by name, and no one will work with them. Spam calls solved. You're welcome.
Charging people to protect them from the problem that they help create? Brilliant. Some one should find the executives from these companies and punch them in the face.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
A silent ringtone as the default also works, if you don't mind having to maintain your own "white-list" by assigning a differnt ringtone for those you want to hear from. Best of all, this approach is free.
I have been having good results with the $2/month Jolly Roger Telephone service. It's a third party voicemail service, but with strong anti-robocall filters. If it thinks the caller is a robo caller, it has a robot answer the phone and act like someone who is interested in the product, but who never orders it. Some of the more amusing interactions between the Jolly Roger robots and telemarketers or scammers are on their web page.
In addition to Jolly Roger, I also use an app which directly sends people not in my contact list to voicemail. Jolly Roger, after verifying the caller is a human, emails me a mp3 file with their message. They also, for my amusement, email me any interactions phone robospammers have with their robots.
(I have no relationship with Jolly Roger except as a happy customer)
Nuke them from orbit.
Or, in real life, don't have a phone number to begin with. They can't annoy you if they can't fucking call you. In short, fuck them all.
All my contacts are on iPhone, so I do 100% of my communications via iMessage or Facetime audio.
#DeleteFacebook
did the phone companies allow robocallers to overwhelm their customers in order to sell protection?
So, Mobile Phone carriers are profiting from robocalls? What's next, buying a door for your house and for an extra $4.99 a month they'll come to your home and prevent any unwanted intruders?
Waitress: Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Wife: I don't want ANY spam!
Man: Why can't she have egg bacon spam and sausage?
Wife: THAT'S got spam in it!
Man: Hasn't got as much spam in it as spam egg sausage and spam, has it?
#DeleteFacebook
Tried on three different browsers, get a 404 "Oh Snap" that page doesn't exist, when trying to activate the Scam Block.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
Because once everyone has paid for it, the carriers will approach the telemarketers and say "We'll let you bypass the spam blocking tool we sold to our customers if you pay us $x/mo." What's that saying about the only winner in a war being the guy who sells weapons to both sides?
Can help but leaves a lot to be desired. There are simple things that phone companies can do to limit robocalls without you needing an app for that. How about we start by blocking calls from numbers that do not exist within the NANP. I shouldn't be getting calls from 555 numbers and other numbers that are not in an assigned range. Blocking this crap should be happing in the telephone network before it gets to your end device.
Seeing them charge for what SHOULD work vs. these things - see subject: Reminds me of "Check21" legislation (we all get these annoying calls, some clotting up business answering machines like mine) & THAT too, is bullshit, just like this telephone marketing illegal calls (even IF you're on the national do not call list):
It would NOT surprise me if the "big business" telecoms are BEHIND it (look @ other shit in our society for Pete's sake - it's RUN "behind the scenes" by the BIGGEST CRIMINALS OF ALL TIME (& I think you all KNOW who I am referring to, especially regarding BANKS)).
CHECK21 was ALLEGEDLY designed to "speed up transactions" by NOT having to have a BANK (or other institution, like a store WHICH I DID FOR PART OF MY WORKING DAY prior to my career in computing as a software engineer/programmer-analyst, circa 1990-1992 as a Loss Prevention Manager/Auditor for a LARGE chain of retail stores) CHECK FOR "NSF" (Not sufficient funds/Insufficient funds) in an account backing a financial instrument - SPECIFICALLY a check.
So, if you "bounce" a check from SOMEONE ELSE? They don't have to check it PRIOR to depositing & IF IT BOUNCES?? YOU THE DEPOSITOR (who didn't WRITE or FORGE the BOGUS CHECK mind you) ARE RESPONSIBLE (for it & any other costs, legal etc. & interest charges etc. (which of course, gets WORSE like %-ages do with LARGER amounts)).
SO, that "all said & aside"?
I do NOT doubt BANKS THEMSELVES setup these scams (thru "tools" (fools)) they "turn on" to "go ahead, forge some STOLEN checks using KNOWN FORGED SERIES OF #'s from say, Wells-Fargo etc. on MONEY ORDERS...
APK
P.S.=> I had a CHIMP from Atlanta TRY it on me - I put up a videocard (ATI) that I was no longer using, so I put it up for sale CHEAP ($25 iirc) on "POSTAROO" (not sure if that exists anymore) - I got sent a $5,000 worth of money orders from some "PREACHA" (chimp as I said) who tried to "run a game" on me to deposit it - He kept "pushing" me to DEPOSIT IT (hurry, hurry etc. & I was FUCK YOU this STINKS of something bad) so I went to the FBI after checking the "MICR" series # w/ the issuing institution & yes, they were FORGED (setting me up) - I went to the LOCAL FBI that ended up BUSTING "Mistah 'hustlin' nigga'" MONKEY outta Atlanta no less... apk
"throwing your phone in the garbage" - works for me
The fireman is the arsonist?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I found an app on the play store called Calls Block. It is free and has allowed me to block all calls that are not on my contacts list. The calls are still able to leave a voice mail but most robo calls dont do that. I have been running it for about 3 weeks now and have not had any robo calls and without it I would get 3-4 a day.
You can use Mr.Number for free.
then I'll be good.
We really need a caller-pays setup for non-white-listed phone calls. $0.01 would end this issue in 1 day.
T-Mobile pre-paid plans don't get jack? People on fixed incomes getting no love?
Free to use, of course, I'm sure they do a bit o' data collection et al., but it works well for me.
Hell no.
None of the phone companies actually want this fixed because they make money from these scum. BIG fines are needed to fix that.
Enable the damned encrypted caller ID stuff. I don't care if other countries don't support it. Cut them out of access to USA customers and they will suddenly and magically find out how to do it.
Enact and put some teeth into anti-spam laws. Minimum 5 year sentences. Force them to listen to constant phone calls coming in to find the one that may come at any time that limits their sentence to just 5 years. Missed it? Too bad. Maybe another one will come by in a few years. Give up? Well I guess you agree to die in prison. I hope you like the sex partners you find there.
If they know who the robocallers are, why should we have to pay to block them? Why are they even allowing their calls to connect at all?
Set up a ringtone that is silence. Set the default ringtone as silence. Assign everyone in your contacts list a ringtone that makes noise. When friends and family call your phone will ring. When unknown callers call no interruption. Your screen flashes but no noise. People who need to get in touch will leave a voicemail. Few spam callers do leave voicemail. If you are expecting a call from an unknown number look at the screen if it lights up from the expected area code you can risk answering. Works well for me.
How can app help with junk calls on my landline phone?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Uh, isn't it already caller pays?
I'm in Australia, it's caller pays. We don't have an issue with robocalls, at least, I hear no-one complaining about them and we all have mobile phones.
Now that spam calls have become a profit center, we'll be stuck with them forever.
I've got a couple different auto-blockers installed, including Hiya and AT&T's blocker. They still seem to let two-three calls through per day. But the worst part is that, even with the calls they block, the robocallers will still leave voicemails (sometimes launching into their spiel, but other times, around three seconds of silence), so even though I don't get the annoying rings, I still get the annoying alerts. I understand that the former may be tough to block, since they seem like legitimate voicemail, but there really should be something to automatically delete the latter. There should be no reason ever to deliver a silent couple-second voicemail.
I don't use a smartphone of any type. But the free service, Nomorobo, provided by my cable-based Spectrum server works very nicely.
https://newsroom.charter.com/p...