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New Apps Fight Robo-Calls By Pretending To Be Humans (nola.com)
"While lawmakers debate what to do about the roboscourge, engineers have cooked up some clever ways to make bots work for us, not against us," writes the Washington Post, taking a look at apps like the $4-per-month RoboKiller -- which offers malicious "answer bots":
They're voicemail messages that try to keep robots and human telemarketers on the line, listening to nonsense. Answer bot options range from Trump impersonators and extended coughing sessions to someone doing vocal exercises. Even better, RoboKiller will send you an often-hilarious recording of the interaction. (It only uses these recordings when it's very sure it's a spam call.)
Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesn't sell itself as a robocall blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by actively trying to game the spammers' systems, such as when to press 1 to speak to a human. It calls this tech "artificial stupidity." It costs $11.88 per year.
It's possible you're better off not engaging with a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And it's also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls. But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes they're not calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service.
I'm also not sure this does any good -- but the Post's article also includes a run-down of other robocall-blocking services available from both wireless carriers and independent companies. It recommends starting with the free YouMail app, which collates data from 10 million registered users to determine which calls to block -- and in addition, "tries to trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line."
If you live in America, you can also add your phone number to the Federal government's official "Do not call" registry. "It won't help much," writes the Post, "but it only takes 30 seconds so why not?"
Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesn't sell itself as a robocall blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by actively trying to game the spammers' systems, such as when to press 1 to speak to a human. It calls this tech "artificial stupidity." It costs $11.88 per year.
It's possible you're better off not engaging with a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And it's also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls. But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes they're not calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service.
I'm also not sure this does any good -- but the Post's article also includes a run-down of other robocall-blocking services available from both wireless carriers and independent companies. It recommends starting with the free YouMail app, which collates data from 10 million registered users to determine which calls to block -- and in addition, "tries to trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line."
If you live in America, you can also add your phone number to the Federal government's official "Do not call" registry. "It won't help much," writes the Post, "but it only takes 30 seconds so why not?"
Some hilarious examples :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8l8yI-vAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aWPozeIaj4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDhegPZzbuw
I'm three weeks into using Robokiller. The thing that is nice about it is it doesn't seem to even ring when it detects a spammer. So far, three times in a row, I just get an alert that a fun audio recording is ready for me. So in this case you aren't wasting your time - the answer bot is wasting there time, while you are blissfully unaware until after the fact. You don't have to listen to the recording, but I do and then I share it with my siblings.
(It only uses these recordings when itÃ(TM)s very sure itÃ(TM)s a spam call.)
If you're never going to fix the character encoding, fine. But for fuck's sake, "editors", preview the stories before posting. This shit is embarrassing. It's not like this isn't a known issue here.
The problem isn't that it makes you look like amateurs. The problem is it makes you look like you don't give a shit.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Next step, getting a 1-900 number. Here, tthey can call me any time, and talk with me for as long as they want to.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.