spam calls on cell phones

[rh71]

I never used to get them on the cell but over the last few months it's been worse. I'm also getting a few spam text messages and those who actually leave voicemails (robocallers). My wife's phone was a new line of service through VZW and almost since day one has been getting telemarketers. Many are out of state area codes but many are not. What gives? I'm pretty sure the Do Not Call Registry is pointless now... been on there for nearly a decade. It's too bad nomorobo doesn't work for cellphones (good success on landline). I believe there's a few apps out there but do they cut calls off based on predetermined blacklists or are they just block lists that you can add to (useless)?

 

[OutHouse]

last week i got them every damn day. yes the DNC directory is totally useless.

"Hi this is kate from google..."
"hi your factory vehicle warranty has expired" (I got this one 3 times in one night.)
"hi you are pre approved for 300K, press1 now!"

if its out state call i wont answer it but the bastards have gotten clever, they started spoofing the prefix of the town i live in. so unless i have a call from a known contact everything goes to voicemail now.

FUCK YOU!!!

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Funny. Just read a news article about how useless the DNC is today.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/phone-731005-calls-call.html

 

[nakedfrog]

if its out state call i wont answer it but the bastards have gotten clever, they started spoofing the prefix of the town i live in.

Same here

 

[JEDIYoda]

unless I know who it is...it does not get answered.

 

[KentState]

After awhile, it's not even fun to mess with the telemarketers. I do get the vehicle warranty calls at least once a day, thought it's been steadily decreasing.

 

[John Connor]

I hate telemarketers and SPAM shit over the phone and E-mail with a PASSION! And I do many, many things to combat both. For the landline I do use the aforementioned Nomorobo. I also have the phone line connected to a Dial-up caller-ID capable modem that's connected to a netbook which uses PhoneTray. So if something gets past Nomorobo PhoneTray should grab it. Plus PhoneTray is great with unique rings for callers in my contact list.

Nomorobo is making an App and I told them several times to do it and I bugged the hell out of Cricket to implement it, but the Nomorobo App is going to cost $5/month which is bullshit. I'm not paying anything over a buck a month. If they sold the App for $30 -- I'd take it!

For E-mail I control what E-mail address does what. One for banking, ebay, Amazon, etc. That one doesn't get spam hardly at all and when I ever do get spam I report it immediately to spam cop. I also used and addon in Thunderbird called Abusix spam reporter, but they don't have that service anymore. But I do have my website's MX record report to their server since I use a third part E-mail and not my website host's. I do that to keep people from knowing my true IP behind CloudFlare.

Yeah, the DNT list is a joke in a ½. Been on that thing since 2003 and I still get robocallers, etc. But I do have an account with the FCC and report each and every one. I read that in some cases you could be rewarded a cash payment. Perhaps that's if the robocaller gets sued or something.

Yeah... this shit I will not put!

 

[John Connor]

Robocallers use VOIP so they can spoof any number they want. For your cell phone you can block all numbers except what's in your contact list. Although it's a PITA to have to go through the damn voicemail. Was thinking about using LTE only and the Ooma App. Ooma is Nomorobo compatible.

if its out state call i wont answer it but the bastards have gotten clever, they started spoofing the prefix of the town i live in. so unless i have a call from a known contact everything goes to voicemail now.

 

[Stopsignhank]

unless I know who it is...it does not get answered.

Bingo. Then I check the number. Usually it is a spammer so then I block the caller with Google voice or use my cell phone to block the number. I have my home phone number routed to my cell phone number via google voice. Help prevent the people that call back 5 times in one day.

 

[lxskllr]

unless I know who it is...it does not get answered.

This. I use a program to mute the ringer on any number that isn't in my contact list. If it's important, a message can be left. I do occasionally get a voice message from a robot, but it cuts down on a lot of the nuisance.

 

[purbeast0]

On my iPhone I just click on the number then block the caller. I hardly get any spam now a days ever since I started doing that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Telemarketters are fun, I like to mess with them if i have the time. Otherwise I just answer then not say anything, and see how long they stay on the line saying "hello??"

I never get them on my cell though, but I imagine that will start eventually, especially considering cells are pretty much spy machines and your contacts and other people's contacts (ex: your number) is probably in all sorts of spam lists by now. It's ridiculous the amount of apps that require access to your contacts... and people don't care and install them anyway.

I get the occasional telemarketer on my landline but it's actually cut down quite a bit. I suppose the DNCL helps more than it does not.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I love it when they call from Windows Support and they do not understand what Linux Mint is, or OS X. How can they help me if I am not using Windows?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I love it when they call from Windows Support and they do not understand what Linux Mint is, or OS X. How can they help me if I am not using Windows?

LOL yes I've strung along one of those guys for over an hour once. I happened to not be doing anything and had time to kill. He eventually connected to my VM (I was acting like a super dumb user so he kept having to repeat everything) and then I throttled the speed down to dialup so it was super slow.

He actually gave up and hung up lol.

I need to setup a different VM and get ready for the next call so I can record it. I actually did record that 1 hour long one, I'd have to actually go through it and edit it so it's shorter and get the better parts.

 

[rh71]

This. I use a program to mute the ringer on any number that isn't in my contact list.

Which app do you use for this?

 

[Spg1]

I have been using the Mr Number app and it seems to do OK.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrnumber.blocker&hl=en
http://mrnumber.com/
http://mrnumber.com/

 

[lxskllr]

Which app do you use for this?

I use Sanity...

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=sanity&fdid=cri.sanity

NoPhoneSpam recently showed up on fdroid, but I haven't tried it...

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=spam&fdid=at.bitfire.nophonespam

 

[BarkingGhostar]

LOL yes I've strung along one of those guys for over an hour once. I happened to not be doing anything and had time to kill. He eventually connected to my VM (I was acting like a super dumb user so he kept having to repeat everything) and then I throttled the speed down to dialup so it was super slow.

He actually gave up and hung up lol.

I need to setup a different VM and get ready for the next call so I can record it. I actually did record that 1 hour long one, I'd have to actually go through it and edit it so it's shorter and get the better parts.

My best response was for the woman to call me a bitch in Engrish and hang up on me. Too funny.

 

[KMFJD]

If they are able to spoof numbers using voip, what's the point in blocking a number then?

 

[rh71]

If they are able to spoof numbers using voip, what's the point in blocking a number then?

Exactly - the blocking numbers thing has hardly helped. I notice for instance in my area code, they are changing the last 4 digits but the rest remains the same. Don't exactly want to block the whole exchange.

 

[Pantoot]

There must be something going on behind the scenes that makes this sort of thing lucrative for the carriers, otherwise they would have figured out a way to secure the CID info. It seems like it would be pretty simple to only trust known sources.

 

[Zeze]

Whats the purpose of thise apps when android can naitively reject calls on the list?

Long press the number in call log then add to reject list. I never hear from them again

 

[lupi]

Not sure what changed, but last month or so I've started to get at least a couple a day.

 

[edro]

On my iPhone I just click on the number then block the caller. I hardly get any spam now a days ever since I started doing that.

Same. I have blocked ~10 numbers and no longer get calls.
Interesting how they are calling from my area codes.

 

[rh71]

Whats the purpose of thise apps when android can naitively reject calls on the list?

Long press the number in call log then add to reject list. I never hear from them again

I was hoping to find something along the lines of nomorobo where they have an existing blacklist... a known spam number comes through, it rings once, and they get the boot. I hardly get telemarketers on my landline now.

MrNumber as mentioned above seems to work off some list also. If I go to see what's blocked, it lists a whole bunch of numbers I never set to block myself - it reads the source ("Internet" is usually blocked) and some long string of random numbers are blocked (ie. 900040001000). These would typically come through until you block them yourself.