Spam callers again (NA)

Don't know if this applies to landlines or other carriers, but, relatively recently, TMo started flagging what it perceives to be spam calls as "Scam Likely" on caller ID. Makes it no-brainer. Also, in a sort of a weird way, i like that most of current generation of spam calls are faked from my own cell phone exchange. This is a 100% indication of spam call. I don't know anyone and have never seen a legit number(i'm sure they are out there, but i haven't seen it) with the same exchange i have.

EDIT: Also, at least with TMo, you can completely block "Scam Likely" calls from reaching your phone.
 
I get a few a day, I really like messing with them, when they ask my name, I tell them it's " Jak mehoff". They usually hang up after that
 
wsuffa said:
All the programs are nice, but do next to nothing for number spoofing. Around here, they spoof numbers from my exchange - sometimes have spoofed a law firm and a defense contractor. And most of them are robo.

I tend to ignore them, even though my phone system can send all unknown numbers to voice mail hell. Occasionally, I've picked up and said "radio station, you're on the air". That usually causes an immediate hang-up.
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My favorite is when I mention that they are talking to a fat old man that is naked from the waist down... For the ones that don't hang up immediately I then continue to ask them if they enjoy various kinky forms of sex with animals. I rarely get these calls much. I think that they blacklisted me.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Can we just get one of those location tracking things that we see on the movies where you make everybody in the command center be quiet, then keep the person on the line for a certain amount of time until an anonymous person in the command center gives a thumbs up and silently says "we got 'em", then assemble a SWAT team and beat these guys arses?
 
Ray Kerr said:
My favorite is when I mention that they are talking to a fat old man that is naked from the waist down... For the ones that don't hang up immediately I then continue to ask them if they enjoy various kinky forms of sex with animals. I rarely get these calls much. I think that they blacklisted me.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
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"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"
 
Almost all my spam calls are recordings so no way to mess with them. Even tried pressing 0 to get an operator so I could complete my order.
Can't use DND as there are many legitimate callers whom I have not spoken with before (biz).
 
Briar Rabbit said:
I am thinking about trying NOMOROBO. Anybody have any experience with their service, $20/year?
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I use NOMOROBO. We have VoIP service through Comcast. Anything it intercepts rings once and the caller ID on the phones says "Incoming Call". One ring and the call is gone. Needless to say, we don't answer the phone on the first ring. And I don't pay anything for it. I've never received a bill.
 
genna said:
Don't know if this applies to landlines or other carriers, but, relatively recently, TMo started flagging what it perceives to be spam calls as "Scam Likely" on caller ID. Makes it no-brainer. Also, in a sort of a weird way, i like that most of current generation of spam calls are faked from my own cell phone exchange. This is a 100% indication of spam call. I don't know anyone and have never seen a legit number(i'm sure they are out there, but i haven't seen it) with the same exchange i have.

EDIT: Also, at least with TMo, you can completely block "Scam Likely" calls from reaching your phone.
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I selected phone numbers for my cell phone and the Magic Jack in the same area code but different exchanges from where I currently live. My business line is in the same area code as where I used to live, but again in a different exchange. If someone is calling me from the same exchange as any of my numbers, it's almost certainly spam.

Rich
 
OkieFlyer said:
Can we just get one of those location tracking things that we see on the movies where you make everybody in the command center be quiet, then keep the person on the line for a certain amount of time until an anonymous person in the command center gives a thumbs up and silently says "we got 'em", then assemble a SWAT team and beat these guys arses?
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Funny story. I messed with one place enough to get a callback number and web site. A little sleuthing turned up business contacts in FL (naturally) and GA. I found their call center in Marietta, GA. So after letters to the FTC as well as the AGs of FL and GA, I started explaining to them when they called that I would be in Marietta that week, and I was going to visit them in person - gave them the address.

They stopped calling.

Unfortunately, most of these scumbags have learned to cover their tracks better.
 
DaleB said:
Funny story. I messed with one place enough to get a callback number and web site. A little sleuthing turned up business contacts in FL (naturally) and GA. I found their call center in Marietta, GA. So after letters to the FTC as well as the AGs of FL and GA, I started explaining to them when they called that I would be in Marietta that week, and I was going to visit them in person - gave them the address.

They stopped calling.

Unfortunately, most of these scumbags have learned to cover their tracks better.
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SIP is a blessing - and a curse.
 
I would vote for any politician who is willing to sponsor a bill making robocalls a felony offense...
 
Dana said:
I would vote for any politician who is willing to sponsor a bill making robocalls a felony offense...
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Sounds good, but I don’t think it would have much effect.

It seems to me that half the problem is that robocalling is too cheap.

Raising the fee a caller must pay — I wonder if there’s a way for a government to do that?
 
Weird. I get maybe a couple calls a week, from my phone's area code (3000 miles away from where I actually live), and they are primarily wrong numbers. Sounds like maybe the OP is being targeted......I dunno, maybe this is more common than I have experienced, but it seems excessive and the "threatening" stuff reeks of phishing (maybe they already have some of your identity data, and are hoping you will give them the rest that they need on the phone). That having been said, when I don't recognize a phone number, I don't answer. Never missed a call from such a category of caller that was important enough that I couldn't let it go to voicemail, and call back if reputable and deserving of a callback. Then again, I'm also the guy who doesn't use his phone while driving, and generally ignores it all day long unless I need to make a call or text. Not saying this is OP or any of you fine folks, but it always makes me scratch my head when I see friends who are seemingly unable to disregard a phone call.
 
I used the male Siri voice and recorded this as my outgoing message...

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking to sell me something, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."
 
35 AoA said:
Weird. I get maybe a couple calls a week, from my phone's area code (3000 miles away from where I actually live), and they are primarily wrong numbers. Sounds like maybe the OP is being targeted......I dunno, maybe this is more common than I have experienced, but it seems excessive and the "threatening" stuff reeks of phishing (maybe they already have some of your identity data, and are hoping you will give them the rest that they need on the phone). That having been said, when I don't recognize a phone number, I don't answer. Never missed a call from such a category of caller that was important enough that I couldn't let it go to voicemail, and call back if reputable and deserving of a callback. Then again, I'm also the guy who doesn't use his phone while driving, and generally ignores it all day long unless I need to make a call or text. Not saying this is OP or any of you fine folks, but it always makes me scratch my head when I see friends who are seemingly unable to disregard a phone call.
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Oh, the threatening stuff is definitely phishing... not sure they need to already have part of my identity data though.

But who said anything about being unable to disregard a phone call? I lecture and/or teach lab for several hours a day. I expect my students' phones to not go off while I'm talking and I'd be a hypocrite if I allowed mine to do that. The problem is that I've not found a 100% sure way of making sure it doesn't go off, as I detailed in the OP and at least one later post. Airplane mode is not 100% surefire, nor is do not disturb. Spammers have gotten through both, and sometimes they even send text messages (though some of those have been simple wrong numbers). And I DO let spam calls go through to voicemail, every single one of them - the problem is that some of them do in fact leave voicemails, which I then have to pay to listen to the first few seconds to make sure they aren't legitimate.

I don't know whether I'm being targeted; other friends I've talked to have similar problems, though maybe not to quite the same degree.
 
The source of the problem, in my opinion, is the lack of meaningful enforcement of the Do Not Call List. Fixing that would take manpower, and that would require a substantial Congressional appropriation.
 
Not trying to point the finger at you, just saying that ignoring the calls completely might be an answer........though if you are getting voicemails from dozens of calls a week, that would be pretty annoying. Again, this is not normal IMO, sorry you are dealing with it. I get what you are saying about your teaching job, I've worked in a job for years where I have not even been allowed to have my phone physically with me. Maybe that shields me from the everyday annoyances of these types of calls.

azure said:
Airplane mode is not 100% surefire, nor is do not disturb. Spammers have gotten through both, and sometimes they even send text messages (though some of those have been simple wrong numbers).
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The airplane mode thing surprises me. Didn't know that was a possibility. That's double annoying
 
35 AoA said:
Not trying to point the finger at you, just saying that ignoring the calls completely might be an answer........though if you are getting voicemails from dozens of calls a week, that would be pretty annoying. Again, this is not normal IMO, sorry you are dealing with it. I get what you are saying about your teaching job, I've worked in a job for years where I have not even been allowed to have my phone physically with me. Maybe that shields me from the everyday annoyances of these types of calls
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Not carrying the thing with me during class is turning out to be the only solution to the problem. Not a huge loss, since I use a computer and have the time right in front of me, but very annoying that I have to.
The airplane mode thing surprises me. Didn't know that was a possibility. That's double annoying
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Surprised the heck out of me too the first time it happened, which was this past fall. I have no idea how they do it, I thought it was supposed to be impossible. Evidently they are finding ways now.
 
Palmpilot said:
The source of the problem, in my opinion, is the lack of meaningful enforcement of the Do Not Call List. Fixing that would take manpower, and that would require a substantial Congressional appropriation.
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I have to agree. There seems to be very little to discourage people from using the relatively new ability to make millions of calls for very, very little money. Add to that the fact that you can easily base your robo-calling or call center operation outside the US, in countries where there it's perfectly fine to launch millions of calls per day to US numbers and try to steal people's money. The challenge there is digging deep enough to find the people behind the operation, and I suspect most of them are in the US.
 
azure said:
Oh, the threatening stuff is definitely phishing... not sure they need to already have part of my identity data though.

But who said anything about being unable to disregard a phone call? I lecture and/or teach lab for several hours a day. I expect my students' phones to not go off while I'm talking and I'd be a hypocrite if I allowed mine to do that. The problem is that I've not found a 100% sure way of making sure it doesn't go off, as I detailed in the OP and at least one later post. Airplane mode is not 100% surefire, nor is do not disturb. Spammers have gotten through both, and sometimes they even send text messages (though some of those have been simple wrong numbers). And I DO let spam calls go through to voicemail, every single one of them - the problem is that some of them do in fact leave voicemails, which I then have to pay to listen to the first few seconds to make sure they aren't legitimate.

I don't know whether I'm being targeted; other friends I've talked to have similar problems, though maybe not to quite the same degree.
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How's that even possible? Full airplane mode is supposed to turn off all radios in the phone, making any connection to any signal impossible. Now, it's possible that you engaged a "partial" airplane mode with Wifi on and maybe have WiFi calling or something similar.
 
genna said:
How's that even possible? Full airplane mode is supposed to turn off all radios in the phone, making any connection to any signal impossible. Now, it's possible that you engaged a "partial" airplane mode with Wifi on and maybe have WiFi calling or something similar.
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New iOS isn’t turning WiFi all the way off if activated from Control Center, and has “sticky” settings for specific radios as well.

All sorts of articles on the web about it.

Example, if you hit the WiFi button in control panel to turn it off, it doesn’t really turn off. It disconnects from the SSID you’re using for about 24 hours or 5AM local whichever comes first.

Same with Bluetooth. They mess with it because of the introduction of AirPods. People would hit airplane mode then turn Bluetooth back on because their headphones stopped working. So they made the control “sticky” or “smarter” to not disconnect the earbuds if the person usually does those two in combination.

The only way to really turn transmitters off in iOS now is in Settings. Control Panel isn’t a true off switch anymore.

Whether this is related to the OPs experience or not is hard to tell without seeing the indicators on the phone and looking in settings at the time of an unwanted alert or noise.

I have a couple of apps on iOS that also aren’t obeying the mute switch these days. Apple isn’t doing proper QA on the apps in the App Store anymore, if they ever really did. Those two apps make noise whenever they feel like it even though they’re using the notifications API. How, I don’t yet know.

I just know I can’t truly make my phone shut up anymore and I’ve filed bug reports with both app makers. They likely don’t care.
 
genna said:
How's that even possible? Full airplane mode is supposed to turn off all radios in the phone, making any connection to any signal impossible. Now, it's possible that you engaged a "partial" airplane mode with Wifi on and maybe have WiFi calling or something similar.
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As far as I know I don't have wi-fi calling. And I have no idea how it is possible, I thought it was impossible too. But it happened. I even double checked to make sure it was really happening. Incoming call from my area code (thus obvious spam), and yes, airplane mode was on. Turned on in Settings. Son of a gun (or of something else). Anyway as I said I don't know how it's possible, only that it must be as it did happen.

Not sure what you mean by Control Panel, Nate. I don't have a Control Panel on my iPhone. I do have a Control Center, which is under Settings, is that what you meant? In any case it's harder to access since it's another level down in Settings, so I never use it.
 
azure said:
As far as I know I don't have wi-fi calling. And I have no idea how it is possible, I thought it was impossible too. But it happened. I even double checked to make sure it was really happening. Incoming call from my area code (thus obvious spam), and yes, airplane mode was on. Turned on in Settings. Son of a gun (or of something else). Anyway as I said I don't know how it's possible, only that it must be as it did happen.

Not sure what you mean by Control Panel, Nate. I don't have a Control Panel on my iPhone. I do have a Control Center, which is under Settings, is that what you meant? In any case it's harder to access since it's another level down in Settings, so I never use it.
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Swipe up from the bottom of the home screen. That’s Control Center/Panel. The thing with the on/off buttons, brightness control, volume control, etc.

Oh here. This thing.

6c8d46f571e29f1d5f28d1b1decb2d3e.jpg
 
As far as WiFi calling goes, which carrier are you on, and did you buy the phone from them?
 
azure said:
As far as I know I don't have wi-fi calling. And I have no idea how it is possible, I thought it was impossible too. But it happened. I even double checked to make sure it was really happening. Incoming call from my area code (thus obvious spam), and yes, airplane mode was on. Turned on in Settings. Son of a gun (or of something else). Anyway as I said I don't know how it's possible, only that it must be as it did happen.

Not sure what you mean by Control Panel, Nate. I don't have a Control Panel on my iPhone. I do have a Control Center, which is under Settings, is that what you meant? In any case it's harder to access since it's another level down in Settings, so I never use it.
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As stated earlier, Airplane mode does not necessarily turn off all radios -- just the cell radio. Wifi and Bluetooth can still be active. If a spam caller is somehow overriding the cell radio setting, I would think that the FAA/FCC would be all over that phone manufacturer, due to that whole "no cell phones on takeoff and landing unless in airplane mode" thing.

I think you unknowingly have wifi calling enabled in one of the settings menus, and you are getting wifi calls, not cell... at least I would hope.
 
denverpilot said:
Swipe up from the bottom of the home screen. That’s Control Center/Panel. The thing with the on/off buttons, brightness control, volume control, etc.

Oh here. This thing.

6c8d46f571e29f1d5f28d1b1decb2d3e.jpg
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Yeah, I know what it looks like. Control Center, not Panel. Only thing I didn't know was that swiping from the home screen would get you there.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
As stated earlier, Airplane mode does not necessarily turn off all radios -- just the cell radio. Wifi and Bluetooth can still be active. If a spam caller is somehow overriding the cell radio setting, I would think that the FAA/FCC would be all over that phone manufacturer, due to that whole "no cell phones on takeoff and landing unless in airplane mode" thing.

I think you unknowingly have wifi calling enabled in one of the settings menus, and you are getting wifi calls, not cell... at least I would hope.
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That's possible, though I've never seen a setting for it. One of these days I'll have to really dig through the settings and see if I can figure it out.

And yes, I knew that airplane mode doesn't turn off wi-fi - was still getting texts and realized that was the reason - just didn't know about wi-fi calls, in fact had never heard of them.
 
azure said:
Verizon, and yep.
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Forgot. What type of phone?

Was going to pull up some screenshots from the Internet for you of what you’d see on the screen when it’s connected to VZ via WiFi.

On iPhone it’ll say “Verizon” in the top left when on cellular and “VZW WiFi” when using WiFi calling.

I’d have to look up what various Android devices do.

Verizon tends to favor staying on cellular unless their coverage is poor (or blocked by the building itself) and then it’ll switch over. It’ll tend to stay on WiFi once it switches until you leave that location and go out of range of the WiFi network there.
 
Also you’ll find the setting on iPhone not under Settings->WiFi as one might logically expect, but under Settings->Cellular
 
Not to mention that if you turn off radios completely then retailers and others can still track the radio as you move around the premises. Radios shut down completely minimizes the chance that can happen. No, they don't need to connect to the device, they merely need to see pings.
 
The “not all the way off” on the WiFi seems to be being embraced by airlines also. They want to allow folks to connect to in flight WiFi easier and cane up with some scheme with Apple to make it work.
 
denverpilot said:
Forgot. What type of phone?

Was going to pull up some screenshots from the Internet for you of what you’d see on the screen when it’s connected to VZ via WiFi.

On iPhone it’ll say “Verizon” in the top left when on cellular and “VZW WiFi” when using WiFi calling.

I’d have to look up what various Android devices do.

Verizon tends to favor staying on cellular unless their coverage is poor (or blocked by the building itself) and then it’ll switch over. It’ll tend to stay on WiFi once it switches until you leave that location and go out of range of the WiFi network there.
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iPhone 7.

And yeah, if wi-fi calling is available it would probably use it if it's coverage-based. The building I work in blocks cellular signals almost completely. Not sure though, whether it said VZW WiFi, I didn't look that closely.
 
azure said:
iPhone 7.

And yeah, if wi-fi calling is available it would probably use it if it's coverage-based. The building I work in blocks cellular signals almost completely. Not sure though, whether it said VZW WiFi, I didn't look that closely.
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Yeah was just giving it to you as info for “next time”. :)
 
I enabled Nomorobo on my landline (yeah, I still have a landline ... correction - my wife still has a landline!) and it's blocked at least a dozen calls in the last 24 hours ... yay! "one ringy-di ... plonk!"
 
RalphInCA said:
Wow. You guys are popular! Sometimes it is several weeks before I get a Robo call.

I feel left out, and kind of lonely. Sigh.
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I can fix that... what's your number? :D
 
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