Cellular RoboCalls

[dburanich]

I know a lot of you have been plagued recently with unwanted robocalls on your cellular devices.
My cellular provider has contained some and notified me as such.
I signed up for the cellular do not call list but they seem to keep coming and much more frequently.
Is there are remedy to this invasion of privacy?

 

[Palouse]

The only real solution is to get rid of the cell phone

 

[dburanich]

The only real solution is to get rid of the cell phone

Unfortunately not an option .
I use it for work as well as personal use.
I have a business number and different personal number that rings to the same cell phone.
The amount of robocalls on each is about the same.

 

[Palouse]

My reply was tongue in cheek. My phone is for personal use only, so I do ignore numbers I don't know or don't recognize. If they were important they will leave voice mail. Do not call doesn't help anymore, as far as I can tell.

 

[TomP]

Oddly I do not get many cellular robocalls. Others have voiced their issue with the calls, and I have wondered if the fact my number is so old, 1993, that maybe that had something to do with it, I also never add it to any paperwork. I have not won the battle with the landline, but have curtailed the number of calls with a dead phone signal. I think computers are starting to ignore that as it worked very well in the beginning. I just continue with the blocking on the landline, and that drops the number of calls, the blocks seem to stop the calls better than the deadline tone did in the beginning, or just maybe I am not as a desirable market target as y'all are. . I just have to clean out the block list every now and then. Like ignorance, it is a battle that will never be won.

 

[Palouse]

I miss the days when junk calls were made by live (?) people, so I could answer and have fun!

 

[Allan]

I live in NH and I get tons from all the presidential candidates. I add a contact "aaspam" which has a silent ringtone. I keep adding numbers to that contact.

I get many spam texts too. Those are a bit of a pain. I am one of 4 people in my plan - wife, son, daughter-in-law and we all get texts to each other about political rallies. I got one a few minutes ago which should have gone to my son.

 

[TomP]

I miss the days when junk calls were made by live (?) people, so I could answer and have fun!

I used to have fun with them, but I suspect they have an upper hand and in spite, I fear they may add me to the many ACTIVE lists.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I miss the days when junk calls were made by live (?) people, so I could answer and have fun!

You only need to tell the robot that you want to talk to a live person and you'll then be able to have your fun. I do so occasionally.

 

[MNglass]

It's a plaque. I thought that I read that the telephone companies had developed some software to identify the origin of spam calls and block them that way. There was some decrease that I noticed but I still get spoofed number for 'update your google business listing' and 'we have a pre-approved business loan' along with the usual disney cruises (BTW, we've NEVER been on a cruise), 'free hilton vacations' and lately we've been getting mutiple calls for cash offers on our house.

The oddest ones I get on my cell phone are head-hunters offering my spouse a job - we don't even have the same last name. My daughter got one as well which tells me that someone probably hacked our account and got all associated numbers.

All totaled I'd guess it was 8-15 unwanted calls a week which is truly obnoxious.

BTW, political parties and charities are (I believe) exempt from the DNC list and the spammers just don't care as there is no meaningful enforcement.

What is just astonishing to me is what percentage of these calls actually succeed? 0.01%? 0.001%? The estimates are that there were 4+ BILLION robocalls made last year but it is hard to believe it was worth the trouble.

 

[Clix Pix]

AT&T, my cellular provider, has set up some sort of system which seems to be reasonably effective. I simply don't answer my phones when they ring, either, unless I know the caller. I figure that if this is something important the caller WILL leave a voice message. One of my cell lines is my former landline number, which I converted a couple of years ago, and so far things have been as normal with that; the other number, my mobile number, I don't give out to many people and so I don't get a whole lot of spammy calls on it, either. Both are through AT&T so do benefit from that fraud or spam alert system that they have now.

 

[Palouse]

ATT nows identifies some calls as "Spam Call".
I also get spam texts.

 

[Mike Buckley]

All totaled I'd guess it was 8-15 unwanted calls a week

I probably get one or two a week at the most.

 

[Minuteman3]

We get quite a few, although T-Mo's "SPAM LIKELY" system seems pretty effective ... catches probably 80% of the calls. The other 20% go to voicemail if I don't recognize the number.

After my parents both passed away several years ago, we kept the "family" number and transferred it to our landline (thus, it's been in the family for more than 50 years!!). My mother, bless her heart, LOVED to talk to sales people and spammers to help pass the time of day, so this number remains quite active with "live" people, especially charities. I often answer these unknown callers, and when they ask for "Jim" or "Marian", I give them a forwarding number of the cemetery. Seems to do a good job as most do not call back ...

Ken

 

[TomP]

ATT nows identifies some calls as "Spam Call".
I also get spam texts.

Yes, we started getting landline calls named Fraudulent and Spam. These so-named can come in waves, can go a week or so and not see them. Had 5 calls from the same number last week, just 2 rings and no comments, I think the dead phone signal might have something to do with that. I later looked at the log and blocked it. The puzzle is how they ALL come in waves, we can go for several days with no calls at all.

 

[alexf]

I bought an App called Call Control. A national database that blocks calls, The ones I get I label as spam and they are added. Gone forever from my phone. Works well.

I do not pickup unknown numbers. Let them leave a message. Any accepted number gets added as a contact so next time they have a name.

Still ridiculous, disgusting and costly that the guvmint does nothing and the phone cos do little. It is fairly easy for them to spot spoofed number and create a database of spammer and shut down their service. But it would cost effort and money and they care more about money that about use, their customers, so unless threatened by fines they will do little or nothing

There was once a Do Not Call guvmint list. I have been in that list for years. Does it do anything? Nope.

 

[JeeperDon]

You could change your number. It's a hassle to touch all the bases to change, but you get a fresh start. I went from 3 a day to 3 a week.

 

[ShaunK]

My phone's/service's spam filter seems to do a reasonably good job. The few that get through (a few a month), I ignore. I then block that number. I'm not sure how effective that is overall, but it makes me feel good, and I notice that I don't get a spam call from the same number twice!

 

[Clix Pix]

Those wily spammers just use another number.....

 

[Palouse]

You could change your number. It's a hassle to touch all the bases to change, but you get a fresh start. I went from 3 a day to 3 a week.

Give 'em time