Spoofing/Spamming Phone Numbers

Seriously, I could care less about illegal immigration, but this spoofing/spamming crap with the phones has gotta stop. 

It's a national emergency. The amount of time wasted in communicating with one another trying to determine if phone calls are legitimate or not is ridiculous. 

To make matters worse, now they are spoofing numbers that are owned. I just got angry txts from someone who says I'm spamming them and I need to stop - but I can't - I'm not the one making the call! 

End our oveas wars. Forget about the wall. Lets do something about spamming/spoofing. 

They did, they shut down 4 robocall centers, then 8 more popped up to replace them. 

Using owned phone numbers is nothing new though, and just bound to happen with the cell phone churn rate. 

That ones that leave a dead callback number, like the irs and social security number scammers do are freaking annoying though. I WANT to call you back and talk about my tax refund or my credit report. I WANT to talk to you for HOURS about what me, a cactus, some Styrofoam, some gasoline, and you are going to be doing this weekend.

I'm starting to think they've flagged my number though, there's never anyone on the other end anymore, even when I push to talk to someone. I guess getting so belligerently racist that David Duke would be embarrassed worked to some effect, since faking domestic violence, phone sexing bestiality, threatening the lives and well being of their children and loved ones, and suggesting under no uncertain terms that they should sacrifice themselves to Zhuul to prevent Stay Puft Armageddon did absolutely nothing but provide me with laughter and annoyance as the person on the phone stammers and hangs up. Gun shots and air horns don't seem to transfer through cellphones very well either.

Yes, I'm a very angry person, so I take it out on the scammers. What are they gonna do, call the cops on me and report themselves for interstate stalking, over the phone harassment, and give up the name and address of their company to law enforcement just to file a report against me? This is one time I'd actually be happy to go to court, with my years of phone records and recorded phone calls in tow. Last I checked FTC fines are still $10,000 per call for illegal telemarketing.

The only calls I get are automated. It's not hard to tell if they are legitimate or not. 

Flip side, I don't answer calls from people not already in contacts list. If it's a legitimate call, they leave me a message with contant info. 

The robocalls don't leave messages, at least for me.

I do not answer the phone unless the number is known to me.  Very few robocalls leave a message.  I agree, the government and the industry need to get aggressive about making this problem go away, and they could, but they won't.

Connect them to Lenny:

https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrBZYWrikliO6EPZKM7KxVQ

HBOs John Oliver has been on the case for about 2 weeks now. As he points out, it is the banking industry that is fighting to keep the loophole open that allows for the scamming.  Also, the telecom companies want the call revenue. 

Having spent 14 years in telecom, I really like the video I linked above. 

I hate to spoil the big finish but for nearly 2 weeks now, John Oliver has been robocalling the direct phone numbers of the top 5 FCC Commissioners, every 90 minutes.  Se the video in the link. 

Last week, VZ started offering a Free robocall blocker ap but it's not "automatic", meaning you must opt-in (but they could make it automatic.)  Furthermore, VZ does not even offer it to prepaid customers like myself. 

TMo is pretty good about blocking already. ATT is terribly and Sprint doesn't matter (irrelevant company any more.) 

Ajit sucks. Before becoming FCC director he was a direct employee of VZ.  He was an attorney employed directly by VZ. He is not qualified to be the voice of the consumer. He is only qualified to be the voice of the telecoms.  Remember to vote against this d-bag when he tries to run for President in 10-20 yrs from now. 

z31maniac said:

The only calls I get are automated. It's not hard to tell if they are legitimate or not. 

Flip side, I don't answer calls from people not already in contacts list. If it's a legitimate call, they leave me a message with contant info. 

The robocalls don't leave messages, at least for me.

We do the same thing, and it’s kind of frustrating to have to do that. 

I notice almost all the robospam I get on my home landline is spoofed so it comes from one specific exchange. I don’t know if they have some vulnerability that is being exploited or if the spammers somehow think I’m likely to have business with someone from that area (I am not). 

In reply to Duke :

The common scam lately is to spoof the caller id so that the call appears to be from the same NXX as your own number.    If your phone number is

234-567-8910 then it is likely the spoof number is also be 234-567-XXXX as well.  

In this case: 234 is the NPA or area code.  567 is the NXX or often called the exchange.  

All of this is an attempt to create "familiarity" in the hopes that you might answer.  

I agree with hating the spoofed numbers. But I'm pretty confused as to how they relate to immigration or the national emergency declaration.

I  my current course of business I do in fact have to call to people who will not be familiar with my phone number.  I have come to expect that people will not answer a call from a number they do not recognize.  My modus operendi now is that the first call will be sent to VM (which will never be checked.) Once that first call is ended I will call back again immediately.  I would say that 99% of the time they answer that second call since it is not the typical behavior of a scam call.    

Note: in no way an I calling these people to scam them or try to sell them something.  Quite the opposite.  I am calling them to confirm back to them what they will receive for free -- really free.  

If I can assure from call #1 that the number I have is a cell phone then I will text a message to the number and ask for a reply confirmation.  This is highly effective also.  I never leave VM, only written text.   

dculberson said:

I agree with hating the spoofed numbers. But I'm pretty confused as to how they relate to immigration or the national emergency declaration.

They do not relate.  Rather, he would like to see an effort extended to end robocall/spoof be as much or more than the efforts extended to immigration or national emergency.  

T-Mobile does a pretty good job of dealing with spam calls. They mark the calls as Spam Likely. Anything that comes through marked as spam gets added to the reject list.  

Generally, if the number isn't in my call list, I don't answer it. People I need to talk to will either leave a message or call the office number. 

I would much rather see the carriers deal with it instead of the government. The government will screw it up and do a half ass job. Any carrier that willingly bans all spam calls will get my business.

John Welsh said:

dculberson said:

I agree with hating the spoofed numbers. But I'm pretty confused as to how they relate to immigration or the national emergency declaration.

They do not relate.  Rather, he would like to see an effort extended to end robocall/spoof be as much or more than the efforts extended to immigration or national emergency.  

Exactly. I thought it was pretty obvious he was being facetious. 

What if we create a phone carrier where if you answer a robo call you get paid $1 directly by the caller? (there is an email service like this - it actually creates value for the advertiser AND the person receiving emails). 

I think this crap would stop pretty damn fast. 

John Welsh said:

In reply to Duke :

The common scam lately is to spoof the caller id so that the call appears to be from the same NXX as your own number.    If your phone number is

234-567-8910 then it is likely the spoof number is also be 234-567-XXXX as well.  

In this case: 234 is the NPA or area code.  567 is the NXX or often called the exchange.  

All of this is an attempt to create "familiarity" in the hopes that you might answer.  

I have noticed that, although I've lived in Indiana for the past 7 years but kept my Kansas City phone number/area code and I know that there's nobody calling me from KC that I dont already have the phone number of so it make's it pretty easy to pick out the scam calls

John Welsh said:

In reply to Duke :

The common scam lately is to spoof the caller id so that the call appears to be from the same NXX as your own number.    If your phone number is

234-567-8910 then it is likely the spoof number is also be 234-567-XXXX as well.  

In this case: 234 is the NPA or area code.  567 is the NXX or often called the exchange.  

All of this is an attempt to create "familiarity" in the hopes that you might answer.  

Yeah, I get that.  It's just that they picked an exchange in a smaller semi-rural area about an hour's drive from my house.  I get spoofed mobile calls that share my cell phone's exchange all the time.  But on the landline they come from a specific but different area that is not related to me in any way except being in the same state.

z31maniac said:

John Welsh said:

dculberson said:

I agree with hating the spoofed numbers. But I'm pretty confused as to how they relate to immigration or the national emergency declaration.

They do not relate.  Rather, he would like to see an effort extended to end robocall/spoof be as much or more than the efforts extended to immigration or national emergency.  

Exactly. I thought it was pretty obvious he was being facetious. 

Facepalm. 

Spamming, Robocalls, Scamming, Spoofing, all of this stuff effects nearly every American with a phone, email, etc. In some cases, it costs lots of money. In some cases, in can disrupt financial livelihoods. 

My grandmother will no longer use a computer because someone stole her identity after she got fooled by someone saying that her dead son (my father) owed money to the IRS. She's pretty sharp for being in her late 80's, but the scammers are getting better. 

I've been getting calls on my home phone as well as my cell phone about the knee brace I supposedly ordered.  The robocall starts out with the words, "please don't hang up."   

It also sucks for legit real people who want to talk with you. I've hung up on some many volunteer for local police and fire fundraisers its not even funny. 

In reply to pheller :

I’ve been getting people calling me fairly often the past few weeks saying they just got a call from my phone. It seems the robots are spoofing it now. It’s a work phone so I can’t screen the calls because I don’t know if it’s job related until they start yelling. One woman kept calling back so the third time I tried selling her a timeshare.  She seemed happy to be proven right and stopped bothering me.

I don't understand how telemarketers make money. The few that I actually answer practically shout SCAMMER and you have to be an almost unfathomable level of naive to go along with it.

I talked to one today that claimed I had applied for a car loan and they were willing to resubmit it to try for a lower rate. My standard questioning start with "what is the name of your company?" and then "if we happen to get disconnected, how can I get a hold of you?"

The guy answered the second question by saying that I'd get a call back tomorrow. I asked what if I were not available tomorrow, and he said that I'd get a call back the next day. I asked if I could get a number I could call in case I had more questions after doing some more homework, and he said that this was not something they did.

I turned this around on the guy. "You're trying to convince me to business with a company that I can't call with any questions. Doesn't that sound a little strange to you?" He claimed he didn't find anything odd about that, but hung up on me shortly afterwards.

Earlier he did give me a website, and when I went to that site, there was an 855 number front and center on it. I called it, but it was a small credit union that claimed to know nothing about the operation I was just on the phone with.

These guys seem to make it very difficult for a potential customer to actually consummate a transaction with them. But they must be making money because they keep calling. I have Nomorobo on the home phone and only answer maybe a quarter of the ones that actually make it past that.

I don't answer any robocalls on the cell. My number is from when I lived up in western Massachusetts, and I know very few people who live there nowadays, so when I see a 413-441-XXXX number I know it's a robocall.

Not only are they spoofing numbers, but, over the past few days, I'm getting calls on my VOIP land land that is MY number. I'm supposedly calling myself!!

dyintorace said:

Not only are they spoofing numbers, but, over the past few days, I'm getting calls on my VOIP land land that is MY number. I'm supposedly calling myself!!

Seems obvious to me!