NT - RoboCalls

[Corduroy Frog]

Maybe i'm the only one, maybe not.  Until recently, RoboCalls were on the decline, either because the Federal Trade Commission was effectively winning, or possibly because they were increasingly ineffective, I dunno which.

Those days are over.  I have to have my landline for business reasons, and for the last week or so I've been getting 25-30 calls per day.  In fact, so many that there have been occasions when one of them can't get through because another was trying to get me to answer.

I used to answer and ask which office in which state they were calling from.  [[click]]  They can mask their phone number and make it look like someone in your home town is calling you.  I've absolutely quit answering because if I answer they know that they have reached a valid number.

Has something drastically changed in the last week or so (Maybe a victory in court for these cretins)?  Or am I just back to whining?

 

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I never answer unidentified calls on either my land line or my cell.  I have voice mail available and virtually no callers that are unidentified leave a message.  I've done this for literally years.  There is the odd occasion that a number has been spoofed (I think that's what it's called).  Last year there was a call identified as my township government office.  I didn't answer it having no expectation of a call from that office.  There was no message so I did call that office back and asked the reason for the call.  That office did not call so I alerted them to the issue.

 

[Lee B]

Several years ago my wife received a call and the spoofed number was her own cell phone number

For years I have used my answering machine on my office landline to screen calls.

As soon as the answering machine activates the robocalls disconnect.

 

[Corduroy Frog]

I put the original post 2 hours ago.  During that time I have counted 9 (yes nine) robocalls.  I can't help but thinking something recent has turned these loose on the world.  Or maybe just me.

[mcb39]

I have to interject for one reason.  Yes, they have increased.  Usually my cell and my landline will identify as Spam Risk.  I don't answer.  However, I have found that since medical facilities have gone to central calling; I have not answered some important calls.  We learned early on that if we answer with our business name, spammers will hang up immediately because they are not supposed to call businesses.  Yes, they have increased.  No, I don't know why, but I do try to answer because we have a multitude of medical and other appointments that send out recorded calls that should not be missed.  The situation is hugely annoying to say the very least.  Just my two cents worth.

[Lee B]

The robocalls to my office landline have dropped significantly since I only answer those calls which have a clients caller ID.

All of my non business calls go to my personal cell phone where I only answer if I recognize the caller ID.

If not, they can leave a voice mail which the robo callers and spammers don't do.

The weirdest thing is every 2 or 3 months I get a text message in chines characters?

[mcb39]

2 hours ago, cbslee said:

The robocalls to my office landline have dropped significantly since I only answer those calls which have a clients caller ID.

All of my non business calls go to my personal cell phone where I only answer if I recognize the caller ID.

If not, they can leave a voice mail which the robo callers and spammers don't do.

The weirdest thing is every 2 or 3 months I get a text message in chines characters?

Do you reply in kind?

[Lee B]

40 minutes ago, mcb39 said:

Do you reply in kind?

?

[mcb39]

1 hour ago, cbslee said:

?

Do you reply in Chinese characters?  Was supposed to be a joke.

[ILLMAS]

Our office phone system is now on Zoom but no so long ago their caller ID only works with verified numbers, basically I cannot tell who is calling and send all my calls to voicemail.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

I use a firewall for our internet connection.  Interestingly, for one phone, I will not say whose, I have to add exceptions because some of the things which get used on said phone are in Singapore, China, and a few sketchy US server farms.  The Singapore and China IP addresses are for a game someone p[lays, and if I block those localities, the game hangs when it offers to show ads for rewards.  The sketchy server farm is used for part of the back end of our gym's app.  Not every server farm is 100% bad, so this is not an unusual situation.  Each device is isolated, so it poses no risk for the other devices.

Point is, there is no 100% filter method for calls, SMS, or IP addresses.  For email, I wash personal messages through a gmail account.  Gmail has very good junk filters, and no longer (admits to) reads(ing) the messages.  I used to use mailwasher, which is also good.  For phone, my personal line does not ring or jump unless the caller is in my contacts.  All others have to leave a message.  Very few junk calls, or even junk SMS.  For business, I get probably 30/40 junk calls/SMS per day. It was less when I washed the incoming items through a VOIP system.  Not that I do not use the business voice line for support, I can simply not have it ring or vibrate for any caller (unless in my contacts).

For business, while I filter emails pretty well, since it is business, I still scan the spam messages as once or twice a week a good message gets trapped.  Usually from someone out of the US (vacation).

[Sara EA]

I have not noticed an increase in spam calls.   I've used NoMoRobo for years and it's effective (and free).  Get it.  Between that and Comcast having a pretty good spam filter, I don't get many.  Occasionally I get a call that the system announces to be from "potential spam"!  or Anonymous.

I have noticed a huge decrease in spam texts.  For a few months I was getting multiple texts per day because there was a "problem" with my account (Netflix, Amazon, bank, PayPal, or unidentified account) or delivery of a package.  I blocked a bunch but it did no good.  Those have thankfully disappeared.

[BulldogTom]

I am just the opposite, I have noticed in the last month fewer spam robocalls.    Less than a dozen in the last month....used to be a couple a day every day.

But the election season is coming up so it will be ramping up again.

Tom
Longview, TX

[Lion EA]

I'm already getting political texts.

And, about 30 years ago when we got a second mobile phone, I went to the new # and hubby to the existing #. I still get calls and texts from HIS political party!

[jklcpa]

I usually don't answer if it's not someone I know, but when I do, I never say "hello" or answer "yes" to anything. I'll answer with "accounting office, Judy speaking" because answering "hello" will tell the computer dialer to route the call to an available person or trigger the computer to start responding.  Even if answering "hello" sometimes there are no agents available on the other end to speak to us and so in those cases the computer will automatically disconnect from us.  Also, I never say "yes" to any questions because that can be recorded  and manipulated as acceptance of something we didn't intend or in answer to a question we were never asked.

I have noticed a decrease in calls that, for my office, typically are related to credit card processing, health insurance, Medicare Advantage or Medigap, and sometimes life insurance.

I don't get them on my cell phone that is personal. I have AT&T's security with it set up to route any callers not on my contact list directly to VM without it even ringing. The call log lists those as flagged from potential scammer or telemarketers. If it's a real call, that person does have the ability to leave me a message. It works well.

On my old phone I used to get calls in Chinese that were out of NY and turned out to be a scare scam directed at Chinese immigrants to get them to pay a fee so that they were not in danger of deportment. The scammers knew that only Chinese speaking people would understand and possibly fall for it with the rest of us simply ignoring it by hanging up. Those calls have finally stopped for me.

[Catherine]

I've noted sudden decreases after widespread arrests on a call center farm, then increases - probably when a new center is set up. Answering with a business name, "Who's calling?" or some other non-hello response generally throws off robots. But I'm thinking seriously of NoMoRobo for home and business lines. Don't know how it will deal with a fax - probably won't get through. 

Lots of calls here come through as a town name; if I answer those I'll start with "does the town of [town name] need accounting or tax work?" and those never get put through.

If in a fey mood, I'll answer in a language not-English.

[jklcpa]

Years ago I set up all phone numbers under my name, husband's, and mom's with nomorobo and wasn't sure it did anything to stop the calls. 

[Patrick Michael]

Most of the "We are trying to reach you about your car warranty" calls have been replaced with "Your company qualifies for huge tax credits because you stayed open during the pandemic" calls.  I must get at least 10 of these calls a week.  And I don't qualify for the credit, no employees and my income actually went up during the lock down!

[Abby Normal]

Our VOIP line is with Xfinity and we added all the spam calls we were getting to a block list, and hardly get any spam calls anymore.

My cell is a Pixel and the spam blocking on that for both calls and texts is amazing, so spam calls for us are almost nonexistent.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I, too, have a Pixel, love it! and agree with the great spam blocking.  I so appreciate that there is a message that does allow a legitimate caller to leave a message.  Bad folks don't.