Last year here noticed that I was getting spam calls from whole cellular exchanges.
The calls would have similiar or same CIDs and the last digit of the number would increment by one. I went to slpat blocking the calls here.
IE:
888-555-1212
888-555-1213
888-555-1214
Splat blocked by using:
Block all calls from 888-555-121? or 888-555-12?? or 888-555-1???
A while back there was an article in Consumer reports article on this stuff.
New—and needed—solutions
New—and needed—solutions
Recognizing that traditional tools such as the DNC registry weren’t getting the job done, in 2012 the FTC launched a Robocall Challenge, offering a $50,000 cash prize for the best technical solution to blocking robocalls.
One of three winners was Aaron Foss, a freelance programmer who came up with a prototype for Nomorobo over the course of a weekend. “Before I heard of the challenge, I didn’t even know robocalls were a problem,” he confesses. Nomorobo’s technology intercepts all incoming calls to your phone, judges the likelihood of their being robocalls, and lets only the legitimate calls through. Foss boasts that the technology has a 95 percent accuracy rate.
Foss is pleased with the success of Nomorobo, but he remains puzzled that the major telephone companies, with all of their resources, didn’t solve the problem first. In fact, until recently, one of the biggest hurdles to the widespread adoption and implementation of call-blocking technology has been those industry leaders, which took the position that their legal obligation to complete all calls precluded their offering to block any, despite their customers’ increasingly frantic pleas. But in a significant ruling this past June, the FCC brushed aside the companies’ objections and gave permission for carriers to provide call-blocking technologies. “The FCC wants to make it clear: Telephone companies can—and, in fact, should—offer consumers robocall-blocking tools,” wrote FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
But at present it’s still up to consumers to build their own bulwark against robocalls. People with traditional and VoIP landlines can reduce—although not eliminate—robocalls by purchasing call-blocking devices that plug into their phone lines. Some allow you to blacklist numbers you no longer wish to receive; others let you set up a “whitelist,” or manually program the phone to recognize and accept a certain number of known “safe” numbers. (Find out which robocall blockers work best.) Similar apps are available for iPhone and Android users.
The major telephone carriers also offer call-blocking services for some VoIP and landlines. But the options depend on your geographic location and service package, and are limited in their ability to block calls. For example, AT&T lets you block 20 numbers on its VoIP service—which is laughable, given the ease with which robocallers can switch numbers. Adding insult to injury, customers may have to pay for the services.
“The onus right now is on the consumer to navigate these complex problems,” says Delara Derakhshani, policy counsel at Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports. “Consumers are being forced to pay for tools to block calls they shouldn’t be receiving in the first place.” Obviously, that isn’t fair.
By contrast, Nomorobo’s blacklist contains more than 883,000 numbers, with 200 numbers added every day.
Nomorobo is free, but it is currently available only on VoIP phones and when offered by the carrier. “It is technically possible to work on landlines,” Foss says. “That’s the big push: Saying to the carriers, ‘Just make this available to everyone.’ ”
That’s where consumers come in. The FCC and FTC can’t order phone companies to provide anti-robocall technology, but so far more than 327,000 people have signed this year’s EndRobocalls.org petition calling for carriers to make use of the available technology and provide it to their customers free.
In view of the FCC’s ruling greenlighting call-blocking technology, consumers have gained more leverage. And just calling a carrier to complain can send a message. “Customer service costs outweigh the costs to deliver a call,” says Eric Burger, director of the Georgetown Center for Secure Communications at Georgetown University. “It’s dollars per minute to deal with a customer complaint, and they’re making pennies to complete a call. They’d like this problem to go away.”
Wouldn’t we all? But with consumers wielding more clout, the FCC removing barriers to call-blocking tools, and the FTC challenging programmers to come up with creative solutions, there just might be a cure for the robocall epidemic.
