I'm sure there are some very minor instances where the PC crowd feels you should be able to hide who you are. I don't see them as valid reasons to bother the rest of us constantly. No, I don't answer the phone often these days. I get on the average of maybe 10 calls a day with an Asian woman telling me some shit. The one just a minute ago told me there were 2 chsrges to my credit card this morning. So I did what I always do and hung up. Rudely. She didn't deserve any courtesy from me.

Why doesn't the congress or the regulators put an end to the barrages of the telemarketing calls? I'm up to maybe 10 per day. Every weekday. I have no interest in being a victim of their scam. The phone company does little or nothing to protect us against this stuff. There are easy solutions. They could charge callers maybe a dime a call for each call connected. Looks like a revenue source to me.

Worse, it makes me dislike everyone calling my number. The vast majority have no relationship to me. They are calling for their benefit, not mine. They either want to scam me, or sell me something I see no value in. Do they or should they have the right to disturb me on the phone line I pay for? Then lie to me about who they are to get me to answer their call. Is it rude to refuse to listen to their crap?

I don't think it is legal. But who is enforcing it? Nobody.

How do you enforce it, when most originate from third world countries with barely (or even non-) functional legal systems?

It is illegal to spoof or mask your number with the intent to defraud or deceive.

quote:

(1) IN GENERAL. — It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any real time voice communications service, regardless of the technology or network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive.

https://www.govinfo.gov/conten...ILLS-111hr1258rh.pdf

If I don't recognize the number, it goes to voice-mail. If is important or valid, they should leave a message.
Amazing how many don't leave a message.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States

See my first post.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States

See my first post.

I was just posting in response to the question on whether it was legal or not - not contradicting your post at all.

I'm painfully aware that it's completely unenforceable and the vast majority come from overseas. I dropped my landline in 2002 and haven't had one since. I aggressively filter all calls - using a couple of different spam call filters and block and report any that do on rare occasion make it thru my filters. I never answer a call, at work or on my cell, where I don't recognize the number. No message, you will probably be blocked and reported as spam.

it's illegal to defraud/deceive.

it's also illegal to spoof.

surely we have the means to stop spoofing. if not, why not?

I don't have Caller ID on my phone so all my calls go to my answering machine. I monitor the incoming messages and if it is someone I know or someone I need to talk to, I'll pick up the phone. 99% never leave a message, however.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
surely we have the means to stop spoofing.

Of course we have. Or could have. Just like we have, or could have, the means to, if not eliminate, severely curtail email spoofing.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
if not, why not?

Follow the money.

Example: Back when I was still active in fighting email spam, two of the people I knew that were the most vociferously opposed to changes in the protocol specifications that would largely eliminate most email spoofing were people who made their money consulting for, and selling products to, "legitimate" bulk email spammers for hire.

The FCC for years have promised to put an end to the telespam problem. Last I knew they even threatened the telcos with "if you don't solve the problem, we will." The telcos have not solved the problem, and neither has the FCC.

Murketing, and murketers, rule. Why else do you suppose, after all these years, and repeated promises on the part of the FCC, that television commercials are still often much louder than programming content, despite the fact it's a violation of the Rules and the FCC has repeatedly warned it was going to crack down on the practice?

Why still answers calls from unknown numbers?

The likelihood of something so serious that a message and callback won't work is quite remote.

I haven't answered such a call in 15yrs or so, at least, and have missed nothing of consequence.

Since I bought my new car, I get no less than 25 spam calls a day about extend warranties from people with indian accents in the city where I'm from and I live in Atlanta.

I block the numbers by the dozen, but they swap by a single digit daily.

Until data carriers are paying fines in the billions for allowing it, they will do nothing.

I haven't bought a car in five years and I get those extended warranty calls and texts.

The OP again. I expected to see the idea that the politico's are in the pocket of telemarketers or spammers. Still possible. Just the other day, I saw a news blurb that someone had received a hundred million dollar fine for their acts. Maybe a tiny start, but nothing compared to the hundreds of companies pulling the crap.

What they've done is made our telephone system a joke. They're beyond reach and they know it. It can only be solved by the Teleco's an they seem to have little or no interest in ending it.

Just as bad are the calls with no one there. My guess is its an automated system the tries to pass the call along to the next open operator. If none is there, it just dies. And I get the hang up caller. Guess its fair since I hang up on them. They've effectively disabled our phone system making it much less effective. Just another example of the criminal element moving past our ability or desire to stop them.

quote:

Why still answers calls from unknown numbers?

Because some of us run businesses or deal with customers who are generally calling from numbers unknown to us.


My idea is to do something similar to the prison phone system. If you wish to make phone calls you must have an account with funds deposited. When you place a call you state who you are. The person called answers, hears your message, and then accepts or declines your call.

Depending upon the number pressed, you either get charged for making the call without it being accepted, get charged for making the call with it being accepted, or get accepted as a legitimate call with no charge.

I like to play with them...

Extended warranty phone call:

Me: "sure I'm interested".

Caller: "How old is the car and how many miles"?

Me: "2006 Honda with 79,000 miles.

Caller: "Which model Honda"?

Me: "GL1800".

Caller, after several minutes searching data: "I can't find that Honda model".

Me: "Look under Motorcycle".

Caller: CLICK.

My phone is usually set to only accept calls from numbers in my address book. At work I answer with the old "Al Salaam a Likem." That usually results in a hang up.

I don't mind the calls to my work phone when I'm on my hour-plus commutes, hell I string them along as much as possible. It's funny when they ask why I played them and I answer that it's one less hour they can try to scam someone else!

It does get annoying when my work phone rings at suppertime though.

And I agree with other posters that the technology today should be able to detect where a call is originating from and if the caller ID doesn't match the area of origination, the call should be able to be identified as such and blocked by the end recipient.

we have the cyber team with the USAF and Army, why can't they track down these callers and then send in a SEAL team to remove the infrastructure?

It wouldn't take long for the calls and emails to stop if going to work every day meant a possibility of death