by tones411 on 1/30/19, 1:23 AM with 324 comments
by WestCoastJustin on 1/30/19, 1:35 AM
[1] https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/32671/tip-day-how-let-favori...
by fyfy18 on 1/30/19, 10:04 AM
I setup a rule that if the call was from a withheld or foreign number, it would play an automated message asking the user to press the number 1 to be connected. This alone stopped basically all the spam calls. I'm surprised how well it actually works, I assume the caller detects it as a voicemail message so just hang up.
I imagine most carriers could implement something like this relatively easy. Sorry Google, no AI needed here.
[0] https://www.callcentric.com/support/device/obihai/obi100
by wittedhaddock on 1/30/19, 4:09 AM
Show of hands: if we opened up this feature for you to control this filter for yourself or your loved ones, holding all else constant (price and coverage), would that be sufficient to cause a switch to try out an alternate provider?
by Cactus2018 on 1/30/19, 2:16 AM
edit; T-Mobile accepts forwarded text message SPAM at 7726 - https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/privacy/fraud-spam/s...
by joshka on 1/30/19, 6:13 AM
Imagine for a sec a situation where: 1. I receive a robocaller message. 2. I press a button on phone indicating spam 3. Software Agent takes over, presses the right DTMF to proceed (ML based analysis of what works and what doesn't) 4. Agent waits for human to come on, starts playing random conversational pieces that sound right (extension, the google thing that booked a hair dresser appointment takes this even further https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D-6mxb_Mu8). 5.
by Figs on 1/30/19, 2:07 AM
by proxygeek on 1/30/19, 3:42 AM
You can block all hidden numbers, all numbers not in your address book, specific numbers, etc.
Or one can use Tasker - an Android automation app to achieve the same functionality and more in any Android phone. I suppose these days, you can use Iphone's scripting functionality as well for the same, can't you?
Privacy concerns regarding MIUI /Android can be handled by installing a firewall like Netguard.
by sliken on 1/30/19, 5:00 AM
Click on allow calls and select "from contacts only".
by pmoriarty on 1/30/19, 2:10 AM
That app has a lot more features too, like blocking calls which are rated negatively in the community-curated database. Of course, you can rate numbers yourself as well, and block/whitelist those.
It can also block hidden numbers or foreign numbers, and a whole bunch of other stuff as well.
It's a pretty cool app. Check it out.
by Afforess on 1/30/19, 4:46 AM
I seem to have robocalls worse than most, most of my friends are still sufficing with spam detection, but it's not enough. It's a crying shame the FCC has allowed the telephone to become a tragedy of the commons, but none of the carriers have any interest in blocking robocallers, it's a secondary source of income.
I have a smartphone that literally can not operate as a phone and take calls. It's dystopian.
by deathanatos on 1/30/19, 5:58 AM
Why are scammers even allowed to spoof caller IDs from local area-code numbers that don't even exist? (Thankfully, this makes them blissfully easy to spot. But I fear someday the fraudsters will get up to speed on that heuristic.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a technical measure like the one you suggest — it appears to be sorely needed. But I'm dismayed at how little the government and the carriers care.
And for God's sake can we choose a more convincing scam than "the factory warranty on your vehicle is about to expire"? My car is over 20 years old. The warranty is gone.
by nik1aa5 on 1/30/19, 6:01 AM
The main service the app offers is a community rating of phone numbers. Depending on the rating, calls can be muted automatically. You can also, however, tell the app to generally block all calls except those from contacts in your address book.
by yoz-y on 1/30/19, 10:51 AM
One advantage of this system is that the blocking provider does not need (and can't have) access to your phone call history at all. The disadvantage is that it is a blacklist only, you can't invert the rules.
As a side note, although I would _love_ to just ignore all calls from numbers I do not know, at least in France most companies such as banks, taxman and so on will call you from a withheld number and they don't always leave a message.
by egypturnash on 1/30/19, 5:48 AM
People you actually want to talk to: custom ring/vibration. As a bonus you can assign different rings to people so you know “oh hey that’s Mom” or whatever.
by pxeboot on 1/30/19, 1:36 AM
by emayljames on 1/30/19, 6:12 AM
by sys_64738 on 1/30/19, 2:27 AM
by russelldavis on 1/30/19, 10:16 AM
I'm working on an app (iphone & android) that solves this the way you suggest, via a whitelist of contacts, with an optional way for non-whitelisted, non-robocallers to still get through.
If you're interested in early access, email me at russell.davis [at] gmail [dot] [com].
by adim86 on 1/30/19, 8:42 AM
Hear me out. If you all have noticed, with every privacy feature released a significant amount of people migrate to it full-time. I currently cannot recognize my phone ring, because from the day I bought my last phone I switched off the ringing and never bothered to turn it back on, not because I hate ringtones, I just forgot and also there have been no dire consequences to do so. Someone on this thread also said he/she set her phone permanently on "do not disturb" and just deals with notifications when they want to. This is all well and good cause anyone who has tried to reach us has successfully done so and even if they did not reach us, we have evidence that they attempted to.
Having a whitelist system is VERY different and has many unforeseen consequences. From as little as, your mother got a new phone and soon she cannot reach you, you got a beautiful girls number and want to ask her on a date but cannot reach her. To bigger issues like your teenage child is mad at you and deletes your contact from their phone. Job offers will be missed, you will become unreachable in emergencies etc. The short of this is, the best case of such a feature is that you don't need to install a third party app to block spam calls, the worst case of such a feature is people can literally die cause they cannot contact you or vice versa. If I was a phone manufacturer. I just won't even allow this. There are easier ways to solve the underlying problem without opening the door for worse outcomes
by crispytx on 1/30/19, 6:51 AM
by wyred on 1/30/19, 3:27 AM
Like if someone used your number as an emergency contact. Or some hospital in the world trying to contact you because someone you know got hospitalized (touch wood).
by stevenicr on 1/30/19, 4:46 AM
I was looking into this for a friend and found something a couple of tutorials for making it happen with iphone, but they all said you had to use the interface from a computer (desktop/laptop) - that the call filtering and time block feature was not accessible via the phone's interface. (this was about a year ago?) - you could make your phone go silent, but let a selected set of contact be able to ring, or perhaps give another set of contacts the option to turn off your silent mode if they coded twice within 5 minutes or something?
I think there is built in methods for this with do not disturb and assorted options with that feature on newish android without third party apps right?
(I currently frequently use a "timed silent profile" app that I paid the premium for years ago, but I think I ran into these settings on base android in the past year.
by lsllc on 1/30/19, 3:10 AM
At this point I just don't answer a call that's not in my contacts, but I should be able to enable this as the default. If it's someone that really wants to talk to me, then they'll leave voicemail.
I shouldn't have to use Do-Not-Disturb; that's for something else (don't ring my phone at all when I am sleeping), also I don't want to lose my other notifications.
The telcos charge for a "blocking" service so they have no incentive to do anything about it ... but I don't understand why Apple hasn't addressed this (maybe today's 15% decline in iPhone sales is people saying f-it and switching to Android where you can get apps to block calls).
by altmind on 1/30/19, 1:52 AM
by IanCal on 1/30/19, 11:36 AM
by aiyodev on 1/30/19, 2:12 AM
You can screen calls or automatically send them to voicemail. You can create rules for groups of contacts that override the default. You can setup different voicemail messages for different groups.
I have it setup to send everyone but friends and family to voicemail. The transcript of this message is emailed to me. If I get multiple spam voicemails from the same number, I add the number to a contact called "Block" which sends them to a custom voicemail message I recorded telling them the number has been disconnected.
My number is posted on websites, I use it when signing up for shady things, but I hardly ever get spam. I remember having to add a lot of numbers the first month and then suddenly the torrent of spam calls abruptly stopped. I assume they blacklisted my number on their lists. I've been pretty much spam free for years.
by YeahSureWhyNot on 1/30/19, 4:32 AM
by jpeeler on 1/30/19, 2:49 PM
On an unrelated note, I've many times wished the phone protocol was upgraded to send metadata of your choosing along with the caller ID. Not even asking for a standard, because it'd probably suck. Just provide the means to send some optional data along with the call (which could ultimately put the nail in the coffin of land lines). The primary use case I had in mind would be to authenticate identity (since caller ID can be spoofed), but I'm sure a bunch of new uses would be utilized.
by TYPE_FASTER on 1/30/19, 2:12 AM
by chrisBob on 1/30/19, 3:22 PM
The Hiya app also helps somewhat. I didn't realize how good a job carriers like T-Mobile do at filtering out the Spam calls until I switched to XFinity Mobile and went from 1-2 calls per week to 5 in the first day. Hiya brings the number back down inline with T-Mobile, and might be the same database T-Mobile uses on the backend.
by cs_advice on 1/30/19, 3:11 PM
You can always set you're phone to ignore calls, but this doesn't avoid the call to reach your phone. However, the robinson list does.
"Is an opt-out list of people who do not wish to receive marketing transmissions"
by mgerdts on 1/30/19, 5:47 AM
https://github.com/kaliturin/BlackList
I had to work some magic (which I have since forgotten) to convince my S9+ to ignore this background process, else it would stop working after a few hours.
The key thing that I wish it had was a quick way to allow unknown calls for a specified time. This would have been helpful when given the option of staying on hold for an extended period of time or receiving a callback - or when you get that "my connection is crap, let me call you back on another line."
by trixie_ on 1/30/19, 5:26 AM
by aws_ls on 1/30/19, 8:14 AM
This will take the problem of spam away.
by RileyJames on 1/30/19, 3:26 AM
Most of the time they go straight to voicemail and leave the same message.
All my real friends FaceTime, signal, iMessage, etc.
It bewilders me that telcos haven’t done anything about this. It’s 100% of my incoming calls... and they only about 2 unique actual messages, pre recorded...
by pdx6 on 1/30/19, 3:02 AM
With the Galaxy 9, there are some Name ID features built in if you use T-Mobile. For iOS on T-Mobile, I do:
1. Pay for T-Mobile Plus to get Name ID.
2. Install the Name ID app and enable all the blocking features.
3. Manage Blocks, Go to VM, and whitelist contacts
Another thread mentions Exchange Blocker, this also helps with exchange alias scams and is a light weight app that takes a minute to install.
by crankylinuxuser on 1/30/19, 2:50 PM
1. Set system ringtone to "nothing" 2. Set ringtones for people I want to not miss 3. Suppress annoying notifications
Takes care of most problems.
by ssharp on 1/30/19, 1:43 PM
At the time, AT&T, if you gave them a few dollars a month, would let you block 5 numbers. It was the most unbelievably stupid policy I had ever seen and almost caused me to churn, which I probably should have done.
by tonyquart on 1/31/19, 7:24 AM
by jotux on 1/30/19, 4:50 AM
It specifically has a setting to force all non-contact list calls to voicemail. I had to do this when I started getting 8-10 spam calls a day.
by jenkstom on 1/31/19, 8:37 PM
by nikanj on 1/30/19, 9:06 AM
by giantzoc on 1/30/19, 11:26 PM
by baroffoos on 1/30/19, 4:23 AM
by otterpro on 1/30/19, 4:56 PM
by james_niro on 1/30/19, 4:16 PM
by huxflux on 1/30/19, 3:42 AM
by DonHopkins on 1/30/19, 5:46 AM
by Haitischmock on 1/30/19, 6:13 AM
by astrostl on 1/30/19, 4:52 PM
I probably get one (1) every 3-6 months, and I answer calls from unknown numbers without hesitation. I've also been using the same mobile number for more than two decades.
by jarfil on 1/30/19, 9:29 AM
- Block unknown/hidden numbers
- Block all strangers (non-contact numbers)
- Block all incoming calls
by stonogo on 1/30/19, 2:34 AM
Competition was nice.
by roland35 on 1/30/19, 7:25 PM
by anigbrowl on 1/30/19, 1:28 AM
by moonbug on 1/30/19, 1:56 PM
by davidjnelson on 1/30/19, 4:15 AM
by ubermonkey on 1/30/19, 2:23 PM
It's worth looking into for sure.
by piyush_soni on 1/30/19, 2:17 AM
by twodayslate on 1/30/19, 4:57 AM
by slater on 1/30/19, 1:26 AM
by simonCGN on 1/30/19, 6:41 AM
by undoware on 1/30/19, 1:56 AM
Collection agencies are a vital part of the capitalist financial apparatus. Banks rely on them to enforce loan term agreements, and in turn defend them when in negotiation with e.g. Apple, when e.g. negotiating agreements regarding e.g. Apple Pay. I suspect (but cannot prove) an elaborate leaning on mobile companies to keep nonconsensual cold calls possible.
Look for this state-of-affairs to change abruptly when being in arrears can directly affect the state of your device.
I expect, by 2025 at the latest, that mobile service and handset providers will begin kneecapping devices whose owners have displeased Equifax. When this occurs, it will no longer be necessary to allow nonconsensual calls, and there will be much touting of the new-and-improved DND.
Probably court summons and legal stuff works similarly, so my second prediction is that, around the same time, it will be possible to serve you notice of a subpoena by unblockable alert.
by anticensor on 1/30/19, 3:04 PM
by s17tnet on 1/30/19, 6:11 AM
by muraliSKDV on 1/30/19, 8:22 AM
by mattmaroon on 1/30/19, 12:11 PM
by exabrial on 1/30/19, 4:15 PM
by Kiro on 1/30/19, 8:03 AM
by randomacct3847 on 1/30/19, 4:17 AM
by mathewspolin on 1/30/19, 1:33 AM
by fxfan on 1/30/19, 9:17 AM
It was absolutely the best thing ever for notification control. (outside of old blackberries)
by 420codebro on 1/30/19, 3:00 PM