Fight Call Spoofing

[enufisenuf82]

Jurisdiction

North Carolina

I have had it with harassing phone calls. Specifically, people that spoof their phone numbers and hide their identity, it is now occurring multiple times per day. After speaking with my phone carrier, they said the FCC does not allow prefix blocking which would be the only way to prevent this from stopping as they spoof new numbers every time (circumventing spam filters).

Our State attorney general does not want to do anything but provide a generic response and this is the whole reason people are doing this. If states won't pursue the issue, what is the next step? FBI? Legislation to allow prefix blocking by carriers?

I would appreciate resources in how I can volunteer to participate in solving this problem.

 

[zddoodah]

Have you considered changing your phone number?

 

[adjusterjack]

After speaking with my phone carrier, they said the FCC does not allow prefix blocking

Somebody's BSing you. I ran a search and the first result mentions an app for prefix blocking.

prefix blocking software at DuckDuckGo

 

[army judge]

they said the FCC does not allow prefix blocking which would be the only way to prevent this from stopping as they spoof new numbers every time (circumventing spam filters).

Whether an area code can be blocked has NOTHING to do with the FCC.
I have blocked entire area codes on my Samsung Note 20 Ultra 5G, and before that even earlier on my Note 10 +.

A person can't block an entire area code on their iPhone due to restrictions from Apple, but she/he can block an area code and calling prefix.

Using the "HiYa" app, for example, a person can block calls this way: In the app tap on the Block List (circle with the line through it along the bottom.) Then tap on the "+" and select "Numbers that begin with." You can then input any area code or prefix you want.

Spammers and scammers call you everyday. Sometimes they ring once, and stop, sometimes twice. Sometimes they wake you up at 5 a.m., sometimes they catch you at your dinner table. One day, they say you owe some money to the IRS, the other day, you hear only gibberish at the other end of the phone line. No matter what you do, robocallers, scammers, and spammers will never stop calling people who fail to protect themselves.

For example, I block EVERY caller EXCEPT those people in my contacts list.

I have about 150 people who I allow to call me.

There is NO reason to allow 7,000,000,000 people to call you, when you only know fewer than 500, maybe 1,000 people.

I would appreciate resources in how I can volunteer to participate in solving this problem.

Not much you can do if you use an Apple phone, much as in what you desire to do.

You can choose to do almost anything to eliminate spammers if you use high end Android devices.
I don't know what low end Android devices can do, because I've never owned one.
I do know that my Samsung devices can be configured to do anything I want, and they haven't been "rooted".

 

[mightymoose]

The carrier can not block by area code or prefix, but YOU can.
I have a particular app that blocks all those unwanted calls perfectly.
Shop around and you will find one that works for you.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Even blocking an area code isn't going to work for long. They will move on to spoofing another area code.

AT&T has recently added a SPAM call notification which flags possible SPAM calls and may give you the ability to block them completely.

 

[Zigner]

I have about 150 people who I allow to call me.

How will you know when it's time to renew your extended warranty for your car if you don't take their call?

 

[justblue]

How will you know when it's time to renew your extended warranty for your car if you don't take their call?

Thank goodness for those reminder calls otherwise I would not have known to renew my warranty on the car I don't own!

 

[flyingron]

AT&T has recently added a SPAM call notification which flags possible SPAM calls and may give you the ability to block them completely.

Yeah, I see it occasionally but it catches darned few of the robocalls. I don't answer most calls I can't identify and nothing from my cell phone prefix (where I have no correspondents).

In fact, about the only calls I regularly take come through my forwarding service. This is fronted with an "automated attendant" requiring people to press 1 to reach me and it's rare that spam passes through that. I do get a few nuisance 4 second voice mails, but that's about it.

As for "identity" the ONLY thing that is transmitted accross the phone network is the putative telephone number. If you see any further information such as a name or location, that is provided by YOUR local provider who attaches it to the call going out to your phone (or by your phone itself when you have that information).

The problem with spoofing is that the network isn't secure. Caller ID was designed back in the 80's. It piggybacks on the billing information. Back in the day, when there were only a few "phone companies", it was assumed that they would be judicious in what they allow to go out on the intercompany calls. Now the technology is cheap and there are zillions of carriers, and nothing prevents an obnoxious carrier from allowing their subscribers to insert falsified caller ID information. Someday the industry will come to gether and figure out how to resolve this, but I'm not holding my breath, there's not currently any great economic incentive to do so.

 

[Highwayman]

Google Pixel phones do a great job at blocking spam calls and also allow you to screen calls without answering the phone. I don't answer any calls unless I know who's calling buthe the call screening feature is great and I use it all the time.