
Let’s Destroy Robocalls - howard941
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/opinion/robocall-scams.html
======
cletus
So robocalls are the result of:

\- Cost of phone calls decreasing to basically zero

\- Cost of automation going to basically zero

\- Phone calls that can come from the Internet so there are no national
boundaries anymore

\- Caller ID operating on essentially the honor system

\- Bad actors (telephone companies) benefitting from this traffic by charging
for it

\- Larger players having no incentive to punish bad actors

There's a reason why most messages are now sent on whitelist instead of
blacklist systems.

For whitelist systems to work you need to be able to enforce identity or have
a significant cost to sending messages.

Frankly I don't even want to receive phone calls on my "phone". If I did I'd
be more than happy with a contacts only whitelist. Why I can't get this is
beyond me.

EDIT: for those mentioning the doctor's office and other non-whitelist cases,
just send non-whitelisted callers to voicemail. If you need to answer the
phone then OK, I guess this won't work for you. But for the majority of people
for the majority of their time, whitelisted contacts only with the rest going
to voicemail will work.

~~~
atombender
Whitelisting is problematic because there are so many cases where it's
impractical or impossible to add a contact first: Doctor's office calling to
confirm your appointment; restaurant confirming a seat reservation; delivery
guy is outside and can't find your doorbell; Lyft/Uber/whatever is nearby and
is looking for you; pharmacy calling to inform about a prescription being
ready; some store calling to inform that your order is ready to be picked up;
insurance company calling about some claim; etc.

These examples are from my own life, and they happen several times a month. I
hardly ever make calls myself, but I do have to be able to receive important
calls.

Obviously some use cases can be fixed with text messaging and app, and
increaasingly they are, but there are always going to be exceptions. Directing
to voicemail is also a solution to _some_ of these, but voicemail acts as a
filter: The caller may decide to not bother leaving a message.

~~~
mLuby
I'd expect to be able to whitelist my doctor's office number. Likewise
services I use like Uber/Lyft/delivery service XYZ.

And if whitelisting becomes a thing you know the UI is going to say "your
order is complete! Please click here to whitelist our number in case we need
to reach you."

Not a big deal, and it basically solves phone spam.

~~~
xvector
> And if whitelisting becomes a thing [...] Not a big deal

But that's the whole (big) deal. The solution is usually the trivial and easy
part - getting people to change is the hard part.

Humanity is littered with millions of problems that could be solved if it
wasn't for inertia. A solution cannot simply be better or more convenient - it
has to be so _overwhelmingly_ better, so _much_ more convenient for people to
even consider switching.

And while this solution is better, I don't see your average person caring
enough to take the time to make sure they've whitelisted all services they
use.

------
tbrock
Our company actually has a really good view into where robocalls are coming
from and what they are doing because we own a tremendous amount of phone
numbers in the US (100s of thousands - millions at peak). We can basically see
when this is happening and a robo-caller is targeting an area code, zip code,
state, etc...

When we get called from a number we don't know we used to simply reject the
call. Now, as of this week, we are publishing the metadata to a kafka topic so
that we might be able to do some post-processing on these events which might
help identify these robot callers earlier. We've already learned that the
volume of robo-calls decreases dramatically on the weekends.

The hope is that we'd at the very least learn something about how they operate
but at the very best possibly provide an api that allowed people to check if a
number was currently considered a robo-caller or if their city, state, zip was
currently under attack. That way, for example, the makers of robo-killer,
etc... could provide better protection. Perhaps we could even create a live
map of the attacks.

I'll follow up when we do and post something to HN.

~~~
wesleytodd
Which company?

~~~
swampthinker
Hustle [https://www.hustle.com/](https://www.hustle.com/)

~~~
sacul
(This turned into a bit of a rant...)

So, AFAICT, Hustle provides a service that's nearly as bad as robocalls. From
their front page: "Hustle works because people read and respond to texts—and
to communication that feels more human." So it's a bait and switch, just like
a robocall: you contact me in a way that makes you feel personal, approachable
and reasonable to me so that you can gain my attention.

Look, try to see this from my perspective. Without saying anything about the
honor and motives of those behind Hustle, it's like I'm being attacked from
all sides - Facebook, Robocalls, and now Hustle - to gain my attention. This
has always been the case, perhaps, but our modern technology – coupled with a
knowledge of human psychology – is a powerful tool (weapon?) for gaining
access.

Here's an idea: I don't want to be assaulted all the time via the always-on
electronic device I have in my pocket!

I still want to have access whenever I want it. Maybe I can't have it both
ways?

~~~
jerf
I am currently being hammered by robocalls, in relative terms at least.

I can't remember the last time I got an unsolicited text.

An anecdote to be sure, but I don't hear anyone complaining right now about
unsolicited texts, so it doesn't seem like Hustle is the problem.

"I still want to have access whenever I want it. Maybe I can't have it both
ways?"

You can, actually, and it isn't that hard. I have a strict "one strike and
you're out" policy with my apps; if I see a notification I don't want, I
either fix the notification preferences in the app right away, or if the app
doesn't permit what I need, nuke the app's ability to notify. My phone is
pretty quiet.

~~~
reaperducer
_I don 't hear anyone complaining right now about unsolicited texts_

Really? You must not be listening. Do a quick Google News search and you'll
find dozens of articles about it.

My T-Mobile hotspot has 133 unsolicited (and unread) text messages in it right
now because spammers think it's a cell phone.

During the last election I received 50 or 60 unsolicited political text
messages from both parties on my work phone.

Unsolicited text is a problem.

------
cfallin
One solution, not practical for most folks but works well for me: live in a
different area code than phone number. (My cell number is in the area code I
grew up in.)

It seems most spam calls either fake a source number that's in my phone's area
code, or use a completely random source. Almost any inbound call I actually
expect without an address-book entry would come from my (new) local area code,
so I can pick up a call if (in current area code) OR (in address book). So in
essence, my current area code is a 3-digit passcode.

Perhaps a nice trick if one is allocating a new VoIP number -- at the cost of
looking like a non-local when giving it out, you can effectively screen for
actual local calls...

~~~
bonobo_34
I get a lot of robocalls from spoofed numbers that have my area code and even
the first 3 digits of my phone number in common. I guess the thought is that
people are more likely to pick up if the number looks familiar? For me, it's
just an indication of a robo call that I won't pick up.

~~~
reaperducer
It's called "neighborhood" spamming. You're supposed to think it's a neighbor
calling.

~~~
Scoundreller
Or worse, someone from your own organization (because you own the number
block) and you’re on-call for a critical system...

------
aarongray
Lots of feel good ideas in the post, but no actual good ideas. Back when
Congress created the Do Not Call Registry, and then forced law abiding
companies to pay $10,000 for it, they pretty much just compiled an amazing
list of active phone numbers that non-law abiding companies could acquire for
a pretty good price and then sell them in batches to smaller companies that
couldn't afford the full thing.

Once virtual phone services were invented, companies didn't even have to worry
about dodging the Feds, they just moved all their operations overseas. Feel
good laws will not solve this problem, it's going to take actual technological
solutions.

~~~
darksaints
I have a really tough time comprehending why it is such a difficult problem to
solve. The FCC could have solved it by now, independently of congressional
legislation, considering the fact that they regulate the issuance of phone
numbers. Those overseas companies still have to get their US phone numbers
from an FCC regulated body.

What am I missing?

~~~
toast0
Two things:

1) Most of the spam calls are spoofing numbers, so it doesn't really matter
who issued the numbers.

2) Spam calls could come from overseas numbers instead, I've certainly gotten
a few. I'd rather they come from US numbers, so at least when people call
back, they're not paying an arm and a leg for the call if they don't realize
the number is non-US.

~~~
zenexer
#1 is a key point here, and understanding it is essential to solving this
problem once and for all. It's not just caller ID that they're spoofing. PSTN
works a bit like the internet: there are "good faith" peering agreements
between telephone companies, and they rely on each other to report truthfully
where a call is coming from.

However, there are many companies, especially overseas, that either
deliberately shirk these duties or simply lack the funds, technology, and
infrastructure to authenticate the sources of telephone calls. The result is
something akin to IP address spoofing.

Without imposing major infrastructure overhauls on foreign nations, there's
little the US government can do to eliminate these problems.

------
fossuser
What confuses me about this is that Apple could solve this in two seconds by
allowing contact whitelists where only incoming calls in your contacts are
accepted and everything else is sent to voicemail or dropped.

Is there a law against this or something?

Nomorobo, Robokiller, Hiya all do an okay job as blacklisting applications but
that seems like the wrong way to go about it.

Some suggest using do not disturb to do this, but that blocks all
notifications (including from texts) so it is not a viable solution.

~~~
epriest
Here's how to actually "solve" this problem on an iPhone:

\- Pay $1.99 to buy a silent ringtone from the ringtone store.

\- Make that your default ringtone.

\- Give everyone who you want to be able to call you an audible ringtone.

~~~
gruez
>\- Pay $1.99 to buy a silent ringtone from the ringtone store.

I would refuse to do that on principle.

~~~
WorldMaker
You can make your own Ringtones on the iPhone, you don't need to pay for them
on the Ringtone Store.

------
ngngngng
Shoutout to Google and their "Screen Call" feature in android. I screen every
call from an unrecognized number. If I see it's my Doctors office I pick up.
If not, mark as spam. I can do this in the middle of a meeting without
interrupting anything.

~~~
rtkwe
Oh yes it's beautiful. Though I wish I could view and listen to the audio
after the call. The screening makes a hash of the speech to text sometimes.

------
rootusrootus
As someone who used to work for a telco, please be aware that they could solve
this at any time. They choose not to. I wonder if they have a secret list,
though, of numbers that should never get robocalls. Aka congressmen.

------
gesman
Make it mandatory $10000/call fine + prison sentence and teach users how to
get a money trail.

Then the hunt will get efficiently crowdsourced.

After few well publicized cases the problem will greatly diminish.

~~~
davesque
This assumes the offenders are in the same country as you.

~~~
gesman
Hunters in that other country can also help for a cut.

------
edm0nd
[https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/](https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/)

------
wnevets
Google voice seems to do a great job filtering out the spam. I can't remember
the last time I got one with my voice number.

~~~
hateful
Agreed. Ever since I moved my number to Google Voice, I was able to create an
"Accept Calls" white list. It was even easier since my contacts were already
in Google.

------
yingw787
Been experiencing robocalls too. I use Hiya, but it's not a complete solution.
Now I just let every call I don't recognize go to voicemail unless they call
twice. It really sucks for the elderly, the sick, and the otherwise vulnerable
because they're more desperate to hear from a doctor or caretaker or somebody
without saved contact information / less technically savvy or on a landline /
otherwise more likely to fall to these scams.

I'm wondering, is VoIP easier to call block than general call service? If it
is, the inability or unwillingness by the telecoms to address this issue might
prove to be a systemic disadvantage (though I'm pretty sure they make most of
their margin nowadays from selling cellular data).

~~~
CedarMadness
I used to do what you do and let the call through if they call back. Sometime
in the past year I've gotten on some autodialer list that will hit me up 6
times within a 30 second period if I reject the first call, so now I pretty
much have to send anyone not in my address book straight to voicemail. It's
not convenient, but at least I don't have to conduct a lot of business over
the phone anymore.

------
Chazprime
What Apple & Google really should do is build the functionality of Hiya or
Youmail into their mobile OSes.

~~~
Symmetry
My Pixel phone already does that fairly well. I think it might be a recent
Android feature?

~~~
SubiculumCode
It is a feature google only offers to their own phones...ever since leaving my
Nexus, my spam calls have been a plague

------
davesque
I recently turned on "do not disturb" mode on my pixel phone once I started
getting about 400% more robocalls than real calls per day. It's actually nice
because now my phone only rings for people in my contacts list. So I'm in
whitelist mode.

However, it's insane that I have to do this. At this point, having a phone
with actual phone service seems basically pointless. It's one of those things
that I pay for because I'm so used to paying for it.

------
Animats
We need attribution on caller ID info as a first step. Caller ID should read

"212-555-1212 per T-Mobile, CenturyLink, Adino". Like mail headers. T-Mobile
says the call came in from CenturyLink. CenturyLink says it came in from
Adino. The telco knows most of this now, they just don't pass it forward.
Someone upstream may be lying, but you can usually tell. If the number is US
local but the path goes through Mumbai, something is wrong.

~~~
JdeBP
Actually, the telephone companies are often in the same boat as you, not
knowing anything more than the immediate inbound carrier. Not all signalling
protocols could even relay the information that you are talking about.

------
fmajid
I loathe Ajit Pai as much as anyone but the FCC and Telcos have been fairly
swift (by the glacial standards of telecom standards) in coming up with a fix
for forged CallerID known as SHAKEN/STIR.

It's still about a year from being deployed, and it's unclear how legacy
landlines will be covered, given Nortel's been bankrupt for a decade and
Lucent (know Nokia) has been out of the switch business for at least as long
(an aunt of mine used to work on the 5ESS software until she was laid off
about 15 years ago. She's now a realtor and makes far better money, so I guess
nothing lost).

They're doing this out of not-so-enlightened self-interest. Voice is still a
huge part of telco revenue and they can see people abandoning voice outright
if the last year's trend of 75+% of all calls being spam continues.
Millennials have already adopted social standards of phone calls being
considered intrusive and rude.

------
Shivetya
Just an observation, unless Congress includes political calls in this
legislation then I am not truly impressed. They are no more welcome to call me
than the knee brace lady is.

Just because I voted in an election; and why do they know which party/who I
vote for; does not give them the right to call me. I don't care if they are in
office or not.

~~~
calebegg
Yeah, I noticed that the bill was called "Stopping Bad Robocalls", implying
that there are "good" robocalls too, and I knew immediately that it wouldn't
help with the political ones.

------
linsomniac
It feels like phone companies have basically destroyed their business model by
turning a blind eye to robocalls and telemarketers. The other day I was
filling out a form and it had like 3 different phone number fields, and I was
thinking "we're shockingly close to those getting filled with N/A" as I was
putting the same number in them. And I'm not even particularly young.

------
ForHackernews
This service is quite fun:
[https://jollyrogertelephone.com/](https://jollyrogertelephone.com/)

------
justinmchase
One time I got phone-DDoS'd by a robocaller who was using my number to call
everyone else in my area code. Then for several hours, people were calling me
back nonstop and saying "Calling you back...".

Incredibly annoying. When I complained to my phone provider they basically
said there is no way to stop it since the callback numbers are spoofed and
they apparently have no logs at all. Its _unreal_.

~~~
craftyguy
This actually happened a few months ago with my work phone number, which I had
forwarded to my cell. Within tens of minutes, my cell voicemail box was
completely full. Luckily I just had to stop forwarding calls to my cell and
disconnect my work phone (which I never really used anymore).

Before I figured out it was my work number that had been 'stolen', I was
talking to my cell carrier (tmobile) who basically said the only 'solution'
was to get a different phone number. This would be an excellent way to DoS a
competitor, for example..

------
qkachoo
Is it even possible to stop robocalls when they are spoofing the numbers? I
have had instances where the robocall comes from my own phone number.

------
imgabe
Is this generating a lot of revenue for the service providers? I think it must
be or they wouldn't allow it to go on. Surely if one provider marketed
themselves as blocking robocalls, they would get a large influx of business.

IIRC one of the main selling points of gmail when it started was that it had a
much better spam filter than other services at the time.

~~~
rtkwe
Phone companies are required to connect all phone calls in the US. So they
can't really do anything about it. Spam callers can go to any disreputable
carrier and all other carriers have to connect their calls.

There was actually a really weird phone scam going back a while that was just
making calls that tried to keep people on the line as long as possible to make
money off of the interconnect fees companies can charge each other.

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/251](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/251)

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/104-case-phantom-
calle...](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/104-case-phantom-caller)

------
sys_64738
I use Callcentric VoIP and whitelist known numbers. For all others, they are
told to press a random digit before it connects.

------
daphneokeefe
Here is my simple strategy. It doesn't work perfectly, but it increases the
probability that I will answer an important call and let an unimportant call
go to voice mail.

I change the ringtone for everyone on my contact list to be different from the
default ringtone. I do it when I create the contact. That's it. Two ringtones:
they're a contact or they aren't.

When I hear my phone ringing in the other room, in my pocket with friends, on
the bus, I know whether I may be interested in either taking the call
immediately or listening to the voice mail fairly soon.

For one added level of differentiation, I use a very few other special
ringtones: \-- one that sounds like knocking on the door when I receive a call
or text from Amazon or UPS and other delivery services \-- a strident one when
my doorbell rings (in my apartment complex, the exterior doorbell calls a
phone) \-- immediate family has a different one

------
johnmarcus
I just realized since moving to Vietnam and getting a Vietnam number, no more
robocalls. Zero. Nilch. Maybe everyone in the U.S. should buy a sim card from
a poor international country for a few months time. If enough people did this,
I bet the feds would magically find a solution that starts to work.

------
uberman
What I don't quite understand is, how can the NSA and/or other three letter
agencies reliably collect meta data on calls and how can the telcos reliably
charge for calls and services, yet we are unable to stop robocalling...

~~~
rtkwe
Legally carriers are required to connect all calls in the US. That provision
is pretty important but leaves the system open to abuse. I hope we can find a
way to block out robocalls without allowing the phone system to balkanize.

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/251](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/251)

~~~
gist
Federal law also says you can't sell marijuana. However the government has
pretty much decided to not prosecute that for some time. In general it's hard
to believe that any law such as that would not defacto allow an exception for
what can be shown as an abusive behavior. Under the theory that the law says
'you are required to connect all calls' you could say that carriers could not
legally block someone who keeps calling a phone number in an abusive manner
(with or w/o the permission or at the request of the customer).

~~~
rtkwe
The big companies aren't going to move until they get some guidance on where
the line between blocking some numbers and systematically blocking numbers
deemed to be 'abusive' based on the companies own criteria. Of course today
you can request specific number be blocked from calling you of course but no
one is currently trying that because the dangers of crossing the blurry line
can be severe.

Your comparison isn't much more useful than 'prosecutorial discretion exists
therefore do any crime you want.' Multibillion dollar companies aren't going
to just go out and blaze a trail like that. We even see this in the (spurious)
comparison to marijuana, the first companies to step out and test the state vs
federal divide were small and local and only after those companies figured out
some of the issues did we get large and larger companies coming in. (Though
they're still all independent arms because of the difficulties accessing
banking because of the federal laws still in place!)

------
Rooster61
I'm about as confident something will come of this bill as I am that my house
will one day get up and fly away into the sunset.

Any bill passed is going to be under the purview of the FCC to enforce if
signed into law. Yes, the same FCC that allows telecoms to continually run
roughshod over consumers contrary to anti-trust laws that have been on the
books for ages. Unless this becomes a problem for the companies that provide
phone service, which it apparently isn't due to the fact that it is still
rampant, nothing will be done other than public finger wagging.

------
sebringj
This has made me so frustrated with my phone. I see it as only an
entertainment device at this point and only use the phone with a small select
group of people, rejecting all other calls as its gone insane.

------
blaze33
Got some felling these robocalls mostly are a USA thing. From France where I
happen to currently live, unsolicited cold-calls unrelated to my whereabouts
are really rare. I've no idea if there's some law leading to such differences.

I've only once in my life been harassed by some polling company that really
wanted me to answer lots of questions. Eventually felt strong enough to go
through the process, last question was "would you be open to participate in
future polls we may have?" → HELL NO! and never heard from them again :)

------
sfopdxnonstop
Tech solution is Whitelist + Pay To Connect.

Anyone on my list rings through. Everyone else can pay to connect, whatever
amount I set, and if I like your call I'll whitelist you and refund the money.

Email, same.

------
stelfer
Haha. 10 years ago the carriers were flogging the voip ISPs over putative
origination fraud and _robocalls_. Lots of us in the industry proposed
solutions(mine)[1]. We also built some interesting and very effective ML
systems to detect the originators in real time.

Here we are 10 years later no further down the road. Sad.

[1]
[https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080240082A1/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080240082A1/en)

------
lordnacho
No, the solution is technological and close at hand:

An obnoxious voice synthesizer that takes the agent on a long and fruitless
journey.

The people who do robocalls are only using the robot to get you into a
conversation. At that stage -at least when I've been called- a human takes
over and tries to talk you into whatever it is they're selling.

If you eat up the person's time with GPT-2 generated BS that's voice
synthesized, the operator wastes his time.

------
arthurofbabylon
My non-scalable solution:

I occasionally answer the robocalls, get through to a human, establish common
ground, and then let the caller know how they are helping to commit fraud.

My goal is to in some way provide a feedback system. I don’t think that this
is the responsibility of the consumer, but like most of us, I’m desperately
interested in solving this problem.

~~~
nullc
Thank you for your service.

Actually what you're doing isn't really non-scalable-- the spam calls are just
not viable if even a small percentage of non-victims waste their time.

(Though I've noticed now that they're automating more of the calls, it takes
some effort to get through to a human... and the automation is starting to
sound surprisingly realistic)

------
kndjckt
Hiya handles this for me so it's not a problem
[https://hiya.com/](https://hiya.com/). It will block spam calls and whitelist
contacts. It's kind of annoying that the caller can still leave a voicemail
but at least you don't get bothered by your phone ringing.

------
musicale
Maybe it's just as well that the phone system is being destroyed by robocalls
- it's a great excuse to ignore all incoming calls, or not to have a voice
number at all.

If the FCC and phone companies continue to do nothing, the problem may
eventually correct itself as the phone system becomes unusable by humans.

------
twodayslate
Robokiller is an amazing app that has dropped by robocalls to almost zero.
It's paid but well worth it imo

------
aljarry
I'm a long time user of "Should I Answer" Android app which is a godsend. It
works by allowing people to categorize numbers that called them, so next time
number X tries to cold call you or scam you, you get overlay with sign that's
probably a nefarious or at least spammy number.

------
angel_j
We should destroy phone numbers instead, not only for spam, but for privacy
and security. You might as well wear an RFID on your collar.

Replace phone numbers with DNS and spam blocking. Change it when you want
instead of asking your provider. Tell people to contact you through your
website.

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
Sounds good. Would you mind getting in touch with my mom to explain that
system to her? THANKS!

------
redwards510
This being HN, everyone has a technological solution or workaround to the
calls themselves. Why can't we simply go after the companies that are being
advertised _during_ the robocall? They all have a link or number back to the
actual company being advertised.

~~~
inetknght
What makes you think the link or number is legitimate?

Or, better said: what makes you think the link or number is enforceable in the
U.S.?

------
HocusLocus
If I cannot hide from the police, robocallers should not be able to hide from
me.

------
gesman
\- I want all non-contact-list calls to auto-go to voicemail.

Apple? Why is it so hard to implement?

------
orblivion
I've always been impressed with how professional they sound. I want to know
where is this seedy marketplace of robocall scam companies and desperate voice
actors.

------
tones411
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19031711](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19031711)

------
apexalpha
What are robocalls? Do they just call random numbers and have a computer voice
read an ad? Is it like unsolicited faxing from back in the day?

------
artur_makly
"It has been brought to our attention that your Google Plus Profile..... " is
this for real???

------
drivingmenuts
I’d rather destroy the people who utilize them.

Ultimately, the problem isn’t tech, it’s people who misuse it.

------
walrus01
Good luck ever fixing SS7. Just abandon it, seriously... If you can. Your life
will be easier.

------
jlkid225
Why are so many NYtimes posted on this site?

~~~
tomhoward
Likely because it's among the most prominent news outlets in the world, and it
covers many of the topics that are of interest to HN readers.

------
rrggrr
Regardless of one may feel about Trump is there a reason @gailcollins must
invoke his name in the title of a totally unrelated OpEd? For some people
identity politics is a fever.

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
Before 2016, the behavior commonly seen would have been unthinkable. People
that hated Obama, didn't start articles about robocolls with the same
derangement.... Now... I'm not even slightly surprised.

TDS seems to be real.

~~~
craftyguy
TDS?

~~~
smush
The GP means "Trump Derangement Syndrome"

------
monochromatic
> Finally, something worse than Donald Trump.

This is an article that has literally nothing to do with Donald Trump, but
they just couldn't resist making it about him.

------
gist
What an absolutely moronic way to make a point by taking a dig right off the
top at the President by saying "Finally, something worse than Donald Trump".

~~~
mberning
Imagine having something in your head 24/7, constantly gnawing at you and
permeating everything you do.

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ropeladder
The legislation mentioned in the article probably would help, but the real
untold sorry here is that the blame for the recent increase in robocalls lies
with Paj's FCC (and thus Trump). Previous FCC rulings kept robocalls from
getting out of hand, but the ruling was overturned on a small technicality.
The FCC could easily replace it with a similar ruling but they haven't done
anything. (My source here is the recent Reply All episode on robocalls)

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
FCC under Paj "and thus Trump" as you put it (which is a ridiculous notion
imo, but it's yours to have)

[https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/11/new-r...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/11/new-robocall-blocking-tools-on-the-way-but-carriers-can-
charge-you-extra/)

