
Ask HN: How do you reduce unsolicited phone calls? - jrs235
Besides registering to be on Do Not Call lists, how do you reduce or eliminate robocalls and scams? If the telecommunications industry isn&#x27;t going to fix this, surely someone has made a reputable and trust worthy app to address this, no? I hate that we have to default to not answering the phone from unrecognized numbers and wait for a voice mail if it&#x27;s legit.
======
dahart
I'm fairly convinced that the only way this gets fixed is if enough people
complain loudly to the phone companies & cancel accounts. Verizon / AT&T /
T-mobile / etc. absolutely have the power to fix this, and they're choosing
instead to largely ignore it, and productize the solutions for anyone who
cares enough - let the spammers pay to create the problem, and let the
consumers pay for the remedy. Telcos win on both ends.

I registered on the US national do not call list a decade ago. I'm not sure
how much it helped over the years, but in the last few years, the phone calls
illegally ignoring that list are increasing like crazy. All the telemarketer
strategies are changing too, to get around whatever blocking method you have.
They're spoofing random local numbers now, so you can't use your phone's
number blocking feature. They're hanging up and calling back later to avoid
time wasting. They're offering fake do not call lists to confirm a human is
listening. I think it's hopeless, my only strategy now is just decline any
call not in my address book. If it's someone who needs me, they'll leave a
voicemail.

~~~
alex_duf
>If it's someone who needs me, they'll leave a voicemail

Then the next step is for spammers to leave voicemails

~~~
dahart
Ugh, you're right. The political robo-calls have already started doing that to
me, I keep getting calls from the Orrin Hatch campaign. If it starts happening
with all of them, I'm going to resort to whitelist only. Auto-block all
unknown numbers.

~~~
greggarious
I made the mistake of donating during the presidential election and now I get
loads. It's especially problematic since each Senator/Rep has a separate opt
out list - every time I tell one to stop a week later a different campaign is
hitting me up.

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
_I hate that we have to default to not answering the phone from unrecognized
numbers and wait for a voice mail if it 's legit._

That's what I do, expect if they leave a voice mail I almost know 100% it's a
recruiter or a scammer because my family and friends don't live in the 1990s.
Everyone else I want to be contacted by is either in my contacts or has
organized a specific time to call me via email or some other means first.

------
spartas
Answer the phone when they call and conference in the Jolly Roger telephone
bot [http://www.jollyrogertelco.com](http://www.jollyrogertelco.com)

The bot will waste the telemarketers time, which is the most expensive thing
that these companies are paying for. Do this enough times and the calls drop
off rapidly.

~~~
dahart
There's no way I'd pay money for that. I've tried wasting telemarketer calls
for years under the theory that it costs them. It's not working anymore, their
strategy has changed. They are being trained to detect and hangup, and call
back again and again later.

Even the ones that have options to hit '2' and add yourself to the do not call
list are not only not adding you to any do not call list, they are confirming
there's a human listening and increasing the call frequency. I just had that
call 5 minutes ago, after attempting to opt-in to their do not call list twice
this week.

~~~
OnMyPhone
I've noticed this too.

I used to waste their time when I could, but now I just have to let it go to
voicemail.

The best call I had was when they called at 9:30pm... saying I won a trip, and
I just needed to give them my cc so they can verify I was 18+.

I talked to them like I was interested, and when they asked for my cc I told
them i had to go find it quick.

I put the phone down and watched an episode of South Park and forgot they were
on the line yet.

I get back and pick up the phone and tell them I just found the card. I start
reading the information off of it, but using the wrong name, and numbers, etc.

He was so excited about it that he kept telling me about all the fun I was
going to have. Then he got a sad tone and said the card was rejected. I acted
surprised and asked him to read back to me what he had since I had no idea
what I gave him.

It got rejected another time, so he suggests we call the number on the back to
do a three way call with my cc company to figure out what is going on.

I give him an 800 number that my cousin and I found by accident when we were
like 12. I read him a phone sex number. He started to dial it and all of a
sudden I heard a recording of some lady moaning. He immediately hung up and
never called again.

------
suninwinter
If you’re on T-Mobile, dial (not text) #662#. It will turn on scam block [1]
which stops all calls that T-Mobile identifies as scams from making it to your
phone or voicemail.

[1]
[https://explore.t-mobile.com/callprotection](https://explore.t-mobile.com/callprotection)

------
timr
I find that 99% of spam calls (at least for now) can be eliminated by simply
not answering any numbers that match the first six digits of my own telephone
number.

I don't know why telemarketers decided this would be a good strategy to
increase conversions, but it certainly makes things easier for me.

~~~
beamatronic
For the same reason spam contains misspelled words and grammatical errors. If
this turns you away, you aren’t the target audience.

~~~
timr
I suspect that argument will win the day for about 15 microseconds, before
everyone adapts and they're on to the next idiotic tactic.

------
baochan
I basically protect my phone number like I would my social security number. I
was getting 5+ spam calls a day. Ended up changing provider and phone number
to get away from them. I haven't added my new number to the Do Not Call list
(none of these calls were legitimate businesses; just scammers with spoofed
caller IDs) and have resisted giving my new number to anyone. Pretty much just
my bank and a few friends have my real number, everywhere else (where they
need a phone number associated to an account or for a retail store bonus card)
I just use my old number. I think of the Do Not Call list as a public list of
phone numbers guaranteed to be valid - not worth the risk. I think maybe
adding it to my resume on job sites got the number out there as well.

~~~
bluGill
Does this actually do anything? A computer that can dial all phone numbers in
the US is not hard anymore. (the computer will probably get all numbers in
North America, but what do scammers care?)

~~~
baochan
In the last year I've only gotten 2 spam phone calls. So either Google Fi is
doing a better job at blocking them than Verizon was, or the scammers that
targeted me stick to known numbers. Either way I'm not taking my chances. It
was seriously frustrating being on their victim list.

------
greggarious
Airplane mode when not expecting a call.

Many of these services will only call "hot" numbers - numbers that pick
up/give some interaction. Hitting "decline call" actually gives them an
indication the line is hot, since the call went to VM earlier than if it had
timed out, and will lead to more calls.

So I let the calls ring until the other side ends the call.

Having the spam call ringing is annoying though, so I've taken to leaving my
phone in airplane mode if I'm not expecting a call.

(Most people communicate via email or Signal with me anyways)

In my experience if you leave your phone in airplane mode when not expecting
calls for a week or so, it'll drastically cut down on the robocalls.

~~~
cimmanom
On iOS, at least, you can silence a call without sending it to vmail by
hitting the power button once. I assume there's something analogous on
android.

~~~
greggarious
Thanks for the tip!

------
sgdread
Here's what you do to significantly reduce telemarketers calls:

1) Go to [https://www.donotcall.gov/](https://www.donotcall.gov/) and register
in the National Do Not Call Registry

2) Wait 31 day (it takes some time to propagate this information to callers)

3) Start reporting unwanted calls via link above

I have not received a single telemarketer call over a year since I started
doing that.

FTC is also very good at dealing with collection agency calls if you are not
the person they are trying to reach. I received personal apologies from ERC
after filing complaint through FTC website.

~~~
cimmanom
There are some telemarketers who use the DNC registry as a source of lists of
numbers to call. In particular, overseas call centers that are not subject to
regulation. You're more likely to get scam calls this way.

------
CameronBanga
On my iPhone, I've been using Hiya to help, and it's been pretty good so far.

~~~
bsharitt
I have this, but recently "local" spam callers have been getting through a lot
more. I don't know if they're spoofing or buying up blocks of numbers but most
of them have "valid" caller ids in Hiya.

~~~
jchw
They're spoofing. You might even find SPAM calls for your own number if you
look. I got a text from a confused person with the same first 6 digits (area
code + part of the number) asking why I called, and had to explain that I
didn't.

~~~
MrMember
Yep, I occasionally get the same sort of texts.

------
tonyquart
I have just read an article that talks about the law of spam calls at
[https://www.lemberglaw.com/tcpa-compliance-telephone-
consume...](https://www.lemberglaw.com/tcpa-compliance-telephone-consumers-
protection-act/). I think it might be a good information for everyone who
received those calls recently.

------
donmcc
AT&T offers an app called Call Protect that flags and silences a lot of spam
calls. Not perfect, but I’ve been using it for about six months and am very
happy with it.

[https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM11477...](https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1147710)

------
prograhammer
1\. Get your phone number in another city that you don't live in. Make sure
the area code is the most common for that city. Now all the calls you get on
your phone from that area code are spammers so ignore them.

2\. Callers you don't recognize can leave a message if they want to talk to
you.

3\. If you do end up in a call with a spammer, then work your way into the
conversation to get a real business name out of them. While you are on the
phone, you can press them to help you find their business on the web. You may
even find a BBB rating on them and inform the caller that the BBB rating is
pretty bad. Or you can ask them for a callback number (which they probably
won't give) and you will call them back to continue the call. All of these
questions should prevent them from calling you again and if you are lucky you
have a business name you can further report on the web as a spamming company.

------
dredmorbius
I've ditched my mobile service in part on account of this.[1]

There are landline phones with blocklists of up to 1,000 numbers. None seem to
offer the more useful option of whitelisting. (Or whitelist / blacklist /
greylist.)

I've been looking into small-office / SOHO PBX or VOIP options which might
afford solutions. Asterix and/or Twilio that I'm aware.

Another option is to ditch both POTS and traditional mobile services for ...
well, just what tech-based messaging? I'd prefer no vendor lock-in, but the
options seem decidedly minimal.

I think we're in the final decade of traditional / offshoot voice comms.
Ironically, it's falling costs which are largely to blame. Make this _too_
cheap, and every asset on the planet can beat a path to yor door. Or phone /
voicemail / messaging system.

________________________________

Notes:

1\. The other reasons: tracking, surveillance, privacy, cost, and always-on
stress.

------
jeffmould
Outside friends, family and a few important contacts (i.e. kids schools,
doctors, etc...), I don't give my actual phone number out. I use Google Voice
with message/call forwarding turned off. If I need to give my number out to a
company or something I use that number. Really the only other companies that
legitimately should have my number are my bank(s) and credit card company.
They can call, leave a message, and I will call them back. Everything else
gets pretty much deleted. If I notice the number of spam calls increasing
(rarely) I just change the Google Voice number (probably have only done this
2-3 times) and update those who had it accordingly.

I used to carry a secondary phone that I would use for non-life-critical
contacts, but have since stopped carrying that phone, although I still keep
basic service active on it.

------
ktosobcy
I read the whole thread and... it seems that people are looking at the
solutions at the wrong angle: we have lot's of unwanted marketing/spam calls
so we need to find a way to block them. Then they spammers get smart and
generate more and more spam - vicious circle. Wouldn't it be better to motion
solving the problem at the other end - ban all non-personal calls that are
made without your explicit consent? Something similar is done in Europe/Poland
and I virtually don't receive any unsolicited calls. Of course this would
cause all the "poor" telemarketing companies to cry outloud how they are
"persecuted and not free to work normally, bla, bla, bla" and probably there
would be a huge lobbying involved not to make it happen…

~~~
cimmanom
This can be difficult to manage, though.

Yesterday my doctor called because they had to reschedule an appointment.
Would I have to have remembered to whitelist them? What if they have multiple
outgoing numbers?

What about all the other businesses I interact with? The computer repair place
saying my laptop is ready to pick up? The cable technician calling to let me
know that he'll be 30 min late? The hotel I made reservations with calling to
confirm?

~~~
ktosobcy
Well, those are related with the business with have them (even informal 'word
of mouth') - they provide you service and to comply with it they call you.

It's completely different for unsolicited calls - you don't have any business
with them and they don't provide you any service.

Having severe fines for the latter should work just fine: they call you, you
report them, they receive a fine that put them out of business.

It seems to work just fine in Europe so should be doable in US as well.

Imagine the "Do Not Call list" but with an angle that everyone are on that
list (so no company can call you). You make an appointment with dentist - they
ask you for your number and they call you to reschedule, you also provide the
phone to the company/technician to install your cable.

It _feels_ cleaner

------
highace
For Android:

There are apps like Extreme Call Blocker
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greythinke...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greythinker.punchback&hl=en_GB))
which you can set up to send everything not in your contact list straight to
voicemail.

Also you could use something like Should I Answer
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mistergrou...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mistergroup.muzutozvednout&hl=en_GB))
which will show you if a caller is spammy based on a huge database of crowd-
sourced ratings.

------
mkbkn
Most of the calls I receive are from human callers. So when they call and it's
not for me or I'm not interested in their services, I'll just keep the phone
aside and let the person talk for a while. Within a few seconds, he realises
there is no sound from the other side. He does "hello, hello" multiple times
and hungs up. Calls again. Again, "hello hello; Are you able to hear me?".
This is very frustrating for the caller and he never calls me back or most of
the time, they delete my number from the databse.

------
tarboreus
The solution to this is simple, but would need to be implemented by your
provider.

Just add a screen, like a voicemail, that requires an action be taken to get
through to speak to you. Your friend with a new phone number calls, they get a
message saying, "Stay on the line one second. If you want to speak to me, hit
445." If they take the action, they proceed to connect the call as normal.
Otherwise, you don't even know there was a call.

Google Voice already has something like this. But it's too annoying to switch
over everything to that, plus I don't trust Google to keep features around and
can't use them for something that essential.

------
spodek
I've accepted that they are a part of living in a system that doesn't value my
privacy as much as corporate profit when the interests conflict.

I've registered with Do Not Call and I don't answer calls beginning with my 6
digits. The next steps would take too much effort.

I don't like accepting something I find repellent, but I have other priorities
and I'd rather happily work on them than angrily be distracted.

Meanwhile, I'm working on cutting my incoming junk paper mail. I downloaded
PaperKarma, but it doesn't work (it takes pictures but fails to upload them).
I emailed them two bug reports but no response. Does anyone know what I can do
instead?

------
tatersolid
The root cause of the problem is the telcos being completely unwilling to
replace ancient insecure protocols like SS7 and associated equipment.

Spoofing caller ID simply should not be possible, considering the very small
number of telcos that completely control network authentication, access,
billing and routing.

Just send everything not in your contacts to voicemail. The PSTN will be dead
in less than a decade anyway. Like email, its time of utility has passed,
ruined by spammers and marketers.

------
dazc
Leave phone in silent mode by default. If someone wants to speak to me then we
have to agree a day and a time for that call.

This is, admittedly, extreme but I already have an aversion to using the phone
and can manage just fine (99% of the time) with email.

For me, an unwanted call isn't just inconvenient for the duration of the call
but for quite a long period afterwards because my train of thought has been
interrupted and I can't just pick up where I left off.

------
billsimms
If your phone provider/plan supports it then
[http://nomorobo.com/](http://nomorobo.com/) is wonderful. But, as with
everything else, the industrious telemarketers have begun programming their
system to try to evade this. I would prefer if it would show the caller id of
the call it was blocking, but it doesn't do that.

------
janitor61
Allow individuals to have the equivalent of 900 numbers: paid telephone
numbers that require something like $0.50 to connect, and the ability for
individuals to refund these microtransactions immediately with ease. As long
as you refund all non-solicitors, the problem would be solved and might be
lucrative for the carriers if they take a cut of non-refunded payments.

------
saosebastiao
So I've stumbled onto this by accident, but this works for me:

Most spam calls that I get are using local number spoofing. I have an area
code from where I grew up, but live in a completely different state now. I can
recognize the spam numbers immediately: if it's from the area code where I
grew up, and it's not in my contacts, it's spam. Everything else I let
through.

------
Uberphallus
I have Sync.Net installed on my phone. It has an option for automatically
declining calls from numbers that have been flagged by other users.

Disclaimer: it's very sketchy because it takes your contact list and uses it
for other users in the reverse lookup feature. Which is a neat feature, you
get FB picture and name of the caller on each call, but still a privacy
concern.

------
maxerickson
I answer and ask to be put on their do not call list (or if it's a scam bot, I
press the remove button).

People say this just confirms you are a real person, but I'm pretty sure they
haven't tried it successfully for months the way I have. I still get calls of
course, but it's a couple a week and not from the same parties over and over
and over.

~~~
alex_duf
>I press the remove button

what is that?

~~~
maxerickson
"Press 9 to be removed" or whatever the recording says.

------
alyandon
I gave up. There is no defense against local exchange number spoofing so I
switched my phone to send all callers not on my contact list to voice mail.

Anyone of importance that I talk to is already on my contact list which will
ring through and anyone else that is really trying to get a hold of me for a
legitimate reason will leave a voice mail.

------
Fire-Dragon-DoL
I'll throw in a problem: I get periodically a robocall from a chinese speaking
robot. I don't speak Chinese so I have no idea what it says or where it comes
from. I cannot report it in any way because I don't understand anything and
the phone number is spoofed. Suggestions?

------
the_arun
In US, you could register your phone in Do Not call list from Federal Trade
Commission - [https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0133-cell-phones-
and-d...](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0133-cell-phones-and-do-not-
call-registry)

~~~
RightMillennial
That doesn't help. I'm on it, and I regularly get spam calls that are all
conveniently from my area code and a similar exchange code.

~~~
thanatos_dem
Yup, this approach of using mostly similar numbers to the victim’s phone
number is the new hotness in robo-calls. NPR had a piece on it last year -
[https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...](https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=544447826)

Relevant quote from FCC Chairman Pai: “Which is the ultimate solution, I
think, to this problem, which is to find a call authentication standard.”

And there’s no timeline when that’ll happen. So buckle in, we’ll be here a
while.

------
heywire
I'm on AT&T mobile, and they have an app called AT&T Call Protect.

------
kylemclaren
Surprised no one has mentioned Lenny:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/](https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/)

Edit: Ok, a couple have :)

------
catchmeifyoucan
I have a Google voice number.

I decide as I were giving a junk email or my real email out. Google voice is
great because it looks real, it can do SMS codes and I can stop using it when
I want to.

------
sjg007
On Mobiles you can get a block list. Otherwise it’s worth transferring your
number to something like google voice and have it ring your main line or
lines.

------
kwaldman
Move your phone to ooma.com. service is fast and easy.

My phone bill dropped compared to comcast and I have eliminated spam calls.

~~~
Bud
Please explain: why would Ooma service, in and of itself, reduce spam calls?

~~~
beamatronic
I had a Comcast phone service a few years ago. Hours after it was activated I
was getting telemarketers asking for me by name.

------
cdg7777
This ATT app is getting better, you still need to block some numbers, but it
auto blocks others.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-t-call-
protect/id11816325...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-t-call-
protect/id1181632589)

