How robo-call moguls outwitted the government and completely wrecked the Do Not Call list (truc)

Tampa Bay Times ^ | 01/15/18 | Simon van Zuylen-Wood

[shortstop]

On the morning of Oct. 1, 2015, a middle-aged telemarketer arrived at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Federal Trade Commission. His name was Aaron Michael Jones, or possibly Michael Aaron Jones, and in any case, he went by Mike. According to court documents, Mike was a father and widower. He lived well, paying $25,000 a month for a Spanish Colonial Revivalin a gated community near Laguna Beach, Calif. He also employed a personal chef, drove a couple of Mercedes, and maintained a gambling account at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Jones sustained his lifestyle by spamming people with robo-calls. He worked with a revolving cast of co-workers under the auspices of about a dozen corporations. At the core of his enterprise was a computer program capable of blasting out irritating, prerecorded phone messages to just about anyone in the country. Jones allegedly paid for exclusive access to the program, which he then rented out to other robo-callers.

[Spktyr]

Those aren’t actual Google robocalls. Those are scammers trying to take your money and get access to your computer, just like the Microsoft scammers. Neither company will robocall you.

[Nateman]

I have an idea that might stop phone spammers. Imagine if your phone only rang if it came from a special private number and which needed a specific text code as well. (Which you could change as necessary). Calls to your public number would first ring a machine which asked a question which needs a human to answer it. For example: “In order to prove you are not a robo-caller please enter the current year now”. Any call which could not answer the programmed questions would be recorded and generate a text version that would be sent to your e-mail address. If you dumped the email the recorded message would be dumped as well.Clicking on a link in a email you might want would play the call for Any call that passed the programmed questions would make your private number ring.

[CdMGuy]

Why are so many posters putting up with this nonsense when there is a solution?

nomorobo.com is a free service for land line phones and has a monthly fee for cell phones. This service is able to block 99 out of 100 junk phone calls. Your phone will ring one time if it is a junk call and then disconnect. So, if your phone rings a second time, except in rare occasions will it be a junk call. Simply wait for the second ring.

We have been using this service for years.

[hadaclueonce]

There is money to be made looking for live cell phone numbers.

http://www.cell-phone-list.net/index-2.html

They just want you to pick up to prove your not a tablet assignment number

[hadaclueonce]

http://www.cell-phone-list.net/index-2.html
Have lobbyist who are paying off our so called Representative ‘ s .
Let that sink in

[Keyhopper]

I haven’t tired that approach yet, so thank you.
When newspaper, magazines, or any readable materials call.
Ask them if it comes in Braille, you had an industrial accident and your now blind.

[Keyhopper]

I’m actually looking forward to my next robocall.
I can’t wait

[Keyhopper]

Put the old 3 tone disconnected signal before your message.
This will remove you from their call list, and when they sell the list, your number isn’t on the disc they use

[sparklite2]

This is what you want.  I have had
mine for two months on my VOIP
and have not received a robocall
or call from anyone I did want.
My home is quiet and tranquil.

The unit does not use blacklists,
but it can if you wish.  There is no
memory store that gradually fills up
with numbers to be ignored.  It
is impervious to spoofing. It can
use whitelist, but doesn't have to.

Unless you have blaciklisted a number,
tlhe caller hears a message from you
to press the number zero, which will
put them through.  Most robocallers
are computers that respond to your
voice, but have no idea what you
are saying and will, as a result, not
press zero.

You phone does not even ring,
but disconnects from the robocaller.
It's been perfect so far.

[Paladin2]

Kool, a relatively simple software strategery, but a hardware investment/escalation...

[Cecily]

“I don’t answer call from numbers I don’t know.”

If I’m at the computer and I get a call from a number I don’t recognize, I Google the number right away. There are all kinds of sites where people describe telephone numbers, who is calling and what is being said. No need to answer calls from unknown numbers.

[Tenacious 1]

I’m actually looking forward to my next robocall.

Don't get flustered if a real person responds to your lusty inquiries. She called you and she can hang up any time. ;o)

I have had a debate with a telemarketer about whether or not I owned a telephone. When my daughter was about 3, we would answer the phone and, upon learning it was a telemarketer, hand the phone to her and watch. My daughter would talk on the phone for hours whether there was anyone on the phone or not. THIS was hilarious as some times the caller would repeatedly ask her to give the phone to her parents. She was having nothing of it and would go on and on about Sesame Street, the dog, Elmo, her sand box, ..... We actually have home video of this. In those days, we too looked forward to telemarketer calls.

If you do have time to play with these folks, upon seeing it's a telemarketer, grab something to eat and only talk with your mouth full. Be chewing loudly while they talk. Slurping soup in the phone always causes them to pause.

[sparklite2]

see 49

[hadaclueonce]

What is sad is we have to buy a product to ensure our privacy.

I am pretty sure we need to kill them all.

[Spktyr]

There are new generation robodialers that can defeat that. Voice recognition has come a long way.

[sparklite2]

How would voice recognition beat it? Do you really think they’d write software to understand and then ‘press’ the right button? I sorta doubt it.

[Spktyr]

That software type already exists. All it has to do is parse that greeting and generate a tone.

Modern cell phones already have this capability. You can buy systems from Amazon and Google that listen to free form speech and parse it into questions or orders for products.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

When I get a robo-call, I pick of the phone, hit talk, and lay it down for a few minutes. Works fine! They get no satisfaction and I do not get aggrevated. They do not call again whereas, if you simply do not answer it, they will call back and call back. At any rate, they cannot get through to you. If everybody did this, the game would come to an end.

[sparklite2]

They don’t call back? Rachel the credit card girl called me daily no matter what I did. Robocalling seems to generate numbers, which snares unlisted phones, so there would be no data base to take your number out. All I know is, Sentry is the answer to defeat robocalling.

[Spktyr]

If software can do this, software can easily parse your message and generate a tone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufBLI6bB9sg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXS7rC1PWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I20frbeawg

And software can do that. ALL of the videos above show real world current commercial product capabilities. You can buy them right now.

And you think a little voice greeting directing the caller to press zero is going to stop this kind of software?