Will you pick up the phone if the number looks like yours? Telemarketers bet on it.

Chicago Tribune ^ | 08/07/2017 | Audrey Gorden

[Responsibility2nd]

Telemarketers have a new trick to get you to answer the phone — and it’s hitting close to home.

Caller ID spoofing, a technique to fake the number a call is coming from, makes detecting pesky robocalls more difficult. One increasingly popular way telemarketers are getting people to answer the phone is by mimicking the user’s number — copying the recipient’s area code and sometimes even the first few digits of their number.

Not even the head of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates phone lines and telemarketers, is immune. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told NPR he’s been targeted by telemarketers using the tactic.

“(The call will) seem to be coming from the 202 area code, which is here in Washington, and then our prefix for these BlackBerries,” Pai told NPR. “And I know for a fact that, you know, it’s probably not someone calling from the office.”

Joel Whalen, a professor of marketing and business communications at DePaul University, says caller ID spoofing can make consumers more comfortable answering a call.

[Responsibility2nd]

Aha!

This explains it. Explains why 19 of 20 junk/robocalls I get on my cell phone are from my same area code and prefix.

(210-316-XXXX)

[moovova]

I’d block my number in a heartbeat if it started calling me.

[Jim Noble]

I have started blocking any numbers I don’t know.

[cyclotic]

Just as I popped this up, my phone started ringing. I ignored it.

Probably some goofball from India telling me they checked my computer and Microsoft told them it needs service.

The best is the credit companies offering to get my interest rate down and help me with my credit card debt.

I have zero debt other than my house, which I’m in the refinance process to reduce that debt as well.

[dfwgator]

I pretty much don’t answer my phone, period, if the message is important enough, they’ll leave a message (and they rarely do).

[Responsibility2nd]

I just counted up the number of blocked number I have so far.

Over 90.

Yet these bastards just use another telephone number and they keep on robocalling.

The FCC must stop this!

[TheBattman]

If the tech is so simple to find/use to make these SCAM/fraudulent calls - then it is equally possible that telecommunications companies could implement protections AGAINST said technology.

And since they apparently are doing NOTHING to prevent this abuse - I hold the telecommunications companies EQUALLY at fault as co-conspirators.

[CodeToad]

All the scam calls lately use my phone’s prefix, so I know it is bogus. They’re only hurting their elicit cause.

[Cold Heart]

Depending on my mood I deploy different tactics, including wasting their time.

[moovova]

Seriously though...I’ve had several calls from my area code that were shams. A couple weeks back I answered a call and a woman launched into a sales spiel. I asked where she was calling from. She said “Utah”. I asked her why she would think I’d trust her if she was using shady illegal telephone tactics to call me.

“Click”...she hung up.

I pretty much don’t answer anymore if I don’t recognize the number. If it’s important...they’ll leave a message.

[TheBattman]

Nearly every caller ID displayed with these telemarketing scammers is a FAKE number anyway -

[Hot Tabasco]

This explains it. Explains why 19 of 20 junk/robocalls I get on my cell phone are from my same area code and prefix.

Same here.....I received a number of them in sequence. Example: xxx-xxx-xx12, xx13, xx14......

[E. Pluribus Unum]

They only get to do it once.

[Responsibility2nd]

Click here.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/stop-unwanted-calls-texts-and-faxes

[Vaquero]

Yeah ..... been getting those. Didn’t take more than a few times before I ignored them.

Hey whatever happened to “DO NOT CALL LIST”. Sometime in the middle of zer0’s regime it just seemed to fall apart.

[Kenton]

I've been getting these calls several times a day for months now. It's easy to beat them by never answering a call unless it's somebody I know well enough to have them on my contact list.

If it's somebody who needs to talk to me but isn't in my contacts, they can always leave a voice message and I'll call back.

[central_va]

The robo calls use your area code and exchange then 4 random numbers. No way to block that. The random numbers are new every call.

[laker_dad]

I was getting calls that showed strange area codes that I could not block thru our provider (Charter Spectrum). I called them to complain and they had me sign up at http://www.nomorobo.com/ for free. It helped alot, but I still get the spoofed local numbers.

[dfwgator]

They only get to do it once.

"Once!"

[proxy_user]

They would have to completely change the protocol and replace all existing phones. Right now, the number is sent by the phone.