Can anything be done about caller ID spoofing?

Remember the person who eventually answers the phone has to be willing to do the job. So here is what I do. I press 9 or 1 and then wait for a live person, then I quote 2 movies/ TV shows. First I quote the possessed teenager from "The Exorcist". The line suggests what the persons mother does in hell. This usually startles them. Then I quote "South Park" and suggest that they kill themselves over and over again. I would say that over 75% of the time it gets them very upset.

Anyway think about it, when they go to work how long will they keep that job if they continue to have to talk to me.

 

I think it likely that there are 2 groups you are reaching - one would be here in the USA and people who are doing the only job they can find in their area / skill level. There's no point in berating people who are just trying to survive. The other group would be overseas call centers and they may be making good money for their location - but nobody grows up wanting to work in a call center - so again I don't really see the point in berating them.

 

I am not berating them at all I am trying to stop them from calling me when I am very busy and they are totally waisting my time. They don't have a right to bother me 3 to 4 times a week like they have been doing for the last 4 or more years. I will continue to wish them great harm until they all stop this ridiculous time waisting behavior. If you care about the low skilled that is exactly who they are preying upon. These calls are clearly scams.
They claim they are going to help with your credit cards or sell useless items. Usually the people who get suckered by this are either suffering from lack of control of their finances or the elderly.

Either way they are scum

 

This. It used to be just my land line, but it is happening more on my cell as well.

 

I don't know whether I would go so far as to call them scum, but they are a nuisance and I have little to no compassion for them.

Their obnoxious tactics must work or they wouldn't be proliferating the way they are.

 

+1 It's like yelling at the cashier when the store is out of an item. It will make you feel good tearing apart the front-line guy making minimum wage, but it's not his fault and likely has a small chance of making a change in the future.

Also, I don't know the stats but I DO know that automated calling systems will tag an answered call as a "live number" and note it for as a candidate for calling in the future. I do not know if answering a call and giving crap to the caller will be a reliable way to remove your number. It might just send it to whatever other queues are being used.

The caller ID spoofing thing is tricky. We use it at my office for various reasons and I would hate for it to be outlawed, but it's a giant PITA when being used by scammers and telemarketers.

 

Can you give an example of a legitimate use?

 

I remember when the Do Not Call List came out in about 2002/2003 and the trade association representing telemarketers claimed that 3 million people would lose their jobs. I would doubt that the number of legitimate telemarketers would be anywhere close to this number. Granted, the scammers with their robots are still present and represent a very small subset of that number.

 

Has anyone here ever made a purchase based on cold call like these? I can't imagine buying an extended warranty, lower interest credit card or whatever these people are selling as a result of a phone call out of the blue.

 

Somebody must be buying, otherwise they wouldn't be calling.

 

One would be a teacher calling a parent on her own time and from her own telephone but being able to spoof the caller ID of the school's main number.
1. Conceals her private number.
2. Helps to ensure that the parent will answer the call.

Many legitimate uses for law enforcement officers, perhaps shelters, medical facilities?
Companies with home workers? Allows calls from satellite locations to appear as the main number.

 

Yes, and that's how the capabilities came about. Which now are abused regularly by nefarious groups and individuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing#United_States

 

My understanding is that law enforcement and companies like financial institutions now have access to technology that allows them to tell that the incoming number is being spoofed but I haven't researched it enough to know how far we are from deploying that for small business or home users.

I hate to be that guy but I wish the government would "do something". Put some teeth in the (useless) Do Not Call regs - and eliminate the loopholes to start with. Some push back against companies who put in their TOS that you agree to allow them to call you on any number you "give" them by robotic or other means.

 

The capability to know the originator has always been there since the beginning of our digitized voice systems.

The problem is, as I think someone mentioned already, is that the carriers are hiding behind the so-called privacy laws. In other words, protecting the caller, whomever that may be. And a court order is needed to get your own calling records (to and from).

During the early/mid 2000s, I used to be a ShoreTel certified pre-sales engineer, plus configured and deployed the same. The server software came with a test application for monitoring calls, e.g. raw numbers with no Caller ID. It's intent was to verify that your configuration was working correctly before switch-over and going "live". It was also used for testing your designated Caller ID (e.g. Company X for all outbound calls from all branches/locations).

 

Yes, this is similar to our situation, in this case a medical office. Here's a common problem alleviated by spoofing/masking the caller ID:

Employee calls patient from their line (say, 555-1234), and leaves them a voicemail. The employee will be out the next day so they tell the patient to call back to a different number: 555-1200, which is the department number.

Patient ignores the instructions and instead calls back the number on the Caller ID, which goes directly to the 1234 number. Since the employee doesn't work the following day, the call and, more importantly, the needed info, is missed.

So to alleviate this headache we present the department, or even the main office number on Caller IDs. That way when the patient calls back and goes "Yeah, somebody called me from this number" they can at least reach a person who can help or otherwise direct the call.

 

I've received at least 12 calls on a business line, completely unsolicited and from a company I have no prior relationship with.
The FCC complaint process seems to be pretty lame - and nothing ever seems to come of it.
The recorded message from the telemarketer names the company and they are actually a legitimate business as opposed to a Microsoft scammer or an extended warranty company.
Their domain name is registered to an individual with a home address and a cellphone number - and he appears that he MIGHT be their web guy so that same number shows up on his web company's site.

What would you do with this information?

 

'Can you hear me?' scam has police urging people to hang up immediately | Fox News

 

If it's a legitimate business, call the business and talk to them and ask them to take you off their marketing list. Pretty simple.

 

Too easy and what's the fun in doing that?
I'm thinking modem bank calling every number they have playing their own recorded message back at them all day every day.

 

Sounds weak to me. Because I was an idiot and put my cell number on various online forms (who knew they were going to sell it?), I now have to make a decision. Do I either live with it, or get a new number and go through the headache of giving it to clients only, knowing I'm going to miss somebody.

RPIA

 

So what would you suggest when your job requires contacting people while you are out of the office? Should a school district provide a cellphone or land line for every teacher? Should law enforcement not be able to conceal their identity?

 

I still don't see the problem, but that's just me I guess.

 

I was just trying to help you solve your problem, but if you have a hard on for these guys, and going to all that trouble helps you get your rocks off, then please record the entertainment for us.

 

Here is a link to a list of phone numbers that received robo calls that are eligible for $300 to $900 settlement compensation in this news story:

If You Received a Robocall About a 'Free Cruise,' You Could Get $900 | Fox News Insider

BTW- my wife's cell phone number was on the list but 4 other numbers I checked were not on the eligible list.

 

This annoys the heck out of me.
For my android cell, I can block numbers.
for my home VOIP phone, optonline allows blocking 32 numbers only. that aint nearly enough.
so I also signed up for free NoMoreRobo which you forward a "copy" of your incoming call to their service which checks against their database & if the call is in their DB, it cuts them off. Usually I get 1 ring.

For calls that get through, first-in first-out through my optonline list deleting the old numbers and adding new ones. I tend to update the list once a week with maybe 2 numbers. It's the best I can hope for until OptOnline insitutes range blocking like 612-333-* or even whole area codes. I mean, what's the chance Sarah Pallin is going to call me from Alaska? So I can block Alaskan exchanges

The scammers are getting smart. they look at your exchange 1st, then code their calling system to it so it looks like a local call