New Apps Fight Robo-Calls By Pretending To Be Humans (nola.com) 77
"While lawmakers debate what to do about the roboscourge, engineers have cooked up some clever ways to make bots work for us, not against us," writes the Washington Post, taking a look at apps like the $4-per-month RoboKiller -- which offers malicious "answer bots":
They're voicemail messages that try to keep robots and human telemarketers on the line, listening to nonsense. Answer bot options range from Trump impersonators and extended coughing sessions to someone doing vocal exercises. Even better, RoboKiller will send you an often-hilarious recording of the interaction. (It only uses these recordings when it's very sure it's a spam call.)
Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesn't sell itself as a robocall blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by actively trying to game the spammers' systems, such as when to press 1 to speak to a human. It calls this tech "artificial stupidity." It costs $11.88 per year.
It's possible you're better off not engaging with a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And it's also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls. But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes they're not calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service.
I'm also not sure this does any good -- but the Post's article also includes a run-down of other robocall-blocking services available from both wireless carriers and independent companies. It recommends starting with the free YouMail app, which collates data from 10 million registered users to determine which calls to block -- and in addition, "tries to trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line."
If you live in America, you can also add your phone number to the Federal government's official "Do not call" registry. "It won't help much," writes the Post, "but it only takes 30 seconds so why not?"
Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesn't sell itself as a robocall blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by actively trying to game the spammers' systems, such as when to press 1 to speak to a human. It calls this tech "artificial stupidity." It costs $11.88 per year.
It's possible you're better off not engaging with a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And it's also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls. But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes they're not calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service.
I'm also not sure this does any good -- but the Post's article also includes a run-down of other robocall-blocking services available from both wireless carriers and independent companies. It recommends starting with the free YouMail app, which collates data from 10 million registered users to determine which calls to block -- and in addition, "tries to trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line."
If you live in America, you can also add your phone number to the Federal government's official "Do not call" registry. "It won't help much," writes the Post, "but it only takes 30 seconds so why not?"
My fix is simple (Score:3)
I just don't answer any calls that I don't recognize. Period.
Everything else, goes to voice mail.
Re: My fix is simple (Score:2, Insightful)
Great idea for robocallers - charge for an app that "handles" robocalls.
Expect more robocalls.
Re:My fix is simple (Score:4, Informative)
Next step, getting a 1-900 number. Here, tthey can call me any time, and talk with me for as long as they want to.
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Reflects your Value (Score:2)
If you can get away with only answering numbers you already know, that's great for your privacy, but does indicate a rather narrow economic existence. My income, jobs, connections rely on being a little easier to connect with than you are. Too much communication of real value is nearly ephemeral, something you probably won't believe until you start engaging in, and profiting from, it.
Re: Reflects your Value (Score:4, Interesting)
Im not a salesweasel, so i give zero fucks about talking to random callers. I like it that way.
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They will not forward any spam calls, but will forward any and all legitimate calls that you specify.
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I just don't answer any calls that I don't recognize. Period. Everything else, goes to voice mail.
I was recently reading a story about a guy whose credit card had been compromised. His CC details on a merchant's insecure website were visible to another customer (and probably other's too). This other customer first informed the merchant - and they did not want to know. The other customer then tried to phone the compromised guy (his phone munber was there and all) but only got hung up each time.
Were you that compomised guy, I wonder?
Lenny (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8l8yI-vAY [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aWPozeIaj4 [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDhegPZzbuw [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
LOL. That first one is a classic.
Re: Lenny (Score:1)
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I have to know: Does Lenny ever catch the duck?
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taking a look at apps like the $4-per-month RoboKiller
Or you can use the $0-per-month, two-decade-old, open-source Telecrapper 2000 [frontier.com].
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What happens when we get two robots talking to each other for hours, clogging up phone lines with their inane time-wasting?
TFA is xenophobic! (Score:1)
Clicked TFA.
The Washington Post, tag line "Democracy Dies in Darkness". Embedded content showing me an ash background with a terse message: "This content is currently not available in your region."
The irony is striking.
Re: (Score:1)
What part of https://www.nola.com/business/2019/04/how-to-stop-robocall-spammers-and-exact-revenge.html made you think your were at the Washington Post's website?
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Most be whatever made the summary writer quote the Washington Post.
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What I do is (Score:3)
press whatever number to connect me with someone and then ask to describe what their pussy or cock looks like. They usually hang up right away. My wife tends to get mad though. Hey they called me.
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Don't waste time on time-wasters (Score:2, Troll)
My policy is, don't waste any time on people that simple exist to mess with you like spam calls and the like.
Sure messing with them can be amusing and is pretty easy. But isn't there literally anything else you would rather be doing? Don't let spammers steal the thing that is even more valuable to you than money - time.
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In other words, it's the second best solution to simply nuking the call centers.
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I'd posit that it's a *better* solution.
Nuking an existing site simply results in a second popping up - all cockroach like.
Whereas - making the *business* of placing spam calls untenable - due to everyone you call wasting your 'employee's time' talking to robots.. effectively ends the *business* of robocalling.
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But isn't there literally anything else you would rather be doing? Don't let spammers steal the thing that is even more valuable to you than money - time.
As they mostly call (me) during work hours then it becomes a welcome distraction. My personal faves are either just answering 'Hello, Burger King' that really knocks them off their stride before they even start or pretend to be a company doing the same thing they are. Good times and it only takes a few minutes. It's not exactly a time sink.
And soon... (Score:3)
... all the telephone lines will be tied up by robots talking with robots. Nobody will be able to make actual calls.
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Generally no... It's different lists in each country. Usually they get a list of numbers from someone who already had a robot call all numbers and verify that there is a person on the other end. That person probably got his list from milking a local directory service. That's why the "pretend to be a dead line"-thing occasionally works.
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I believe that some of them dial an area code followed by random digits. Some area codes in the UK are so highly populated that they would get a >50% hit rate. I confess I once, out of curiosity, tried random numbers following a London area code and it did result in about that rate of hits (when I said "Sorry, I dialed a wrong number").
Since moving to a rural area with a low populated area code, I rarely receive a cold sales call - they don't bother with such an area.
I am not buying (Score:2)
Hang up
That's what I do when I am called by anyone.
How to deal with telemarketers (Score:1)
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Not "malicious" (Score:4, Insightful)
The ones being malicious are the callers. This is defense and that is never "malicious".
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Henry Rollins "coming on" to a telemarketer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Classics....
My time is the one thing I can never get back...
But how to determine that a call is a "robocall" ? (Score:1)
Color me intrigued... But I cant help wondering how ANY app can determine if a call is from a spam site.....
Sure, there may be a a few call centers that actually give their correct numbers when they call, but in my experience majority just use VOIP and switch to a different (spoofed) number every few hours. So even by alerting eachother to the fact that "robocaller x is now using phonenumber y", we would still be answering the calls a few hours later.
No app on the market seems to be able to differentiate be
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VISA/MasterCard Service Center
"National Medical" about your Social Security
"Customer Services"
"Support Services"
etc
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Yes. I, personally, am not stupid enough to not know that a call is unwanted spam. But an app that relies on artificial intelligence, how can IT tell the difference, unless it answers ALL of your calls (including the ones you wanted to get through) ?
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I have not an app, but a device ( on my home landline :P)
http://www.tel-lynx.com/index.... [tel-lynx.com]
It's a wonderful device which has a *major* benefit - and the reason I bought it.
A call comes in, the device looks at the number. If it's one you've previously let through ( Gran'ma, wife, sprogs, etc) then it simply passes the call through to your phone.
If not - it plays an announcement, asks the caller to press a number, identify themselves ( by voice ) and THEN rings your phone with the provided info.
On picking up y
My officemate used his answering machine... (Score:2)
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Problem with that approach is that will also get your friends to drop you pretty quickly after that. You need to only play this to the bots.
Telemarketers are usually located locally, and thus are bound by local law, like the do-no-call list. So they are easier to circumvent than the indian "hello sir, I am calling from windows support"...
or... (Score:2)
Or, you know, you could just make a shitty business model that everyone hates, wastes resources, time and nerves and is a haven for scammers illegal. Like most of the rest of the world. Every time I hear about this phenomenon, I shake my head in disbelief. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of unwanted commercial calls that I've received in my life. But then, I don't live in the land of the free-to-play, pay2win.
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This. It's quite odd to heard this when you're living in Europe where this is pretty much unheard of. Mostly because it's illegal to cold call people and con them.
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It's illegal in the US too. It's called "fraud". Unfortunately, breaking the law in a foreign country often has few or no percussions, as catching the person(s) behind the scam is too hard. And even if you shut down one call center, the business model is still so cheap and so effective, that there are 100 more. That Americans get the problem more often than Europeans is strictly speaking for two reasons:
1) They have a larger user base. Comparatively to Europe, you need to scan at least 20 different national
Ill never stop pointing this out (Score:5, Informative)
(It only uses these recordings when itÃ(TM)s very sure itÃ(TM)s a spam call.)
If you're never going to fix the character encoding, fine. But for fuck's sake, "editors", preview the stories before posting. This shit is embarrassing. It's not like this isn't a known issue here.
The problem isn't that it makes you look like amateurs. The problem is it makes you look like you don't give a shit.
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The problem is it makes you look like you don't give a shit.
They don't though
do-not-call is really sue-into-oblivion in Canada (Score:5, Interesting)
Old Apps (Score:3)
I started using Jolly Roger almost two years ago:
https://tomwoods.com/ep-937-ho... [tomwoods.com]
They work well with SIP.
fax machine (Score:2)
Telecrapper2000 (Score:1)
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My robocall frequency plummeted a few weeks ago (Score:2)
It was planned. (Score:2)
I'm convinced that the phone carriers originally allowed robocalls to flourish on the landline market to force people off them onto their more expensive cell services. Now, however, they're hassling their cell services too: but they still don't care, because where the hell else are you going to go?