A Way to Stop Spoofed Spam Calls - Again - Feature Request

Fusion Voice service, features and help.
10 posts Page 1 of 1
by neilg1217 » Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:09 pm
It should be clear to everyone now that the caller ID of many spam calls is spoofed, and that smart spammers use neighbor spoofing. That has made the traditional Nomorobo screening almost useless. In previous forum posts on this topic, people have suggested lots of ways to penetrate spoofing, which would be great if any of them can be made to work. In the meanwhile, Nomorobo has adopted a way to stop robocalls that does not depend entirely on screening callers' IDs. What I understand is that they use Simultaneous Ring (similar to Call Forwarding) to receive calls the same time as the intended recipient, who hears one ring. Nomorobo then screens the caller IDs for whitelist, blacklist, or unknown status. For unknown calls (which could be spoofed robocalls or legitimate mass callers, like charities), they answer the call with an automated message asking the caller to enter a two-digit code. If there is a live caller who enters the code, the call is forwarded to the original number. If not, Nomorobo hangs up the call. (Nomorobo experts, please correct me if I misstate their procedures.) As a result, most robocalls ring once and die. At first, having to enter a code might be a little annoying to friends, family, doctors, and the like, but eventually all good numbers can be added to the whitelist.

Can Sonic adopt Simultaneous Ring as a feature and allow users to use this other Nomorobo procedure? I understand that this feature is a little more complicated that Call Forwarding, but it would be really appreciated as a way to stop robocalls. Thanks for considering my request.

Neil
by Larry » Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:04 pm
Anyone... can anyone respond to this???

I'm wondering about the value of NomoRobo. I know some amount of the IRS, Microsoft Windows licensing / virus issues / going out of business, Duct Cleaning Scams and Furnace maintenance scam calls all come through without any problems.

What is being done to combat caller ID spoofing?

Larry
neilg1217 wrote:It should be clear to everyone now that the caller ID of many spam calls is spoofed, and that smart spammers use neighbor spoofing. That has made the traditional Nomorobo screening almost useless. In previous forum posts on this topic, people have suggested lots of ways to penetrate spoofing, which would be great if any of them can be made to work. In the meanwhile, Nomorobo has adopted a way to stop robocalls that does not depend entirely on screening callers' IDs. What I understand is that they use Simultaneous Ring (similar to Call Forwarding) to receive calls the same time as the intended recipient, who hears one ring. Nomorobo then screens the caller IDs for whitelist, blacklist, or unknown status. For unknown calls (which could be spoofed robocalls or legitimate mass callers, like charities), they answer the call with an automated message asking the caller to enter a two-digit code. If there is a live caller who enters the code, the call is forwarded to the original number. If not, Nomorobo hangs up the call. (Nomorobo experts, please correct me if I misstate their procedures.) As a result, most robocalls ring once and die. At first, having to enter a code might be a little annoying to friends, family, doctors, and the like, but eventually all good numbers can be added to the whitelist.

Can Sonic adopt Simultaneous Ring as a feature and allow users to use this other Nomorobo procedure? I understand that this feature is a little more complicated that Call Forwarding, but it would be really appreciated as a way to stop robocalls. Thanks for considering my request.

Neil
by LarryS » Wed Mar 06, 2019 12:31 am
neilg1217 wrote:It should be clear to everyone now that the caller ID of many spam calls is spoofed, and that smart spammers use neighbor spoofing. That has made the traditional Nomorobo screening almost useless. In previous forum posts on this topic, people have suggested lots of ways to penetrate spoofing, which would be great if any of them can be made to work. In the meanwhile, Nomorobo has adopted a way to stop robocalls that does not depend entirely on screening callers' IDs. What I understand is that they use Simultaneous Ring (similar to Call Forwarding) to receive calls the same time as the intended recipient, who hears one ring. Nomorobo then screens the caller IDs for whitelist, blacklist, or unknown status. For unknown calls (which could be spoofed robocalls or legitimate mass callers, like charities), they answer the call with an automated message asking the caller to enter a two-digit code. If there is a live caller who enters the code, the call is forwarded to the original number. If not, Nomorobo hangs up the call. (Nomorobo experts, please correct me if I misstate their procedures.) As a result, most robocalls ring once and die. At first, having to enter a code might be a little annoying to friends, family, doctors, and the like, but eventually all good numbers can be added to the whitelist.

Can Sonic adopt Simultaneous Ring as a feature and allow users to use this other Nomorobo procedure? I understand that this feature is a little more complicated that Call Forwarding, but it would be really appreciated as a way to stop robocalls. Thanks for considering my request.

Neil
by dane » Wed Mar 06, 2019 2:04 pm
I've asked the team about voice switch feature capability to see if we could deploy something like this. As you point out, the block list we use today only works when spam callers do not spoof their telephone numbers. That action is illegal, but we're certainly seeing a big upswing, in response to the widespread use of blocking lists. It's an arms race.

I do wonder if the eventual solution is SHAKEN/STIR being deployed by carriers. That'll take some time, but should have a much larger impact, without the inconvenience of a CAPTCHA Turing test for callers.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by cmeisel » Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:25 am
While the FCC is generally becoming less and less helpful under the new regime, they did give providers until the end of the year to implement caller id authentication mechanisms or regulation will follow to force them.
In a time where calls are spoofed daily now, blocking lists are almost completely useless. As Dane says, cat and mouse game and we are the mouse right now. I get calls on my cell daily from various numbers and if I ever call back, many times somebody picks up who had nothing to do with the call to begin with.

claus
by ewhac » Tue Apr 02, 2019 1:24 pm
Suggestion: Go to a whitelist-oriented model. Off the top of my head:

Code: Select all

caller_id = incoming_call.get_number();
if (caller_id == CID_BLOCKED  ||  caller_id == CID_UNKNOWN) {
    switch (cust_prefs.blocked_cid_handling) {
    case CIDBLOCKTYPE_DROP:
        drop_call (incoming_call, cust_prefs.call_drop_method);
        break;
    case CIDBLOCKTYPE_VOICEMAIL:
    default:
        send_to_voicemail (incoming_call);
        break;
    }
} else {
    if (find_number (cust_prefs.whitelist, caller_id) != NULL) {
        ring_through (incoming_call);
    } else if (find_number (cust_prefs.blacklist, caller_id) != NULL) {
        drop_call (incoming_call, cust_prefs.call_drop_method);
    } else {
        send_to_voicemail (incoming_call);
    }
}
...Where cust_prefs.call_drop_method can be either a pre-recorded message saying this number isn't accepting calls, or it just silently disconnects (because why waste network resources on a spammer).

This way, people on the whitelist ring straight through, while unknowns either get voicemail, get a canned "go away" recording, or just get unceremoniously dropped on the floor.
by ds_sonic_asif » Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:55 pm
+1
by sfodoug » Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:21 pm
I tell these holes that their children will die a a horrible death before their very eyes This ever !
by cmeisel » Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:18 pm
While the FCC has not been very useful in recent years, the Stir/Shaken is not required by June 30,2021. In theory this should take care of spoofed calls.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-mandat ... -robocalls

Until then, I wish Sonic could allow people to just maintain their own block list for numbers. Ooma had this for years and while it is a cat and mouse, at least users can add number themselves from their phone or web interface call logs rather than having to go to a form and reporting numbers there one by one.
by galynch55 » Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:38 pm
I don't know what happened, or didn't happen, after the first of the year, but I now have a notably marked increase in spam/phishing/spoof calls, 5-10 per day get past nomorobo. Such a nuisance, it's tempting to cancel Sonic voice service altogether and rely on my mobile. At least that would cut spam calls by, I don't know, 2/3. It's on the rise on my mobile number too, but at least I can pretend I have some power by blocking repeated calls from those which aren't neighbor spoofs.
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