It's so bad that you can get into someone else's voicemail just by calling a number and spoofing the caller id to be that same number. No security whatsoever. It's pathetic.

I think the old telephone network is beyond saving and we just need to abandon it and move to VoIP services that provide better controls.

I was using a dialup modem in 2013. There are also a bunch of dialup ISPs that still exist today and provide service over phone lines to people with dialup modems. Maybe what you say is true in some areas but it certainly is false as a blanket statement.

So the parent post could’ve very well thought he had used his modem on a real copper line while in fact it was VoIP, just the compression was light enough that it still worked fine like in my case.

They get revenue from inbound calls received from other carriers. It’s peanuts per-call but when you add up all the spam calls together in a year it’s still a hefty bag of cash.

And frankly, someone is buying this shit. Else they wouldn't call. I mean if 1 sale is made for every 5,000 calls they've made their money. Same with scammers. Who the hell is going to fall for a robocall from the IRS? A call that's barely in English, and comes from a local number? Obviously, somebody does.

To stop this, the phone company should charge 10 cents to place a call. That would destroy the economics of spamming.

The same goes for email. Charge a penny to the originator to receive an email.

It's just ridiculous that every shared mailbox (like an apartment) has a giant recycle bin next to it full of mailers.

I feel like more of that blame lies with the government as a whole than the post office in particular. They have to get innovative when they don't take Federal dollars, get dollars taken from them, have to fund retirement of their employees out further than other agencies, and can't close offices. It surprises me that it stays afloat despite active hindrance from the government at large.

Old folks.