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A comment on US breaks up IRS phone scam operation. Parent comment

Re:US breaks up IRS phone scam operation by cma on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @01:13AM (#17598266)
Spam calls are actually a cash cow. Uses your minutes and Verizon also makes money selling a subscription spam blocking service that would be worthless without the annoying calls:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/30/15906800/verizon-anti-spa...

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Re:US breaks up IRS phone scam operation by jjeaff on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @01:20AM (#17598305)
What percentage of US cell plans aren't unlimited minutes these days? I'm thinking it has to be a tiny amount.

Seems like they would like to unclog their Network not to mention their servers have to handle and store all the voicemails.

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Re:US breaks up IRS phone scam operation by Scoundreller on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @01:38AM (#17598372)
The receiving provider usually gets paid to terminate the call.

It may only be a fraction of a cent per minute, but these are the same telecoms that will gladly send you a bill every month because you owe them 1 cent.

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Re:US breaks up IRS phone scam operation by supertrope on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @10:09AM (#17601132)
In the past, cellular network operators earned revenue based off minutes sold. That's why voicemail has very verbose instructions that are read to you every single time. It's a way of inflating average call duration and thus revenue.

These days with unmetered calling, the receiving telco still makes some money off incoming calls through termination charges.

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