It seems like this is a problem that needs to be cut down at the source of the calls, not necessarily at the filtering stage on the receiving end. Aren't most of these robo-callers likely using the same providers/APIs?
I know Twilio doesn't explicitly allow robocallers on their platform, but it's hard to believe that a lot of them are not using Twilio or companies like it to automate their spam anyway. It seems this problem arose when automated / APIs connected to the telephone system were made, like Twilio, not way back when Bell was split up.
Eventually after I realized it was silently dropping group messages because they were MMS and Google never worked on supporting MMS (images were dropped too back then) I left it for iOS and iMessage. Getting dropped from group chats meant people thought you were ignoring them and you'd miss invitations.
Google had a huge lead with voice that they wasted instead on Buzz, Allo, Talk, Hangouts which all were killed or are being killed - I wouldn't go back.
Google being Google completely fucked up the UX on inbound call routing. Lets say you enabled data calling to try it out because why not, they actually put something in the changelog other than 'bugs and fixes'. This will immediately break inbound calling and de-select routing calls to your phone numbers over carrier. Then if you reverted the setting to carrier, it just make it so calls went nowhere.
I've had a Google Voice number as my primary for over a decade, it took me a few days to notice none of my calls were ringing inbound. It took me over a day to figure out how to re-enable it, because you couldn't just have the line paired, you had to enable inbound calling in the app to both the phone and the app.
Google still maintains two different panels for Google Voice. This has been the case for a couple years now. Both have different features, anything important like porting and setting up voicemail manually will have to happen through 'legacy Google Voice'. It's insane.
(Obviously iMessage is different because it's not actually MMS)
Google Voice is actually a safer bet as there's no doubt all sorts of legal snares they'd hit if they shut it down. Bandwidth.com runs things behind the scenes and is a competent company to do business with. They'd likely have to spin it off if they wanted to discontinue it.
I give out my GV# (I use call-screening) to everyone (esp. businesses) and put it on my gmail .sig.
I get almost no spam calls at all.
It sure looks like they do. Spammers have been calling our office lines daily (including numbers that aren't assigned to anyone and aren't given out). The spam calls come in numerical sequence. They're clearly just working through every possible phone number, in sequence.
Except that it's not available outside the US. The other 95% of us can pound sand, apparently.
Yes! I have 2 dozen numbers "blocked" on my iPhone but the robocalls keep coming. I wish there was a "Report Spam" (Gmail) equivalent on iOS that employed smarter rules so I didn't have to manually blocking one number at a time (that's likely a throwaway account anyway).
Twilio will even let you spoof “your own number” on their network for outbound calls as mentioned in the article. Yes, they at least verify the number is “yours” before doing it, but it’s not hard to get around that limitation either assuming you have access to the other person’s phone.
Networking of all times has been grossly permissive historically and a lot of it is still today. With a lax upstream bandwidth provider, I could even pretend to have your IP address quite effectively (well, I don’t know a way to get just yours, but I do know how to get yours and the adjoining few hundred next to you).
From what I've tested, T-Mobile and Verizon will both fail to deliver SMSes that aren't originated by the carrier listed in the SMS routing for a phone # (which is wholly separate from the PSTN routing of a number, and can be a source of problems when changing cell carriers).
I can hijack SMS routing entirely for inbound/outbound, but short of doing that I can't forge the from field and get the message delivered.
It's not acceptable in the USA.
Wait, really? I tried forwarding calls to my Google Voice and it seemed like almost every (though not every) spam call went through without getting flagged as spam.
Just a few things:
- It does filter out all the spam (I get maybe a random call once a year and a random text once every 6 months)
- There is no SIM card, so it has to go through the internet, which is much less reliable
- You can call anywhere in the world very cheaply (US is free)
- The phone apps are barely usable (Hangouts on iOS for instance) (Google Voice one is blocking non-US users)
- It's a life saver in emergency situations and just when being abroad in general, and for that only it's the best provider out there.
* How To Duck Cell Phone Taxes || https://www.forbes.com/2005/06/06/cz_sw_0606cellphone.html#2... (Not sure if this is still relevant, haven't looked at my cell phone bill in years... but never switched to a local area code since I liked the filtration side effect.)
I get one or two bogus calls a day, down from two or three a day at peak, perhaps four or so months ago.
To my knowledge, I've had no legit incoming calls incorrectly marked as SPAM.
Why is this a mainly American phenomena? How do you fix this without depending on the old whack-a-mole game of product companies adding features to fight the spam war?
I know that e-mail spam is difficult to regulate and control but other kinds of telecommunications are easier, phone calls being one just by being centralised in a few companies routing them.
I used to use Google Voice when Sprint had a deal with them so I didnt have to pay but now that I am on T-Mobile I cant use it... But I noticed the same as soon as I lost Google Voice I started seeing many more robocalls. They might even notice patterns in same call to 500 people with no human interaction when they respond lol
T-Mobile DIGITS. I got a free line like a year ago, I use it when companies want to be dickbags about not accepting voip number use (because it is still one but shows up as a mobile carrier)
So no, you don't have to hand out your primary number. You can create a new one there and use that for junk companies.
Either way you asked for a VoIP number you could sign up to use places that don't allow them. That's what I originally answered.
Wow, the state we're in.
What about downloading Hiya?
It has gone on all of my business cards. It's at the bottom of every email. I put it on my website.
Google does an amazing, world class, mind blowing, job of filtering out robo calls. I get maybe one a week at most.
I get more calls direct to my cell number from random call bots that hit every number with mobile carriers than I do through my Google Voice number.
It's past time for Apple to integrate spam call filtering into iOS and Android users have no excuse for not using Google Voice.