I personally get 50+ spam calls on some days.

I’m not in the parent posting chain, but what other option do I have?

The law changed around a year ago with shaken/stir authentication being required. You can enable call filtering with your carrier to block most robocalls based on this data.

There are iphone and android app based solutions that will block more, based on previous reports, on information about the number, the timing. Like HIYA.

You can configure all unknown callers to go to voicemail. Setup an exception if the same number calls you twice.

If you are getting 50+ spam calls a day changing your number is another option. And if you change your number you can more easily block caller ID spoofers that use a very similar number that isn't really local.

While I agree that this might be a practical and effective step... changing my number costs me a lot of money in terms of lost revenue and expenses, I have business cards to reprint and contacts (business and personal) that I'll need to update. Considering phone companies could simply block these calls if they so desired I don't see why I, the customer, need to absorb such a large cost just to keep my life sane and, after absorbing such a cost the robo calls might just find me again.

I receive more spam calls than spam emails and, being familiar with the underlying technical details of each system, that is absolutely ridiculous. Email was built in a time of pure optimism, there is no central switching authority for emails and there is no cost to sending an email other than jiggling some electrons - telephone calls are highly metered and monitored, they generally pass through several organizations that have been endowed with a high measure of trust to police and shepard them to their final destination. There is no reason other than the monetization of the system that these spam calls are allowed to exist.

Yes, the change your number response is total BS. Not just for all of the reasons you mention which are totally valid, but for the simple fact it is just a cat&mouse game.

Phone numbers are not some cryptographically generated string that would take a while to randomly create. You can literally just start at a number and increment until you've reached them all, so that the spammer doesn't even need to know your number. Your number just got reached because it was the next one in the list.

The numbers they call are not necessarily random. I was torturing one “reduce your credit card fees” guy by giving him 3 wrong credit card numbers in a row. He got mad and started threatening me with terminating all my credit cards - which was hilarious because just the moment before he was asking their numbers. But then to substantiate the threat he disclosed what knows about me. My address, my phone, my car make… the only thing they got wrong was my name - they used my son’s name instead of mine.

And other callers called me my son’s name a couple other times. So there seems to be some database that some of them share.

Phone number often yields address, which often yields street view for the car make. Doesn’t sound like they had thaaaat much.

Well, I have 3 cars, 2 sons and 1 daughter (and me and my wife are still alive too, you know). But robocallers are stuck with the same car and the same person: 1/15 one occurrence, 0.0000013 five occurrences.

I would expect a phone company to throttle multiple failed dial attempts to nonexistent numbers. Otherwise you could DoS the system.

Shoot, in the old analog days, you could literally get the physical tumblers in the telco's switch to stick in an incomplete state and create a party line. DoS'ing the phone from too many wrong numbers is the least of the issues here.

There is definitely more to that - I'm on a pretty common 650 area code, and my spam calls have gone down from 1-2 / day a year ago to less than 1 every couple weeks.

Spammers have currently defeated SHAKEN/STIR. A signed call is more likely to be a robocall than not a robocall. This is thanks to shady phone companies that will sign calls for anyone or intentionally cater to scammers. https://transnexus.com/blog/2022/shaken-statistics-september... This is like when DKIM was first being deployed spammers adopted it first.

But once enough people lodge complaints about these calls the shady company will shape up or get their keys revoked, right?

It significantly increases their costs though. As in the parent ruling here, a shady phone vendor that doesn't take steps to prevent spammers they will no longer be able to route calls to the US.

I thought shaken/stir would help too. I receive a lot of spam calls- and now I receive backscatter calls from people who I “called” (my number is now being used as outgoing cid for robocalls- yay.)

It’s infuriating and undermines the utility of the phone system. Might as well give up and try again at this point.

I would change your phone number. I've had the same 650 area code since 2003, and I'll go a couple weeks, sometimes more without a spam call. (or any phone call for that matter - except for maybe the pizza delivery person?)

I don't believe I've received a single spam call in the last 45 days - so your phone number is on some horrible list, I feel for you.

If you are diligent in telling every single one of them “take me off your call list“ it does make a difference.

I started receiving spam calls again (after a very long time without a single one) because one of the weasels I had to deal with to buy a house apparently sold my information. I ignored them for a while, mostly because they call when I’m sleeping during the day, but then started answering to get off the lists and haven’t had one in a while. Seems like one company is responsible for the bulk of them and once you get off their list things get significantly better.

All of which I shouldn’t have to do because I’m on the (completely worthless) do not call list.

If by “it makes a difference” you mean more people will call you once someone has verified your number is real, sure.

Never pick up spam calls if you can help it.

They'll know your number is real as soon as it starts ringing. Tells them that the number not only exists, but your phone is switched on and accepting calls. If it goes straight to voicemail, they still know it exists.

Plenty of numbers that will ring and not be answered by a human

You’re not in a sweet spot. When my dad had a stroke, the various medical providers and contractors sell/share your data which makes you a target.

My mom is a former investigator and is pretty organized. At peak she received over 80 calls a day, mostly for various Medicare scams followed by typical tech support and other grifts. Eventually political donation calls took over, and then slowed down in 2021 again.

RoboKiller app! Works great for me.