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UPDATED: Well... looks like I've l̶o̶s̶t̶ won the battle against scam callers

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Halcyon:
Phone-based scams are nothing new, however I've had the same mobile phone number since 1997. Until about 6 months ago, I might get 2 or 3 scam calls per year. Most recently it's closer to 1 per day (and they are the ones that get through the spam filter).

Obviously my number has finally made it onto some kind of list and it's the usual suspects calling constantly. I report and block every single number, but they simply buy a block of VoIP numbers and rotate them around. It would be nice if I could block an entire prefix, but it doesn't seem to be a feature on native Android (yet). It would prevent 99% of the callers, at least for a little while.

Another useful feature would be to only accept calls from those in my contacts, but again, not a feature that's available in the native phone application.

The Google call screening feature has been great (where I can screen calls without answering them) but it still required manual intervention and the scammers aren't smart enough to remove my number from their list, since they never actually get to a real human.

Keen to hear how others manage these nuisance callers.

Update: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/well-looks-like-ive-lost-the-battle-with-scam-callers/msg4914376/#msg4914376

Second update: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/well-looks-like-ive-lost-the-battle-with-scam-callers/msg5291752/#msg5291752

Bud:

--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 25, 2023, 04:55:19 am ---Another useful feature would be to only accept calls from those in my contacts, but again, not a feature that's available in the native phone application.

--- End quote ---
Exists natively on iPhone.

Halcyon:

--- Quote from: Bud on March 25, 2023, 05:00:44 am ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 25, 2023, 04:55:19 am ---Another useful feature would be to only accept calls from those in my contacts, but again, not a feature that's available in the native phone application.

--- End quote ---
Exists natively on iPhone.

--- End quote ---

That's all well and good but I don't use Apple devices, mostly because they don't do what I want them to.

ataradov:

--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 25, 2023, 04:55:19 am ---Obviously my number has finally made it onto some kind of list and it's the usual suspects calling constantly.

--- End quote ---
I don't think there is a list, they just call all the numbers. But they tend to do this in waves.

And I think they may be focusing now on the rest of the world, since US finally did something and actually starting to enforce caller authentication.  The amount of calls I get dropped to zero in the last two weeks after getting 2-3 a day.


--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 25, 2023, 04:55:19 am --- I report and block every single number,

--- End quote ---
There is no point, they are spoofing them anyway. You may be blocking someone's legitimate number.


--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 25, 2023, 04:55:19 am ---Keen to hear how others manage these nuisance callers.

--- End quote ---
There is nothing you can do until government takes action. The solution is there, but telcos are making so much money on that, they don't want to do it unless forced.

Halcyon:
There are several lists threat actors/scammers can obtain of legitimate numbers. Whenever there is a breach, those details appear on multiple sites on the internet for anyone to download. This includes a list of legitimate phone numbers. To call every number would mostly be a waste of time.

I'm not sure what the Australian telcos are or have done regarding caller ID authentication, but I've never had a case where a number has been spoofed. That's not to say I haven't heard of it happening, it's just extremely uncommon. Most of the time, they just buy a block of numbers from any cheap VoIP service and use those until they are exhausted. Going back through my block list, about 90% of calls originate from a +61 2 725x xxxx or +61 2 9564 7xxx number.

I'm honestly at the stage where I don't care if I'm completely unreachable via phone. My friends mostly call me on Signal and work calls me via Microsoft Teams anyway. Everyone else, including government agencies, I usually deal with via email or through their respective online portals.

EDIT: Telstra (Australia's largest telco) do actively block known scam calls. According to a blog post last year, Telstra block an average of 13 million scam calls per month at the network level.

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