AT&T CEO Interrupted By a Robocall During a Live Interview (theverge.com) 139
At an Economic Club event in Washington, DC today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was interrupted on stage by a robocall, pausing an interview in front of dozens of people and driving home that absolutely no one is safe from the spam epidemic. From a report: Over the past few months, regulators at the Federal Communications Commission have been feeling the pressure from lawmakers and consumers who are urging them to put an end to the relentless onslaught of robocalls people receive every day. Last year, consumers received over 26.3 billion of these scammy calls and the problem only appears to be getting worse. "I'm getting a robocall, too," Stephenson said during the Economic Club event, ultimately declining the call on his Apple Watch. "It's literally a robocall."
Caller ID is a joke (Score:3, Insightful)
There is almost NO security whatsoever, and even a total moron can install an app on his phone to spoof somebody's #, potentally ruining the victim's life.
To not even have the most basic security in place when it was rolled out decades ago is criminal.
Re:Caller ID is a joke (Score:4, Informative)
In reality, I don't answer the phone at all anymore unless it's someone on my contact list or they call repeatedly from the same number, then I know it's probably a person worth talking to.... probably.
The question is, how long until robocallers start getting that people will do that?
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The question is, how long until robocallers start getting that people will do that?
About a year or two ago.
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Well, admittedly there's every possibility it is someone actively trying to reach me who isn't trying to harass me and just refuses to ever leave a message. But if that's the case, then I guess the robocallers have won.
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Here's my solution: Set up a Google Voice number as your on-call number. Have it ring your mobile, your house phone, wherever you expect to be. Then set it up to report your Google Voice number as the originating number instead of the actual caller. Bingo, all calls to your on-call number show up as being from one sin
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Re: Caller ID is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
When people pull those "swat" pranks, they are spoofing their number so it appears they are at the house they are swatting.
Guess what, some people have died from this.
Re: Caller ID is a joke (Score:1)
Lets put your "It won't ruin your life" to the test. How about you give me your phone number, and I phone in a bomb threat to your boss while spoofing your number? Or how about I call your friends and family with your number and tell them all kinds of rotten things.
A voice sample from you will help, so it will be much more convincing.
Re: Caller ID is a joke (Score:1)
Would you like to buy a timeshare? It's a great investment, I promise you. No? Then I'll fucking strangle you until you agree, don't you even dare try to leave.
Thank you for making a good choicem now you can sign away your life here on the dotted line.
Shaken, not Stirred (Score:2)
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What is a "robocall" ?
Shenanigans!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
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read TFS. It's his iStatusWatch. Nobody silences those. They don't ring. He just doesn't have the maturity to ignore it.
Yeah. Sure.
The very nature of robocalls is that they try to make themselves look like something else so you will answer them.
So he should not have known it was a robocall, thus faked. Thus BS, as I said before. Shenanigans!!!
Supposed to make you think something along the lines of, "This must be a really big problem if even the CEO of AT&T can't escape them. I guess there really is nothing they can do about them."
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It was staged. You are supposed to believe it "really happened".
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Half? That's 99% of the ones I get.
If I see my area code and prefix, it's a robocall.
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Yes, yes, "I'm from your bank I just need some information from you." Most decent banks will have the outbound number set to their main customer service line. You'd be stupid to speak to someone who called you claiming to be your bank.
Anytime I get a call from my credit union, I'll pretty much always ask, can I get your extension at the main number so I can call you back. Not once has their been a complaint about me doing so.
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I haven't watched the speech, and I don't know how the watch works, but if it doesn't ring I assume it buzzes. He may have just moved to stop it, glanced at the display like you would a watch or anything you are about to interact with, and seen it as a robocall. I recall reading the Pixel will show a warning of SUSPECTED SCAM, so why wouldn't the iOS equivalent?
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Apple Watch does in fact play a ringtone, if you use Do Not Distub mode Apple Watch follows iPhone, if you use the silent switch, both devices need silenced individually. Last meeting I was in, I switched on Do Not Disturb (both Apple Watch and iPhone) and theater mode on Apple Watch (keeps the display from turning on unless you touch the screen or press a button).
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The same type of people who NEVER turn their ringer off.
Or who are too stupid too.
I actually fancy myself to be someone who is at least somewhat tech savvy and my ringer is NEVER (intentionally) on unless I'm eagerly awaiting a call and yet today the thing made noises and vibrated. It usually doesn't. How the hell did that happen? I don't know. I just wanted to throw the phone against the wall.
It wasn't a good time. Hasn't everyone wanted to throw their phone against the wall at some point? I mean if w
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Did it actually play the ringtone?
If you set the phone to silent the incoming call is usually still displayed on the screen and on your smartwatch, maybe with vibration.
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Even turning the ringer off wouldn't stop calls coming in. You would have to turn the sound off and put it into airplane mode but you would still get alerts in vibration mode.
The best thing to do is to turn everything off. If something important enough to interrupt an interview like that a CEO of a big company would have someone with them or would have someone who knows how to get in touch with them while their phone was off.
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Yup. This is BS. AT&T is complicit in this shit, because they profit from it.
This was a stunt to either:
A - Show how much of a problem it is and help them continue to pretend that they can't do anything about it, deflecting any pressure from the FCC, congress, etc.
B - Start the lip service PR "effort" to show that they're trying to combat it. Such an "effort" will probably involve asking for public money to setup systems and tools to combat spam calls. It will assuredly include exceptions for the pow
Why would the telcos want to stop this? (Score:5, Insightful)
They make far too much money from people answering spam calls.
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nothing will change so long as origin, intermediary, and/or terminating telcos make money per call, even though the tech has existed for decades (i.e. since the debut of the feature) to combat 'fake' caller id.
Re:Why would the telcos want to stop this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fine the phone company for any robocall that they cannot trace. That will motivate them to make the necessary changes to track the originator of the calls, or cut-off those intermediate telcos who refuse.
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I would imagine very few people now pay by the minute, and that most of the time robocalls just stresses the network for no additional revenue to the telcos. How much money do you think telcos make with each incremental call?
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I'm not sure they do. The phone industry group/alliance (can't remember their name) has warned that most people don't answer the phone - which means they don't use them. And if we don't need them - we'll stop buying. And legit businesses will stop spending too and try finding their customers using a different technology (aka "Reminder - you have a doctor's appt tomorrow" or "I'd like to schedule time to fix your appliances"). This discussion was during a news conference on STIR/SHAKEN.
The spammers
Re: Different world... but why? (Score:1)
I keep getting several DAILY Philadelphia area code calls from some clown using several different 215 numbers. Most are hang ups, but I get partial robo-call recordings in my voicemail about auto insurance. I don't even own a car.
Of course, these "Philadelphia" calls could be originating from anywhere in the world, because the even bigger, stupid, garish, and smelly clowns who designed Caller ID decided "fuck the telephone subscriber, we don't need security, there's money to be had!", and there is little or
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I don't get many on my mobile number, but...
I recently got a new Google Voice number, which I have never given out to anyone, and it gets repeated calls from the same number(s) (different numbers, but on any given day repeated calls from the same one) almost daily. I just disable notifications from Voice, and every day or two block and report as spam all of those numbers.
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You're just lucky. Once some asshole puts your number in the list though, you'll never be free of them. They call me 2-3 times a day now.
Load of Bullshit ... (Score:5, Interesting)
All that is required is:
(1) Reverse Path Verification (That is, do not accept terminations from a network that could not be the originator)
(2) Do not permit originators to set "Caller ID" to a number they have not rented (from the provider).
Problem solved.
However, this will never happen because in case (1) the terminating network makes money from terminating incoming calls. They will not make this money if they refuse to terminate the call. Therefore, they have an interest in not verifying anything at all as that will adversely affect their revenue stream.
In case (2) the provider (call originator) makes money from originating calls. They do not care that the "caller id" is fraudulent (and they know it is fraudulent because they do know which customer to charge for the call origination). They have an interest in not preventing fraudulent "caller id" since that will adversely affect their revenue stream.
There is absolutely no need for this Stirred and Shaken crappola that will do nought whatsoever.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that dingy-doofus was interrupted on stage by a robocall SINCE HE DID NOT ANSWER THE CALL AND NO WITNESSES HEARD THE ROBOCALL. It was more likely his boyfriend calling to remind him to bring home some more lube.
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Parent poster is absolutely correct.
A database of which carriers can terminate which numbers is already in existence and used every day -- otherwise we wouldn't have phone number portability. It should be easy to determine if calling party identification is legitimate and that the source of a call is legitimate just based on whether you know if it is the termination path for a reversed call.
There are some legitimate reasons for misidentifying a call (call origin does not match call termination path), but t
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I manage the telephony at two locations. For a while, I could send whatever caller ID I wished on the PRI at one location but the other location only allowed me to send caller ID from the pools of numbers that were routed to me over that circuit. If every telco enforced this it would cut down on the spoofing dramatically.
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Not possible, since you only know the networks you are directly connected to... and the network you are connected to may only be just trying to forward you the details it was given itself. There may be any number of reasons that a call that you think should have come from network Y because that's the route that you would have taken to reach it from your network might instead be coming to you
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A decent post ruined in the last sentence by a random outburst of homophobia. Come on AC, you can be better than that.
Stop trying to steal from me and give to corps (Score:3)
That's not a "rented phone number". By federal law that's my number. I can take it to another provider. It's like owning a static IP, vs. renting one from your ISP. You get to take it with you.
Which is good, because number lockin was a way to keep people from moving to another provider, and caused rates to go higher.
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By that logic, there's almost nothing you own. Land and vehicles require fees every year. So do web-domains and professional licenses. Even most people's bank/stock accounts have maintenance fees.
Anyone else had FEWER calls last 2 weeks? (Score:3)
As much as I would like to think that John Oliver's move might have something to do with it, I still don't expect the FCC guys have any concern for us poor bastards on our regular consumer-grade cell phone plans.
Re:Anyone else had FEWER calls last 2 weeks? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have had none this year and one last year. Unsolicited commercial call, that is. Robo-calls I never had a single one in my life. Of course, here the robo-caller pays a $50'000 fine per incident and repeat offenders may go to prison. Europe is a bit ahead of the US in these matters.
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Indeed. Of course the cell providers still try to gouge the customer, especially on roaming (happens a lot in Europe, lots of countries), but EU law will put an end to that pretty soon.
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Already effective? I thought 2020. My mistake.
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I still keep a land line for emergency use since I live in tornado alley.
It gets called about 6 times every day just after noon, and other 8 times every day between 8 and 9pm.
I never answer it. It is meant for outbound calls only.
I am fairly sure that a good portion of them are political ads, since this is / will be an election year, but the total volume has not really changed from this. I think it is the max that can squeeze in, in the "hot" hours.
I work 3rd shift, so I have gotten used to sleeping throug
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This is what naked capitalism looks like. The next time some schmuck advocates a market based solution, remind them of the cold calling menace, and ask how well that market self-regulation has worked.
Indeed. Horrible.
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"Article 10 – Freedom of expression 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties
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What has that to do with anything? You have no argument and nothing worthwhile to contribute so you complain about something entirely different? Are you mentally challenged?
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Europe is a bit ahead of the US in these matters.
The fine is $40,000 in the US.
The problem is that there is no one to fine when the callers originate from India. Perhaps if the perpetrator cannot be found then they could fine the phone company? That fine would quickly motivate the companies to track down the actual originator of the call.
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They eventually have to sell you something. That is when you get them. Also, they will pay the long-distance charges.
But the details do not matter. This works here and in the US is does not. That is what matters in the end.
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Not for me— four social security scams, two Chinese consulate scams, but only one or two outright hang ups. Similar situation, same number 17 years.
And for the jackass that screwed up his email address with mine for Mass Goalies, please tell them they need an unsubscribe function! They aren’t as fun as the ones from Irish politicians.
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Indian recruiters. My profile is up in several places so that job candidates can look me me up. Any text change on the profile triggers a wave of non-technical people from India, pretending that they are from the USA, with technology jobs from around the world.
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I could be technical problems.
Facebook, Google, and Uber had technical problems recently.
Re:Anyone else had FEWER calls the last 2 weeks? (Score:2)
I could be technical problems.
That's what I've been wondering. The coincidence of the timing is interesting though.
Facebook, Google, and Uber had technical problems recently.
I've never used Facebook or Uber in any way, shape or form. Facebook of course has been known to build profiles of non-users but they've never had my phone number or any other information that I would enter in to it in the process of starting a profile. Uber should know little to nothing of me as I've never signed up for them or installed their app on any phone I've ever owned.
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How practical is it to just block all calls except for a specific whitelist?
You could whitelist your friends and institutions like your bank who handily spoof their called ID number to the main switchboard one. Everything else just silently drop the call.
How often does an unknown number make an important call to your phone? Do you want to talk to anyone who doesn't also have your email address to arrange to be whitelisted first?
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Good idea, but in practice it doesn't work because these jackasses are spoofing numbers on top of their robocalling. I've had it happen more than once that they used a number that was in my contacts list. Ever since dumbass Facebook allowed people to be searched via their security number, this has been a major issue - they are simply scripting their searches to harvest numbers and forming a matching dataset with your friends/family, and then spoofing their numbers when they dial you.
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I've seen it, too.
I changed my phone number a month or so, because after three years it was still on the list for every payday loan and bad credit scheme from the prior owner (texts *always* addressed to the same name).
I still got the robocalls on a never before issued number, but they seem to have stopped.
They had gone through the roof a couple (few?) months ago. Before that, Tmobile usually caught them as "spam likely", and now I'm not seeing them at all again.
I suspect that someone found away around the
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I suspect that someone found away around the screening, and then Tmobile figured it out.
I do happen to be a TMobile customer, but I would think it would be awfully dangerous for Tmobile to play around with a technical approach to this problem - especially without warning customers. While the robocalling is overwhelmingly used for obnoxious (and sometimes outright illegal) purposes, there are also times when number masking is actually useful and legal. They're playing with fire if they are doing this.
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My understanding is that Tmobile simply shows "scam likely" as caller id and puts through the call, unless you choose to reject them.
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My understanding is that Tmobile simply shows "scam likely" as caller id and puts through the call, unless you choose to reject them.
Indeed that is what they do. However in my case, the past few weeks now I've even seen fewer of those. I used to see around 5 "scam likely" calls every day. Now I see fewer than 2 per week. The shift happened abruptly, just a few weeks ago now.
Scambaiting (Score:2)
Basically the only thing pushing back against the tide are around 2,000 nutjobs with homebrew Asterisk servers trying to robodial back against 100,000+ autodialers dumping billions of calls on the telecom network.
Thanks to robodialers being employed everywhere, they're pushing voice calls into obsolescence. My job moved to a closed SIP network off of PSTN years ago, and I only have 2 relatives left alive who send me PSTN calls, the rest text. When those 2 people die---no more need for voice service.
No issue where I am (Score:2, Interesting)
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The robocalls are typically from Indian call centers, to primarily English speaking countries rich enough (and populous enough) that they can get $100-200 US from them without batting an eye. So relatively rich countries, typically England,
Re: No issue where I am (Score:5, Funny)
> > The US is a target because everyone knows our language and we have money.
> That doesn't explain why this problem doesn't exist in the UK and Ireland.
Because you don't have money?
Oh, what is his cell number? (Score:3)
While we are at it, how about home, office, secretary. Oh, and the same for all the other carriers, land and wireless. I sense a good Kickstarter coming.
Now THAT's Showmanship (Score:1)
This is on par with that stupid Bill Gates bullshit "here's a jar of mosquitoes - see how big a threat Malaria is now?"
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The irony is ... (Score:4, Funny)
Robocalls are impossible to stop (Score:3, Insightful)
... says only country where this regularly happens.
You just gotta get over the idea that everyone has a god given right to advertise to anyone anywhere. But getting that particular meme out of the US consciousness is going to be difficult.
My (theoretical) solution for individuals (Score:2)
I know you can setup asterix virtual PBX to have an automated system that makes callers answer some type of prompt to get your phone to ring. I don't think it will work on smartphones, but there must be some sort of thing that can do this.
That way anyone you know who calls you gets through automatically based on their phone number, anyone else will have to use touch tones to answer a basic question (like picking your name out of a 1-9 numbered list) or do some very easy math.
The advice on robocalls is wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
We're always told - don't pick up, don't engage. But the truth is, if we want to stop these robocalls, then if you can you *should* answer, you *should* engage, and you should try to keep a live person on the line with you for as long as possible. This will cost the scammers money... after all, talking to a human isn't free; that human is getting paid. Or if they aren't paid by the hour, then if they are busy with you who (presumably) knows its a scam, then they are unavailable to be scamming others.
If we as a culture decided to waste a few minutes of the scammers' time with every phone call, then they would quickly lose their value, and many scammers would go out of business.
Non-government solution (Score:1)
1. Get a Google Voice phone number (or some other IP number)
2. Use it on all web sites, credit applications, loyalty cards, etc
3. Never answer it
4. If a number doesn't leave a voice mail, block it
5. Check the voice mail, if it's a scammer, block it
6. If it's a real call, let them know your real number
7. Now, setup a 'fake' email
8. Use it on all web sites, credit applications, loyalty cards, etc.
9. Check it from time to time in case email you want gets in there so you can update that one email
10. Move t
premium number loophole (Score:2)
This would help solve a lot of this issues.
US problem only? (Score:3)
i hear a lot of US people complain about robocalls, it seems to be a real, serious problem.
it's something i never ever hear about with my friends, colleagues, family, etc here in EU.
i'm really interested to know/hear why this seems to be a US only(?) problem, what's stopping robocallers in EU?
Enough with the "Literally" (Score:2)
It's literally a robocall.
Really? So you mean it's not figuratively a robocall? The pervasive unnecessary use of the word "literally" needs to stop.