[the-facts-machine] Re: LONG: Die, robocalls, die: A guide to stop spammers and fight back

From: <rmilliman@xxxxxxx>
To: <the-facts-machine@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:59:47 -0500

Thanks for this info. We are going to apply some of these
ideas/recommendations.

Ron, K8HSY

Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, Retired Professor of Marketing & Business Consultant

From: the-facts-machine-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<the-facts-machine-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Steve
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2019 3:02 PM
To: the-facts-machine@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [the-facts-machine] LONG: Die, robocalls, die: A guide to stop
spammers and fight back

Die, robocalls, die: A guide to stop spammers and fight back . Geoffrey A.
Fowler.

"Call me, maybe? is on the brink of becoming "Call me, never."

Robocalls, those computer-generated shysters, are making some people stop
answering the phone altogether. The rest of us trust unknown calls about as
much as truck stop sushi.

By several estimates, Americans got more than 5.2 billion automated calls in
March - a record of about 16 for every man, woman and child. It's happening
because the Internet made it incredibly cheap and easy to place thousands of
calls in an instant.

But we don't have to just bury our heads in the spam and take it.

While lawmakers debate what to do about the robo-scourge, engineers have
cooked up some clever ways to make bots work for us, not against us.

Verizon just began offering free spam-fighting tech like AT&T and T-Mobile,
if you sign up. The right app or service on your phone can make it safer to
say hello again -- or even extract revenge. Yes, revenge.

So let's battle, bots.

I collected dozens of robocalls from my Post colleagues along with the (good
grief) 30 I got myself in March. I get lots in Chinese; one colleague gets
one for a "medical-grade brace" that he definitely doesn't need. Then I took
this list of 100 naughty numbers -- and a few legitimate calls like
pharmacies and schools -- to six tech companies that flag and block
robocalls on cellphones: Hiya, Nomorobo, RoboKiller, TNS, Truecaller and
YouMail. (Landlines and VoIP phones also get barraged, but some of the
solutions are different.)

My test lasers in on one important question: Who was first at identifying
the bad guys? I discovered no service could flag more than two-thirds of the
calls on my list, in part because so many robocalls spoof their identities.
Those are the callers that look conspicuously similar to your number, or
copy the caller-ID of some poor soul who gets lots of angry return calls.

In a robocall death-match, speed matters. And one free app was, on average,
faster at adding bad guys to its blacklist. It comes down to how much effort
you want to put into battling robocalls, and how much personal information
you're willing to share to make it happen.

Just adding numbers to your phone's individual block list won't get you very
far, but there are a few simple steps everyone could benefit from. Here's my
recommended plan of attack.

Round 1: Register on the 'Do Not Call' list

It won't help much, but it only takes 30 seconds so why not? The list, kept
by the Federal Trade Commission, tells legitimate telemarketers not to
bother you - the equivalent of a "no trespassing" sign on your lawn.

Bonus: It also registers with the government that you care about this issue.
It's free to register at donotcall.gov.

Round 2: Activate your service provider's free protection

Phone companies have finally realized that stopping robocalls is an
essential part of what we pay them for. You may have heard that recently the
biggest carriers pledged to support new network technology with a James Bond
name - STIR/SHAKEN - that will help identify the true origin of calls.
That's a good thing to help stop all those spoofed calls, but there's still
a lot to work out before it might make a noticeable difference.

Meanwhile, everyone should take advantage of tech the carriers offer to
identify and block certain robocalls. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon offer free
services that monitor network activity and crowdsourced reports to block
suspected fraudulent calls. The carriers outsource these services to Hiya,
First Orion and TNS, respectively. Don't worry: they cross-check your
contacts list to make sure they don't block someone legitimate.

One caveat: If your employer pays for your phone service, it might have to
authorize turning on some of these services.

AT&T :

Download an app called AT&T Call Protect. The free level of service will
label suspected spammers and gives you the option to automatically block
calls that are a fraud risk. Unfortunately, if you also want to
automatically block nuisances like spam, political calls and telemarketers,
you have to pay $4 per month, which also comes with access to AT&T's mobile
security service.

Verizon :

Download an app called Verizon Call Filter. As of recently, Verizon stopped
charging for basic service, which labels suspected robocalls and gives you
three options based on risk level for how many to block.

If you pay $3 per month, you'll also get caller ID.

T-Mobile :

Most T-Mobile customers already have the company's Scam ID and Scam Block
service turned on, with no need to download an additional app. If you pay $4
per month, you'll get better caller ID and the ability to send more kinds of
calls straight to voice mail.

In my test, the carrier services were slower at adding spammers to
blacklists than some independent apps - and paying for their premium
versions won't make them faster. In everyday use, these services take
advantage of algorithms that might have stopped spoof numbers my test didn't
pick up.

Verizon's service provider TNS and AT&T's provider Hiya identified nearly
the same number of robocalls, though Hiya did so, on average, a bit faster.
(T-Mobile's provider First Orion declined to participate.) Just as
important: Both let the legitimate calls through.

Round 3: Get a robocall-blocking app

If your carrier isn't squashing enough spam, independent apps offer a few
tricks of their own. But they're not all effective, and might also be after
the personal data in your phone.

Into my bot battle, I threw four popular apps: Nomorobo, RoboKiller,
Truecaller and YouMail. I also spoke with the companies behind them about
how they make money and handle our privacy.

I recommend starting with the free YouMail, which won my robocall speed
test. The main reason it's faster is that it has data the carrier-provided
services don't: the contents of your voice mail. YouMail replaces your
phone's existing voice mail service, and uses software to identify when
robocallers leave messages -- like Shazam for spam. That helps it quickly
crowdsource the identity of new robocallers and block them from other
phones. If YouMail, which has about 10 million registered users, sees a scam
rotating through lots of different spoofed numbers, it knows not to block
those numbers that belong to legitimate callers for all its users. A coming
update will also let you automatically block spoof calls designed to look
like they're coming from neighbors. And my favorite part: YouMail tries to
trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the
beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line.

I wouldn't blame you for being hesitant about handing over so much data,
including (on Android phones) the details of every call that comes in.
You're required to use the YouMail app to listen to your messages, but it
does helpfully transcribe them, make them accessible on the web and offer
fun outgoing message options.

YouMail says it makes money through selling a premium voice mail service for
businesses and through advertising, but over its 12-year history has also
run an identity-verification data service. The company told me it's ending
its data business and won't sell user data or share it with others unless
it's part of an effort to stop robocalls.

If you don't want to give up your voice mail, the most-effective option is
Truecaller, which replaces your phone's main call app, and crowdsources spam
numbers from some 300 million users worldwide (including 10 million in the
United States). But it wasn't my favorite app because you have to pay $3 per
month to automatically block top spammers, and it stuffs in lots of
functions unrelated to robocalling.

The simplest app, $2-per-month Nomorobo, is one of the first robocall
blockers on the market with a popular service for home lines. On your
smartphone, Nomorobo doesn't sell your data or monkey around with your voice
mail or calling apps, and is smart about blocking spoofed calls that appear
to be from neighbors. But I also found it was the slowest to add my test's
robocalls to its blacklist.

Round 4: Get revenge

For some, dark times call for dark measures. The $4-per-month RoboKiller,
which ranked second in my speed test, also takes over and fingerprints your
voice mails but adds a clever twist: "answer bots."

They're voice-mail messages that try to keep robots and human telemarketers
on the line listening to nonsense. Answer bot options range from Trump
impersonators and extended coughing sessions to someone doing vocal
exercises.

Even better, RoboKiller will send you an often-hilarious recording of the
interaction. (It only uses these recordings when it's very sure it's a spam
call.)

Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesn't sell itself as a robocall
blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by
actively trying to game the spammers' systems, such as when to press 1 to
speak to a human. It calls this tech "artificial stupidity."

It costs $11.88 per year. It's possible you're better off not engaging with
a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And it's
also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls.

But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes they're not
calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service. I expect
we'll see more call software that works like this.

Google's Pixel phones last year added a button to have a robot assistant
screen calls for you. Even if you're not interested in revenge, good bots
can play a role in combating bad ones.

References:
- [the-facts-machine] LONG: Die, robocalls, die: A guide to stop spammers and fight back
  - From: Steve

[the-facts-machine] Re: LONG: Die, robocalls, die: A guide to stop spammers and fight back

Other related posts: