Is it another placebo button to placate the human livestock compliments of our oh-so benevolent gubbermint or does it actually have teeth? My number continues to get annihilated by what I'm led to believe are illegal calls.
The spoofing game is stacked against us because the Internet was the worst thing to happen for telephone consumers. With POTS, a scammer needed advanced knowledge and expensive equipment to spoof. With VoIP, you only need free software and a tolerant provider.
Providers (Cox) will accept any Caller ID info sent with a call. If no name is sent, the provider will insert generic info, such as City/State or Name Unavailable.
No service (Nomo) would manage a list of 10 billion telephone numbers (10-digit). You can't block them all but you can spoof any of them. Nomo also relies on subscribers to report a nuisance number. However, by the time it's reported...if at all...a scammer would have already moved onto another spoofed number.
Anonymous Call Rejection (ACR) only works with a "...number blocked or set to private..." but most modern phones can do this. ACR does not work with calls displayed as Unknown, Unknown Name, Unknown Number, N/A or Out of Area...or any other customized anonymity, such Private Call, Private Number or Unknown Caller.
It's easy to block a number...but you can't block a spoof. Stacked!
Pretty much as before- I understood that. The point of this discussion was to evoke what I expected- formulaic responses from mods- deftly sidestepping the crux of the post- that being the new law that among other things is described as holding service providers like Cox to a higher standard in offering some sort of verification service to the targets of what amounts to harassment.
The official replies went as I expected; formulaic pat answers aimed at what is clearly calculated to be an ignorant and easily pacified customer base. I was particularly amused when one response extolled the grandiose service of anonymous call blocking- which addresses nearly none of the calls in question- making me wonder if the individual Cox employee posting it kept a straight face doing it.
The answer to be extracted is as I expected- another placebo button on par with the ineffectual DNC list- put out there as little more than a placebo button to placate a market seen as little more than possessing farm animal mentality- and it's fairly evident that both the corporate universe and elected officials share in this disdain for the general population.
We are little more than a money garden.
I think it (new law) is a work in progress (verification).
I'd be easy for over-the-top providers (ATT, Verizon, Cox) to provide "authenticated" callers but the problem is...what happens if providers receive an unauthenticated call? Drop their call?
My Gam-Gam in rural Fogo Island, Canada!
Screening and filtering assume a known list of numbers. The problem is these numbers are unknown. 68% of my calls last year were from one-time numbers. Nomo can't combat this.
Have it- and it gets maybe 20% of the illegal harassment calls. It does not appear to work on spoofed numbers which are supposed to be illegal. My understanding of the law is that service providers are supposed to take a more active role in dealing with the problem- but I suppose like most new laws passed ostensibly to protect consumers, there's probably no teeth to the new law which amounts to another placebo button to placate a herd of gullible animals.
Because of the scale of the problem I keep all my ringers off... don't want to hear them at all... and by your response you've essentially said that Cox isn't doing a damned thing. It's illegal targeted harassment that has been going on for decades.
Spoofing is not illegal. It's only illegal "...with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongly obtain anything of value." We can assume malicious intent, but we have burden to capture the intent...let alone to answer the call. Moreover, does the FCC have jurisdiction over Pedro, Hadji or Boris?
Courts do permit spoofing to law enforcement, doctors and domestic abuse victims. I've also noticed technicians spoof their private phones with the names of their employer's company.
Spoofing is allowed (tolerated) but as with any rule...emotional support animals...people will abuse it.
I've pretty much convinced myself that there's nothing that can or will be done about this, at least in my lifetime. I report every robocall I get to Nomorobo and the calls keep coming in.
Well..."can or will be done" by others. I have a local call blocker and allow-only. I don't even know I get a spam call unless I look at my call blocker. Does it block good calls? Yes! Then I allow the number. It's less effort than reporting.
