Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
FRobocalls
Enthusiast - Level 1

What is being done about this? All, literally all the call blocker apps on Android no longer work properly or no longer work how they used to because of Google's greedy desire to make everyone who wants a working call-blocker app to buy a thousand dollar pixel.

Google's stance on robocalls: "Buy a thousand dollar pixel and we'll block some robo-callers and not all the time."

Verizon Customer Service: "You can get a new number or you can block 5 of the 50 million different phone numbers out there."

FCC says: "Take care of your dang self."

I'm this close to switching to a data only plan so I don't have deal with my phone ringing or my voicemail alerts going off in the middle of the night.

My strategy right now is to let my voicemail box fill up to the point that robocallers can no longer leave me a voice mail.

This ish is ridiculous. I love how literally every entity that can help us won't do a dang thing about this epidemic.

 

 

Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
bmfb1980
Enthusiast - Level 2

Until all carriers - both landline and cell -  start using authentication (finger or face) to verify calls are coming from a legitimate number, there is no way to prevent spoofing or robocalls. 

The same tech that brought us these awesome phones... brought us spoofing and robocalls.  Just more tools for the scammers out there.

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Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

Everyone hates robo calls and scam calls.  They are annoying, disruptive, and can be criminal when they successfully scam someone.   What can I do to lessen their impact on the use of my phone and my day to day life?

First, I don't answer calls from a number I don't recognize or have in my contact list.  I can silence or mute the ring sound with one touch; if the caller is legit I'll get a voicemail and I can respond by calling back.  If the voicemail is garbage, I can delete it.  Typically, scammers or robocalls will NOT leave a voicemail.

I've also used YouMail and the DitchMail feature (it's all free).  You get a call from a restricted/unknown number, it will play a polite message asking the caller to please unblock their number and call back, and then hangs up on them with no option to leave a voicemail.  And if a call comes in from a known scammer number (marked as such by other callers), it will play the three tones and then "We're sorry, but the number you have called is no longer in service.  Please check the number and dial again."

For every trick the phone companies come up with to try and stop these guys, they'll find a way around it (spoofing, for example, so it appears to be a known number or similar to known numbers).  Similar to email scams, where the email seems to come from someone you know, the calls seem to come from your contacts or local numbers.  What I can do is ignore and not let them annoy me; it's going to happen so silence the ringer on that call, and go on.

Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
boringusername
Master - Level 1

A) Within the next week or so Verizon will be offering spam blocking app for free.

 

B) carriers are still working on SHAKEN/STIR interoperability between carriers but it'll take some time.

Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
mama23dogs
Legend

Getting a new number won’t fix it.  

I have a pixel, and use Hiya.  It doesn’t solve the problem, but it bothers me less than answering the calls.

 

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Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

FRobocalls, I can certainly understand how challenging it is to receive unwanted calls and we appreciate your efforts in managing your incoming calls. Help is here. Fortunately, Verizon is introducing our Call Filter service free of charge towards the end of March: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-robocallers-your-days-are-numbered-starting-march-verizon... I'm confident that this feature will aid you in managing the incoming calls that you receive, and your patience is greatly appreciated in the meantime. If you run into any issues or need additional assistance please let us know.

 

LorenzoP_VZW

Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
boringusername
Master - Level 1

@mama23dogs wrote:

Getting a new number won’t fix it.  

I have a pixel, and use Hiya.  It doesn’t solve the problem, but it bothers me less than answering the calls.

 


I'm not sure about the Pixel but I have the Pixel 2 XL and it has native call blocking and spam detection built in. At leaste ver since I upgraded to Pie last year. Liek you said I still occasional gets calls but seems to be less

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Re: Robocalls out of control!! FCC says: Take care of it yourself.. Verizon says: get a new number
LKA10
Enthusiast - Level 2

Does not apply to Google pixel... What a crock! We pay Verizon for service, we should get the same services offered to other customers

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