[anonymous5133]

I think the problem has gotten so serious that the traditional voice-based phone system is pretty much unusable. I don't even bother to answer the phone. Instead I have a voice mail message that tells people to send a text message instead. I can't be the only one who does something like this or has some other system in place to not have to deal with robocalls/scam callers.

[r00fus]

Not sure what carrier you're using but T-Mobile in the US just released "scam block" ( I had "scam ID" turned on previously).

In addition to marking calls as scam, now they simply block them outright. Getting approximately 0 scam calls in the past 2 days.

[supertrope]

Job seekers and those with medically needy relatives are among those who cannot tolerate any false positive especially if calls are entirely rejected and cannot even leave a voicemail.

[nacs]

TMobile has 2 levels of it. One just labels the Caller ID for those suspected numbers as "Scam Likely". An additional feature (which OP is referring to) blocks the calls automatically.

[kurthr]

I hope it works... it's kinda terrifying that getting no scam calls for 2 days is significant!

I have a test/dev phone that I used for a project several years ago with an associated ph#. I forgot about it (don't think about the charges accrued 8^) for several years, but just charged it and turned it on.

It's a number that was never used or answered for 3 years and it gets several scam calls a day. They must be calling every valid number.

[bpicolo]

I didn't realize they had added the block feature too, nice! Just went and enabled that

[toddh]

Does this work for the sweepstakes type scams where they try to induce the elderly send money for a fabulous prize they supposedly won? Just curious in general how they ID a scam?

[supertrope]

The simplest and most powerful definition of "spam" is "whatever our users report as spam."

[toddh]

People don't mark calls as spam so I wonder how they do the training?

[chiefalchemist]

I believe Google recently released something similar for Android.

These calls are spam for phones. Certainly, there's an obvious pattern that can be identified and then neutralized.

[supertrope]

Email spam became tractable on the end user side with domain and IP address risk scoring. Caller IDs are so easily spoofable it's like open relay email servers of the past.

[chiefalchemist]

When they spoof are they using otherwise valid numbers? That is, if you returned the call you'd speak to someone's grandmother?

None the less, can't the phone providers detect the excessive outgoing traffic? And if it's a residential number can't that raise a red flag?

[daveFNbuck]

Do you have a link for that? I have an Android phone, but I received a call marked as spam yesterday. I'd love to be able to just block those.

[Fnoord]

I never get any robocalls. I do get robots when I initiate the call though (which is very annoying). Then again, we got privacy and telemarketing laws here.

[skate22]

No voicemail and no picking up for random numbers. Works well for me

[njarboe]

The world could have such a wider set of solutions to many problems on the internet if there were just a good system of micropayments. Any idea why the US government or some other government does not create such a system? If people not in my contact list were immediately sent to voicemail and charged 10 cents to leave me a message, spam would basically go away. Similar for email spam. One can dream.

[theandrewbailey]

> Any idea why the US government or some other government does not create such a system?

The US government isn't in the business of running the internet or phone or micropayment systems, and it's not interested.

[njarboe]

Its into supplying its citizens with a useful currency. Micropayments of dollars is just usefully currency online. Seems like microdollars would be a natural monopoly, ideal for the US government to produce.

[nojvek]

Yeah I do the same. I only pick up phones if it’s from a contact I know. 99% it’s my wife. Most of my friends use some form of text messages.

Most people leave a voicemail. Thanks to technology, the voice mails get transcribed and I can quickly decide whether I should return the call.

I also see “Spam Likely” for a whole range of numbers. Not sure if it’s Apple or T-mobile but I sure do appreaciate the heads up.

[mdhen]

I have do not disturb turned on always, but my contacts are exempt, so for people I know it will ring. If I get a call from a non contact they can leave a voicemail. But most of the time it's a robocall. Not having to deal with my phone ringing all the time has been a big improvement.

[nacs]

"Scam Likely" is a T-Mobile thing. I get it also. It can be toggled from the Tmobile website.