Robo / Spam Calls

There’s a lot of information in this thread that I’d like to weigh in on for just a second. To start, if you are using the Caller ID system to “trick” people into picking up their phones, I don’t have any sympathy for you. From a “receiver” position, it’s a practice that should be discouraged at almost any turn. Having said that, here’s my summary:

  • In the olden days, the Central Office was responsible for Caller ID (the Orange Box not withstanding) because it was associated with a specific copper pair or specific DS0 channel on a T-1 or PRI.
  • On copper, there weren’t simple ways to change the Caller ID on the line. For most people, it had to be done at the provider. Specific system differences and solutions did exist, but it was an expensive bit of business to get it going.
  • With the advent of VOIP, providers had the opportunity to move Caller ID provisioning out to the PBX. One reason for this was because (unlike the olden days) more than one number could be provisioned on the line. The simplest solution was to allow whatever caller ID the customer wanted to use to be sent with the call. This is what makes Caller ID spoofing easier on VOIP.
  • As Caller ID spoofing and ghosting became issues, many providers changed their policies to only allow Caller ID from the account associated with the PBX. This had a chilling effect on many “new” features of this practice, including being able for forward a call from the PBX to a cell phone with the originator’s Caller ID information.
  • As people implement free/cheap telephony solutions, they will continue to abuse the Caller ID system (using other people’s caller ID information or using invalid Caller ID information) more and more providers are going to start clamping down on the legitimate uses of Caller ID flexibility.

So, your point that it’s easier is well taken and may be close enough, but the real “problem” is that it’s now practically free to do it and that anyone can do it without any coordination. The “fly by nights” that used to do it had to expend real capital to steal people’s money and identities. Now, you can do it from an Internet Café or McDonalds.

We regularly get people on here who want to know the “best” way to anonymously call people. Their requests for support are seldom met with much traffic because the vast majority of us aren’t trying to SPAM people or trick people into answering their calls - we’re usually on the receiving end (the million to one ratio of callers versus callees) so most of us are trying to figure out how to stop that.

Just so we’re clear, I don’t have an issue with people that “morph” their caller ID for reasons that make sense (you have support centers in every area code in the country and want people to have a “local” number to call, or you want the Caller ID that gets sent to your cell phone to be the person that called and not the office). The people I have trouble with are the ones that call me from my own phone number or from my exchange to sell me Health Insurance, to help me with my Student Loans, or to pretend they’re sending the cops to pick me up if I don’t “pay my fine”). These people are the ones I’d love to figure out how to stop, but because of the way that CID works, it’s just not going to happen with the current infrastructure.

We concur so completely that anything I’d add would be redundant. And you nailed our situation soundly as well – except we only have the one Call Center but Offices in four states (so far). We’re only trying to “trick” our existing Customers (occasionally Prospects) into not dodging our calls, because we only call the customer or prospect when it’s absolutely necessary – and it’s sometimes absolutely necessary. We have a LOT of better things to do with our time.

Personally, I only pick up calls that are already on my Contacts. That helps some.

Adding a simple IVR in front of a call flow filters out most of the guff

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Works good on a PBX. A little more challenging on my cell phone.

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