[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Why do I get robocalls from recently-called ...
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Ask HN: Why do I get robocalls from recently-called area codes?
Over the past few weeks, I've started receiving robocalls from area
codes that I happen to have just called or received a call from.
At first I thought this was just me noticing a pattern that wasn't
really there, but when I looked back at my phone records I could
see that I had literally never received a phone call from either of
these area codes, and that within a day of talking with someone in
that area code I started getting robocalls. Has anyone else
experienced this? How would robocallers get this information --
interception, buying it from my cell phone company, or something
else? Even if they're just buying a list of area codes I've talked
to, this seems completely inappropriate. And if they're getting the
actual numbers, that's even worse.
Author : gnicholas
Score : 29 points
Date : 2022-02-11 21:49 UTC (1 hours ago)
| rsync wrote:
| Which carrier do you use ?
| gnicholas wrote:
| It's an MVNO, which makes me extra suspicious that the reason
| they have low prices is because they're selling my information.
| james-skemp wrote:
| We might need more information.
|
| I get a number of local code spam calls, but have seen an
| increase in state code calls.
|
| Are the area codes you're seeing local to you, or distant? Or,
| what's the likelihood that someone in your region would be
| calling the same area codes?
| gnicholas wrote:
| I live in the Bay Area, and the area codes are from SoCal (not
| one of the major ones) and Delaware.
|
| I previously received robocalls from my local area code, and
| random ones from around the country. But not from these area
| codes.
| slt2021 wrote:
| does anyone know who is the telecom company that provides routes
| the calls from the robocallers?
| techsupporter wrote:
| There are hundreds, you'd have to play whack-a-mole with myriad
| VoIP and second- and third-tier wireline providers to get them
| all. And that presupposes that the accounts are even
| legitimate. A lot of robocalls are delivered through hacked SIP
| credentials.
|
| I know people like to pick on them because they do seem to turn
| a blind eye to all but the most egregious spammers, but Twilio
| is only the source of a lot of spam calls because they are a
| large carrier in their own right. It's like all of the people
| moaning about Californians being the most common place of
| origin for people moving to their area; that's true, because
| California has the most number of people.
| maxerickson wrote:
| If it's literally just hundreds they should be able to handle
| it no problem. Even if they had to staff up to do it, no
| problem.
| altairprime wrote:
| If you look up the carrier of each number you called, are there
| any commonalities across them?
|
| Have you opted out of CPNI resale in your cellular carrier's
| preferences system?
| poletopole wrote:
| Welcome to the club. They know when I get off work and wake up
| now.
| faebi wrote:
| Maybe their spam filters block many of these robo calls but they
| let them through if you had some recent contact in the same
| area/digits?
| walrus01 wrote:
| for voice calls, the best thing I ever did was set up my own
| asterisk system with a DID that answers as an IVR saying
| something like "you have reached $NAME, this is an anti-spam
| system, please confirm you are a human by entering the digits
| five three zero nine to be connected".
|
| If people then put in the DTMF tones for 5309, or whatever code
| it might be this month, it initiates an outbound call to my
| actual cellphone and bridges the calls together.
|
| In many cases I don't give out my direct cellphone number to 3rd
| parties, I only give out the DID of the system with the filtering
| IVR on it.
| gruez wrote:
| Does this system pass through the original caller's info on
| caller id?
| h0l0cube wrote:
| Seems like something people would pay for.
| inetknght wrote:
| As a counterpoint, I frequently get robocalls from area codes
| near where I travel. I recently visited Virginia and received
| robocalls from Virginia area codes for a while. A couple years
| ago I visited California and received more than the usual number
| of robocalls from California. A few years ago I visited Seattle
| and received robocalls from Washington. I most recently moved
| within Texas and the constant robocalls changed area codes to the
| more common local one.
|
| I really _really_ wish I could flag an incoming call to my
| telecom provider and get paid money for it charged to the caller.
| Then let the telecom provider prove that it was or wasn't
| malicious.
| dunham wrote:
| So far I haven't had this issue. I am in Seattle (for years),
| still have my 415 (San Francisco) phone number, and can still
| filter spam by ignoring calls from 415.
|
| If you don't mind sharing, which provider are you using? And,
| if it is Verizon, have you opted out of data sharing?
| inetknght wrote:
| T-mobile. I've opted out of all sharing that I'm aware of.
| But as I'm sure you're also aware, it's an endless fight;
| modern "businesses" frequently reset settings, rename
| settings, or add new settings with defaults that benefit them
| instead of the customer.
| Dwolb wrote:
| To piggyback on this thread, does anyone know if I can block a
| specific phone number provider (e.g. block all Twilio calls)?
| jedberg wrote:
| I think you can do that ironically if you use Twillio as your
| primary incoming phone number.
| larrymcp wrote:
| Oh my goodness, my employer uses Twilio as our phone provider.
| If people started blocking Twilio, then for example a customer
| might call our support team to ask a question, and then after
| we research the issue we would we unable to call him back. So I
| sure _hope_ that doesn 't become a thing... whew
| kylec wrote:
| Well if Twilio is facilitating robocalls, I hope it does
| become a thing. Then maybe they'd want to stop robocallers
| from using their service.
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(page generated 2022-02-11 23:00 UTC)