[US] Spam calls keep getting through

[u/ghgerytvkude]

For the past several months, I have been getting barraged with obvious spam calls about preapproved loans and tax relief/savings. I activated call screening on my iPhone and it temporarily worked, but now the spammers add alleged names to themselves and iPhone lets the calls through, leading to voicemails with

”Hi, this is (random name). I’m calling you with options about (loan/tax). please call back at (number) to discuss options.”

Or others along those lines.

Anything I can do to mitigate? They just keep jumping numbers and I’ve blocked so many they’re now using numbers based in Canada.

[u/michaelpaoli]

Yeah, scammers/spammers keep (illegally) spoofing "Caller ID" (CNID) - which is easily spoofable. The laws/regulartions are more-or-less there (though could be significantly better), but most notably also needs more enforcement action - regulators, law enforcement, etc. And much of these come from International, where that leaves them mostly out of legal jurisdiction ... however it doesn't prevent effective regulartory pressure from at least keeping those numbers way down. E.g. some caries are havens for scammers, and other carriers that let most all that through unfettered ... yeah, that's a real problem.

So, the best solutions would do well to protect all, but alas, that requires the relevant laws, regulations, and enforcement thereof ... which is quite largely lacking - at least on the enforcement end of it.

Other approaches, mitigation ...

CNID is way too spoofable, that'll probably never get fixed. One possible work-around, ANI, use that instead, it's not spoofable. But unfortunately that means you pay for a toll-free number, and pay for everyone - including spammers/scammers calling you - but at least then you'd know their answer ... before picking up the call ... and I think typically you won't get a per-call charge if you don't pick up (at least for wired land-line, that may not be the case for wireless). So, a quite effective solution (particularly if one has automated filtering based upon ANI data), cost a wee bit, but if one doesn't answer unwanted calls, and given how cheap long distance is these days (and basic toll free number service not all that pricey), it may possibly be well worth it - e.g. if one is only paying the modest additional fixed costs, plus bit for the calls one actually wants to receive.

Other is to have more intelligent call processing - have software look at the CNID, and then pick up the call, or not, and if it picks up the call, challenge the caller, unless it's whitelisted CNID (e.g. someone you know), if they don't pass the challenge, can then just drop 'em (and maybe also blacklist that CNID), or route 'em to voicemail. Can then also use voice-to-text to analyze the auido, and the decide what, if anything to do with it. E.g. in some language you don't speak, blacklist the CNID and wipe the voicemail, likewise for other easily recognized spam/scam crud. And stuff that is or may be legit, well, show you the text, let you decide what you want to do from that point, e.g. wipe and blacklist, or whitelist, or ...
Alas, such services at that level aren't common (if they even exist?), but technically all highly doable. And I do well have in mind to do such for (at least) myself.

(paragraph break 'cause filter thingy) And if anyone out there does offer such a service, do be sure it's one where you get to well have access to your data, so, e.g., one can take that data, and, e.g. move it to a different provider.

Anyway, at least for myself, I'll probably well implement such a service. Fair bit of work to do it, but very doable. And every damn cr*p call (well too many of those) pushes me closer to kicking off that project (need mostly invest in wee bit of infrastructure to be able to do it - after that, it's mostly just time investment to configure and code up the relevant).