Call Blocking Devices

There are a few call blockers for Android and iOS which can block anyone who isn't on your contact list for free.

The newest Panasonic DECT 6.0 phones now allow 250 numbers to be blocked (previously the limit was 30).  Also, the ringer on blocked number can now be turned off completely (previously the phone rang once if a blocked number was received).

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/panaso ... archPageIndex=1

I have a Panasonic that supports up to 50. The operative words being "up to". It must mean 50 7 digit numbers because it is only storing about 30 numbers. Of course all the calls I want to block are 10 or 11 digits. I blocked the 30 within a month of getting the phone. With memory cards so cheap I cannot understand why they cannot configure to store 1000's of numbers. Very frustrating.

For Android smart phones I found the free app Blacklist Plus by Vlad Lee to do an excellent job at flexibly blocking specified calls.  You can get the number from the call log or enter it manually.  It allows wildcard digits and alpha characters at any level, so for example, I can block any call from 877-335-????.  It blocks from your blacklist, any number not on your whitelist, or any number not in your contacts. It blocks SMS text messages as well as phone calls.  It can either silently hangup on blocked numbers, or just disable the ringer so they go to voicemail.  Notifications, etc, can optionally be enabled or disabled.  A "Pro" version is available for a small fee which password protects the app, and it has a few additional features.  Blacklist Plus has a very simple interface and works flawlessly.  I tried several other call blocker apps, including some others by Vlad Lee, but as you can see I ultimately settled on this one.

A new service is about to debut (see http://www.nomorobo.com/) and may provide solutions for many of us who are junk called regularly.  

This is a cloud based service that relies on black lists and white lists.  The black list will start off using the donotcall.gov listings of junk callers, then add additional listings based on input from users.  As I understand it, calls must be forwarded to nomorobo so they can be screened, then non-black listed calls ring through.  

You can sign up to receive more info on their website.

JimT

My fave techie site explained a few things on the challenge winner back in April:

No more robocalls: New tech automatically hangs up on robots
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology ... s-up-on-robots/

Comments on the submission site offer interesting criticisms ...
http://robocall.challenge.gov/submissions/13219-nomorobo

My initial concerns:

- Dependence on "conditional call forwarding", a telco feature of which I confess ignorance and I'm not even sure is available to everyone.

- The service is mainly a challenge-response system meant to Turing Test inbound calls. I have a gadget on my desk which does the same thing and delivers distinctive ring patterns for human callers besides. I quit using it maybe four years ago. The number of legitimate and harmless bit callers was rising, and it simply annoyed and confused welcome human callers.

- The filter lists will be inevitably ballot-stuffed by the likes of Kat Owen, Debbie Crivaro, Deb Mannix, and others who hear a scammer every time their phones ring and want Someone Else with a District of Columbia office to solve their problems.

https://800notes.com/forum/ta-8104fa04874019a/petition-to-the-white-house
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-4b30b934d99377e ... top-these-calls

I will give Aaron Foss a point up for giving his service a name you can dance to.

One thing that immediately jumped out at me was, from article, " robocalls are legal for groups such as charities, government and political organizations, and pharmacies notifying customers that their prescriptions are ready."   Pharmacies and schools and police "amber alerts," ok, but we all know some of the worst robocall offenders  are bogus "political groups" and "charities."   The bogus "charity" industry has exploded under the DNC rules and these systems would seemingly not prevent them.  As a result, the number of bogus charity and political group facades set up by crooks will expand exponentially.   Also, the crooks like rachel are simply going to find work-arounds to "whitelist/blacklist" systems.   Eternally changing spoofed numbers and robo systems with voice recognition could probably be used to defeat the "you may be a robocaller, press 71" defenses.  

Don't mean to sound totally negative; these ideas are definitely good and will hopefully prove effective, but these systems need "red team" testing before they can be relied on by the general public.

Many callers are by definition not covered by the Telemarketing Sales Rule. That's not news, and it's something everyone who registered a phone number with federal DNC was supposed to read and understand at that time.

National Do Not Call Registry Q&A
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0108-national-do-not-call-registry

It follows that whether exempt callers use a human or a canned voice is of no legal concern at the moment. You are quite correct that the exemptions have been badly abused by outright thieves and the barely legal fraud which passes for "fundraising".

A technological response is but one of the suite of countermeasures we'll need going forward. I'm likewise not sure the current system proposals will last long in the nuisance call arms race. As I've said a few times over, we have seen the whole "robocall" drama play out once already during the rise of email spam. Cheap to deliver, easy to conceal its source, damned hard to prosecute offenders. Target *those* elements and you got a deal for my angel investment money. (... not that I have any)

The NoMoRobo solution is not for everyone and won't be 100% effective.  There is no 100% effective solution available today and spammers adapt to new technology quickly.  Many of us have no defense other than just not answering the phone when it rings and blowing a whistle in their ear (ha ha), or letting our answering machines/vmail screen the calls for us.  NoMoRobo gives us another option to help remove many of the spam calls.

NoMoRobo is supposed to be free for their basic blocking service (we will see once it is released in a couple months).  However, call forwarding services usually cost $5-12 per month (depending on service providers and availability) in addition to caller ID service.  

Some people will not be able to afford these additional phone costs in order to use NoMoRobo.  For those of us who can afford the extra charges, additional "premium" blocking for political and charity spammers will be available from NoMoRobo for some yet to be announced cost.  

It seems to me that that our best chances of stopping most of these unwanted calls is to use an integrated multi-thronged approach where we deploy more than one service/device to rid us of the robocallers and scammers.  

I just purchased the Pro Call Blocker CT-803 here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-PRO-CALL-BLOCKER- ... =item2329147795 

This call blocker has its own blacklist of up to 1500 numbers.  It requires you have caller id services on your phone.  You can enter numbers by hand or press a button to copy calls received to the list automatically.  You can also block by area codes including 800 type numbers.  You can block known political and collection call numbers too.  

I plan to use it standalone at first, then in conjunction with NoMoRobo (when NoMoRobo is released) and hope to have an end to the vast majority of junk calls.  

Some have sugested CAPTCHA-like solutions (like the "validation code" in use on this forum).  I don't think that is very phone-friendly and would require incoming callers to enter the correct puzzle answers each time before their calls would be allowed through.  Friends and family would be quite annoyed and would tend to call less.  

I get daily attacks on my website from hackers and apammers from around the world, China and Russia are the two biggest spambot sources right now.  I use random CAPTCHA puzzles on my website and they stop many of the spambots.  What really works well on my (Drupal-based) website is BOTCHA in conjunction with SpamBot.  BOTCHA stops the vast majority of spambot submissions through the use of "honeypots" and heuristic analysis techniques.  

I can only dream that someday soon, someone will develop a BOTCHA-like service for our phones!

JimT

Seems it should be so simple to design a device to work with one's computer that would simply compare the incoming call CID info with a maintained list of telemarketer phone numbers and disconnect the call before or after (user selectable) the first ring. The list should be in Excel format so that caller info can be updated by the user and/or a website such as this one which would enable everyone to share info and basically have a database that is updated on a continuous basis. Info such as caller, dates and times they called, number of times they called, and so on would be helpful to all, as numbers that stop calling after a period of time could be eliminated from the database allowing room for more up to date numbers to reside. The device should have enough memory (which could consist of a thumb-drive) to store thousands of numbers and operate on a stand-alone basis, using the computer for info updating, related info storage, and backup in case of memory loss. A device like this should sell like hotcakes, but ironically would probably have to be produced offshore due to the power of the Telemarketing Lobby as far as keeping them out of production here and eliminating sales at major domestic distributors. Radio Shack once had a device that hung up on callers who's number was entered into the device. It didn't take long for the Telemarketing Lobby to force Radio Shack into taking it off the market.

The new version of Phone Tray Pro software does exactly that: It downloads both blacklists and whitelists from the company web site. Unfortunately the software won't do *anything* if you don't allow it to communicate with its mother ship. It won't even install on your computer if you don't let it phone home. This is a no-no for software in general in my book but, as others have noted, it's particularly ironic for any software supposedly intended to protect your privacy.

Digitone is the only one that works for everything. I don't even know the call happened unless I bring it up on the screen. Golden silence.

The Govt Registry is useless. Unless the complaints are in the 6-7 figures the govs do nothing. So my constant complaints about the PITA caller from the local construction businesses will always go unnoticed. So get a device like Digitone which I now have. $92. and have peace in the home. I exclude everyone in the world except those I want to hear from and then leave a very narrow opening for new callers. I don't even know spammers call as the phone doesn't ring.

Digitone Call Blocker 10 only has enough memory to block 80 numbers.  That may be fine for those who do not get a large number of spam calls, especially from spoofed numbers.  The Pro Call Blocker 2 has memory for 1500 blocked numbers in addition to blocking area codes and is about $30 less than the Digitone.  

JimT

I have to agree with JimT.  At nearly $100 and able to block only 80 numbers, the Digitone is a poor value.

The other one, at $60 can block more than 1,000, (the claimed capacity of 1500 has been called into question on Amazon) but it too has issues - ie. no callerID Name display; Incomplete or poorly written documentation; Programming via the attached phone, etc.

I'm still using a blocker called Intellscreener that I bought over 10 years ago.  I don't know what its number capacity is - I never saw it mentioned in the manual - but I've never hit the limit in all this time.  Certain callerIDs, such as 'out of area', 'private', 'unknown', and other kinds of blank-number calls can be set to block automatically, plus, it allows blocking by area code, and by callerID NAME which, when used together, saves alot of time and a huge number of slots.  There's more, but you get the picture... it's the most complete and full-featured blocker I've ever seen - before or since.  

If the Intelliscreener was still being made I'd buy at least three of them right now as gifts.