[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Why do I get robocalls from recently-called ... ___________________________________________________________________ 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-11 23:00 UTC)