A couple of weeks ago I discovered that Shaw has a Spam Block feature in my Home Phone Plan. I was logged into My Shaw in order to add yet another phone number to my Blocked number list. I decided to enable the feature and immediately we saw a reduction (maybe even eliminated) of nuisance calls. No more call centre VOIP calls from India. No more cold calls from furnace cleaning companies or charities looking for clothing donations or from political parties. Pretty quiet.
The Shaw help says they use an algorithm to identify and block these types of calls to your home phone, but will allow the caller to leave a voice mail in case it is a legitimate number that you would want to speak with.
My son says a new CRTC regulation requires all phone service providers to have a feature like this. I don't know if this is true, but I am vey happy with the feature. I thought I'd pass this along to members in case they were not aware of it.
1. This sounds interesting. Any suspected phone number would be allowed to leave a voicemail, but not "ring through". Most telemarketers don't leave VM.
2. I don't know exactly how that would work because "legitimate" numbers are not allowed to be "blocked".
3. Telemarketers typically use an auto-dialer and also generate new call display (spoofed) numbers (either with each call or each group of calls). Many times the spoofed numbers are from your exchange. For example, if your phone number is 416-555-1234, you'd see a call display number like 416-555-xxxx.
4. I suppose if a service provider found that a lot of calls were coming from a particular (call display) number to a lot of their customers, they could "block" that number. Also, since you've initiated this, rather than it being done "globally" by the service provider, that gets around item 2.
5. The CRTC mandated "universal network-level call blocking" and that is coming into play. This eliminates any calls from phone numbers that don't follow international standards: Numbers like 111-111-1111, etc.
6. I've noticed that Telemarketing calls seem to come to my home (and cell) phones in waves. I may go several weeks or months without many calls and then I'm inundated for a couple of weeks and they stop again. Not sure if the wave stops because the telemarketers are caught or simply work this way.
The CRTC just issued a new press release this morning. The following thread is probably the best place to discuss the topic unless it's specific to Shaw.
Update. I've had this feature on now for 11 days. The number of nuisance calls has dropped to almost zero. I had one call with a 12 digit number (I didn't answer) that may or may not have been legitimate. I believe the new CRTC rule effective Dec.19 would stop these. No 1-800 calls, no HVAC service calls, no charity calls, no polling calls, no political party calls, no this is the CRA coming to get you call either. No one has left a message on the Shaw Voicemail either. I will update again in the future in case anyone is interested.
I've used this service for years but found it didn't allow you to block enough phone numbers: just too much spam out there!
Just bought new cordless phones to replace our outdated ones and they block up to 1000 #'s with a button push. Love it.
You haven't used the service as discussed in this thread, which is totally different from a simple phone block. Also blocking numbers these days, even if you have room for a thousand, is next to useless since most telemarketers are constantly spoofing new numbers so the one you block isn't usually blocked again except in very rare instances.
Thanks for the correction. I didn't realize their website options had changed. So I've turned it on and will see what happens with spam calls now. I appreciate your input.
My post #4 was incorrect. I found a note where I wrote that I enabled the feature on November 23. That would make it about 47 days now without nuisance calls. I did learn another thing after visiting with a friend. You can still enable the feature if you are on the basic phone service, but it won't allow the caller to leave a voice mail on the Shaw server. So if the feature stops a legitimate call, the caller cannot contact you.
I must have jinxed myself with yesterday's post. Either that or spammer's are figuring out ways to infiltrate. I had two nuisance calls this morning. One from the infamous "your Visa has been compromised" and the other was from a Neepawa, Manitoba number that I answered. Obvious call centre from India. When I gave a terse "Who's calling?", they hung up.
It will be interesting to see if Shaw's algorithms can keep up with ever inventive spammers.
Update. Its now Jan.25 and since my last post there have been no spam callers. One call from Ekos Research for a public opinion poll that came through and call display clearly identified that it was Ekos.
Same here. No spam calls since I turned it on about 3 weeks ago. Used to get a couple every week.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums
1.7M posts
114.9K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to Canadian TV, computing and home theatre owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about home audio/video, displays, troubleshooting, styles, projects, DIY’s, product reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!