[Bplayer]

Now if they can only find and fine the duct cleaning companies that would cut the junk in half. I am tired of telling them to... any and all.

 

[JamesK]

Many of those duct cleaning companies spoof a phone number on your exchange. When I see one of those calling, I ignore it.

 

[17671]

Many of those duct cleaning companies spoof a phone number on your exchange. When I see one of those calling, I ignore it.

plus when you forward your cell number to your office number and get telemarketing calls on your office line your also not sure what number the telemarketers used to spam you, did they spam your cell or spam your office number? hard to tell at times so ya these damn spoofing con artists has caused a crap load of problems

 

[57]

Per post 149 of this thread (link below) providers are supposed to put algorithms in place to preclude spoofed calls. The link says September 30, but some providers may have asked for an extension. Ask your provider when they're putting STIR/SHAKEN in place.

What's your experience with the Do Not Call List?

If it is working, I can't imagine how many more calls I would be getting!!! At this point, I am pretty assured it is completely useless.

www.digitalhome.ca

I haven't been getting quite as many spoofed calls recently, but I still get some - for example from the same exchange, or from obvious spoofed numbers.

 

[ExDilbert]

The main nuisance calls here have been about false credit card charges. It's obviously a robo-call and doesn't represent the credit card company claimed. They call almost every day. I've received real calls about false credit card charges and the difference is obvious.

 

[JamesK]

I miss the good ol' days when we got those Microsoft support calls. It was fun to play dumb and string them along.

 

[ExDilbert]

I did that once just to see what the pitch was all about. What a joke. Then there are those duck cleaning services. No ducks here.

 

[57]

Extension regarding STIR/SHAKEN granted to June 30, 2021, partly due to COVID-19.

Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2019-402-2 | CRTC

crtc.gc.ca

 

[17671]

I did some research on STIR/SHAKEN, It is not just carriers implementing the algorithm to block numbers which do not conform to NANP its much more. It's actually done in multiple stages including vendors doing updates to their phone software to conform. There is a process to inject a certificate in the call header at the originating side and it checks the certificate on the receiving end. This requires a joint partnership between multiple carriers so it may roll out to some before others. But someone I know explained a bit to me about how it works and the end result will have a green checkmark on the screen of your phone to let you know the calling party was verified to be true. Not sure how the verification will work with landlines but landlines are included in this too.

 

[57]

Service Providers have until the end of this month to implement STIR/SHAKEN. That is unless they get yet another extension. They've had several extensions already. See link below:

Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-123 | CRTC

crtc.gc.ca

Some Service Providers have already implemented their own algorithms (Shaw for example), which can send suspected spam calls to Voicemail if you opt in. Most telemarketers do not leave voicemail, so it's as good as blocked.

Shaw Home Phone Spam Block Feature

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...

www.digitalhome.ca

We can only hope that STIR/SHAKEN works properly starting in December and that telemarketers don't find yet another way to bother us with calls.

 

[17671]

I do not have any call blocking or spam blocking add-on features on my cellular line that I know of, however I have gotten a dramatically reduced number of spam calls than I did a year ago. I still get the random duct cleaning calls, but not too often, however the CRA scam calls has almost completely stopped. I do not know of Bell Mobility has implemented this feature on the back end but if they did, I'm noticing it on my end working.

I also am getting a lot less spam text messages too .I used to get so many phishing attempts via text message and they have almost nearly stopped. Not sure if this is related or not but its still a nuisance so I did want to mention that.,

 

[ExDilbert]

I'm not getting very many nuisance calls on the cell phone but the POTS landline is ridiculous. We get several calls a day with only a long distance number on the call display, always different but similar, and they are always credit card, bank or government agency scams. Can't block them with the crappy, overpriced phone company blocking service or the number blocking on the phone. These are obviously all from the same 2 or 3 sources (or just one) but the phone company is doing nothing to block them.

 

[Jake]

I was getting a lot of "local" duct cleaning calls. I thought it might be work. In the case of duct cleaning calls I tell them I do not have ducts. Seems to be working. Only one call in the last two weeks. Or maybe it is just confirmation bias.
I also get some calls that start with the letter V and a long series of numbers. I never answer those but I am curious to know why they appear like that. If they are being flagged or just some poor VOIP programming.

 

[oldyellr]

First world problems. The more connected we want to be, the more spam we get. Just like Facebook.

 

[Jake]

I see ads on Facebook. But it is easy enough to identify and ignore them. Unlike a phone call. I am in favor of any filtering of spammers by the providers even if it does not work perfectly. Since my work phone number is published online (by my employer) I was getting multiple daily spam callers. At least the calls entirely in a foreign language have stopped. Same with "Law Enforcement" calls. I am guessing those are targeting newer immigrants to Canada or those vulnerable and easily confused.

 

[As Is]

Our Telus landline gets almost zero spam calls. We subscribed to the do not call list many years ago.

My Moto Z on Koodo gets non because Koodo has a free call control that you activate online. The caller has to press a number to send the call. Something a robo caller can't do.

My Pixel 4a on Public Mobile uses Google's call screening to ask whos is calling and hangs up if they don't respond. Sometimes after the Google message I hear "a warrant for your arrest" or something the robo caller was in the middle of.

Our other Public Mobile line gets quite a few spam calls.

 

[57]

As a follow-up to post 170. STIR/SHAKEN should be implemented today and eliminate a lot of spam calls. Let's see...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crtc-spam-crackdown-1.6267961

Unfortunately, this particular technology will not work with all phones (many home phones for example). Check out the video in the above link. It may serve to discourage some scammers? Let's keep on this so that these calls are essentially eliminated. My initial impression was that any "non-verified" callers would be blocked, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Service providers should apply algorithms or optional "opt-in" blocking (to voicemail like Shaw does, or otherwise) to assist.

 

[ExDilbert]

Telcos obviously want to do as little as possible. We've been on the do not call list for about a decade and many companies do not call. However, we keep getting the same type of calls from the same spammers year after year. It's the same or similar recorded messages followed by a transfer to a boiler room somewhere in Asia. Some call several times a week and are obviously scams from the same group of companies. Just how difficult is it to identify these callers? Most phone companies won't even provide a decent call blocking system so consumers are powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, phone companies profit from these calls by charging by the minute. Eliminating spam would drive down prices for consumers as it would free up capacity on phone systems, especially for wireless.

 

[Tridus]

The do not call list is functionally worthless for most of the calls, since scammers don't care, anyone with an existing relationship is exempt no matter how tenuous, and groups like pollsters and political parties are also exempt.

They could eliminate most of the scams by simply going "that's a number from NB but coming in from a teleco that doesn't operate in Canada, block". Which I guess is what STIR/SHAKEN is meant to be able to do... but knowing ROBELUS they'll try to charge $10/month for the "service" of keeping obviously scam calls off their increasingly untrustworthy networks.

 

[ExDilbert]

They could also look for high numbers of calls from the same source, tag them as spam and block them like email providers do. They could also look for other patterns, especially in reported spam and block those, again similar to email providers. The difference is that the phone companies involved often charge up to $50/mo or more, even for some phone services that have a fair market rate under $10/mo and email service is often free. Does anyone see a problem with this picture of Canadian telecom services and the companies that provide them?