The "Stop Robo Calls Challenge"

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:25 pm

I know I touched on robo calls in another thread, but now the FTC is having a contest to see if someone can come up with a viable technical solution to kill illegal telemarketing robo calls altogether (excepting political robo calls

). There's a $50,000 prize for anyone that can come up with a workable solution. Any ideas amongst all the smart Descenters here?

FTC Robo Call Challenge

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/10/robocalls3.shtm

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:34 pm

I heard about this too and it's already been solved

Phone companies just need to look at how Google Voice works then copy it..

In GV I can opt into

1. Mark the robot's number as spam
2. Make the robot have to press a number before being able to reach me.
3. Make all calls go to voice mail that are not in my contacts.

Google voice also is aware of numbers that are frequently getting marked as spam and move them into the spam box automatically. I have almost 200 spam voicemail and text messages in my spam box.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:53 pm

Our voip phone service includes a community updated blacklist that eats robot callers for breakfast.

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:17 pm

Yeah, but if you can figure out a way to do that simply and automatically for everyone in the U.S., on any type of phone system easy and quick, you'd be 50,000 smackeroos richer.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:58 pm

We did.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:11 pm

The phone companies could probably eliminate robo calls yesterday if they wanted to, but they don't because they profit from it. Unless you can figure out a way to change that profit into a loss, robo calls will not go away.

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:22 pm

Is the FTC being wussy then? If the phone companies have that ability, why isn't some regulation or another being enforced to make them comply?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:29 pm

Because phone companies own the government.

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:32 pm

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Me idiot for forgetting own rants.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:10 pm

One way I've read about to get yourself off robocallers lists automatically is to add the classic 3-tone "your call can not be completed as dialed" sound to the beginning of your answering machine message, as robots are generally programmed to listen for this so they can mark any number that generates this noise as invalid.

No idea if this would still work with most carriers integrated voicemail systems, plus you would have to let everyone know that no, your number is not disconnected, and... well whatever, you get the idea.

The "Stop Robo Calls Challenge"

The "Stop Robo Calls Challenge"

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