pfitzsim

Out of curiosity has anyone else in the GTA (or other) been receiving a large number of spam calls from 437 (Toronto) and 438 (Montreal), amongst others as of late (to my cell)? I have received at least a dozen today - caller (overseas asks for an individual other than myself and then starts rambling about crypto currency and Elon Musk). I'm with Bell on a corporate plan - no point in blocking as each number calling is different, unless there is the ability to block all numbers from a certain area code which I don't think there is. I've had the same number for 25 years so don't really feel like changing it.

Cheers

RDMcG

I have had a few of them, though most recently 431 was the source. Some of them have the ability to call from a huge range of geographies. I generally put them in junk status, though they add new numbers. Eventually they seem to get tired of getting no response.

theiceman

yeah same, im on bell corporate plan too and being bombarded by spam calls from Quebec.. i just ignore and mark as spam on my galaxy.. many are coming in as suspected spam now so it does help when you do that.

pfitzsim

Thanks gents - self proclaimed slow learner as I answered the first handful from Montreal as I do have customers there. I'll go with the ignore it and hope it goes away approach - just a pain in the back side when you're expecting a call from someone and go and retrieve your phone when ringing to find out it's a spam call.

DDzPorsche

Makes me wonder what ever happened to the Do Not Call Registry and how much money was/is being wasted there?

theiceman

problem is, just answer it once and they know it is a live number, then they just keep coming.

theiceman

joke of the day right there. was never effective from day one. was ill conceived from the start as vast come from overseas who just don't care.

rideau

The do not call registry is available to any organization on a fee basis. Want all the numbers in Canada on the list for a one year period? Easy, pay a fee of approximately $45,000 and the continuously updated list is yours.
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/telemarketing/format.htm
I wonder where the scammers get the numbers…..

928gt

You guys are about twenty years behind the curve.

The calls are not made from the specific area code or the number that shows up on your caller ID - the caller ID information you see is spoofed. And, they don't need a list of active phone numbers either. A computer "dials" all numbers in a specific area code, and the moment it detects a human voice it transfers the call to a live person on their end.

pfitzsim

Enlightenment!!!! I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet is aware of how robo-dialers work and that there's not actually some dude sitting in Mtl, Toronto or wherever looking up phone numbers and dialing them. My post was if anyone else had been seeing a massive increase in volumes of said calls and if so how they managed to make them 'go away'.

928gt

Yes, I too have noticed an increase in the last few days.

20 years ago you could record a SIT tone at the beginning of your voicemail greeting, which the caller's phone system would immediately interpret as a disconnected number and remove you from the database of numbers to keep calling. However, now that Internet bandwidth is plentiful and cheap and everyone uses VoIP which uses out of band signalling, the SIT does absolutely nothing - and the biggest downside of course was that a call had to go to your voicemail to begin with in order for the SIT tone to be played.

My cell phone is only set to ring when a call comes in from someone whose number is already present in my phone's contacts. All other calls go to voicemail. You can also use a service like Hiya, but again that would only block "legitimate" telemarketers that don't spoof their caller ID numbers.

pfitzsim

Thanks - I've reverted back to 'contacts only' calls, which I did a few years ago but moved off that when I found out I was missing too many legitimate calls but just weren't added as contacts. That being said I only have about 6 people in my contacts that I actually care to talk to :-)

theiceman

Does apple have the ability to tell you if it is suspected SPAM. My apple never did it but my Android does it constantly. i think it may be a 3rd party galaxy employs for this service. I thought i remember reading about it some years ago.

bottom line is though i never answer any call i dont recognize. if its legit they leave a message and i call back

928gt

On an iPhone you need to download a third-party app from the Apple app store. Apple does have the ability to block unknown callers (i.e. only ring if a number is in the phone's contacts) since iOS 13, but for spam caller ID checking you need a third-party app.

Samsung has a feature called Smart Call, which is basically an agreement with Hiya that runs through at least 2025 and has been present since the release of the Galaxy Note 20 series, and it also runs on some of their older phones (S8 and newer) depending on the service provider and the phone software version. Google has their own spam caller database that they use on their Pixel phones that was enabled with Android 10. I am not sure about other Android phones.

theiceman

yeah that's what i thought .. I have the galaxy and its a fantastic feature.. it pops up immediately and tells you suspected spam as its ringing.. if you get one that doesnt and you find out its spam its a one or two button press to report it and its added to the database..

great feature.