Nomorobo

[John Connor]

So I use the service Nomorobo for my Comcast voice service. It's been a real godsend during this political season let me tell you. I get no less than 6 to 10 blocked calls a day and they are all most likely political calls. I guess that's the price you pay for donating to your candidate of choice the last election. You get put on a list. Anyway, I also use PhoneTray which runs on a Dell Mini 610 netbook connected to a Dial-up USB modem to interpret the caller-id for PhoneTray. I just bought the PhoneTray software which included a year of free updates. That time has run out and it still does its job of blocking strange caller-id numbers and no caller-id data, etc. Once in a while Nomorobo fails and I see the number logged in PhoneTray. So I go to Nomorobo's website and submit the new pesky number. Well, about a month ago when I went to add another number I seen they were taking application requests to try their new App. I can't tell how how absolutely annoying it is to get telemarketers calling your cell phone and I can't use Nomorobo. I sent Cricket a Tweet asking them to add Nomorobo. Then a few months latter sent a follow up Tweet and their response was like things like this take time. Which I can understand. But common sense to me says this would just be a software update to their servers to establish multi-ring. Then debug the crap and make sure it works. I've tried call blocking Apps, but they all sucked!

So now I'm reading the Internets and I see this crap. https://consumerist.com/2016/06/20/...onth-robocall-blocking-app-for-mobile-phones/

$5/month?! There's no way on God's green earth I'm paying $60/year just to block annoying telemarketers! Forgetaboutit. I mean, for that kinda money I could have about 250 GB of cloudstorge and VPN service and still have money to spare! If it was $2/month or a flat rate $10 for the App I'd go for it. But $5/month? No freaking way!

So now I'm wondering about just turning on the block all incoming calls to my cell phone and using Ooma with their Ooma App. They support multi-ring for the Ooma Premier service which is $10/month and multi-ring is what you need for Nomorobo to work. I read on their forum that users report Nomorobo works with Ooma too! Now I just have to see if Nomorobo will still work using the Ooma App.

But this Ooma idea is a win, win if you ask me. You have a boat load of awesome Ooma features, cell service with their App and a home phone line. I'd like to ditch Comcast myself. One of the coolest features with Ooma is that if your Internet goes down, their servers will dial your backup number. How sweet is that!

Now what are the Telecos doing? It's absolutely laughable. http://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/19/apple-to-join-robocall-strike-force/

Yeah, I'm one of the many with an FCC account to report all these dirt bags...

Before you ask me why I have a cell phone and Comcast it's because I run my own security service and I like having a landline as well as mobile yo!

 

[lxskllr]

On my cell, any call not in my contacts gets muted. If it's important, they can leave a message.

 

[renz20003]

On my cell, any call not in my contacts gets muted. If it's important, they can leave a message.

This.

And if it's really important they can send it in the mail.

 

[John Connor]

On my cell, any call not in my contacts gets muted. If it's important, they can leave a message.

I just took up your suggestion. I guess I should have done that from the begin with. But this doesn't stop telemarketers from spamming my voice mail which is equally annoying.

 

[zinfamous]

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0133-cell-phones-and-do-not-call-registry

use it.

I actually just got a letter to participate in class action because some aluminum siding jerkholes were spamming my voice mail for a few months. I had registered to that list before this, and had to tell them twice to remove me.

 

[Rubycon]

The bouncer was the best thing and that came out in the 90s?
It's a device that answers all calls. You don't even hear them ring in. The caller is prompted to enter a code. If the proper code is entered, the device sends a ring voltage to all your phones and you hear them ring. If the caller doesn't respond or enters the wrong code 3x, the bouncer terminates the call. So this way when you hear your phone ring, you know it's legit because someone entered that unique code...

The same concept could be applied to VOIP and wireless numbers too, it would just be a service instead of on premise hardware, etc.

And it seems that folks using the DNCR complain of MORE calls then not. List probably sold to highest bidder as corrupt as politicians are. Or hacked!

 

[John Connor]

What you just described is exactly how Nomorobo works and how Aaron something or other won the contest for a better anti-telemarketing system.

I have a faint memory of this Bouncher you speak of. Was this in the 80's? It sounds familiar.

 

[Rubycon]

It was proto'd in the 80s and came out in the early 90s.

 

[John Connor]

Ah, that explains it then.

 

[John Connor]

The early 90's... When pagers were all the rage in school. LOL! Now these punks have smartphones.

 

[PowerEngineer]

What you just described is exactly how Nomorobo works and how Aaron something or other won the contest for a better anti-telemarketing system.

That is not how Nomorobo works; callers do not enter a code to get through. My understanding is that through monitoring all the incoming calls made to its subscribers, Nomorobo maintains a list of telephone numbers that exhibit robo (i.e. mass marketing) dialing patterns. Your Comcast calls go to both you and to Nomorobo. If the incoming telephone number is on Nomorobo's list, then Nomorobo answers and hangs up for you. It takes a bit of time for Nomorobo to check an incoming number its list, so your phone rings once before Nomorobo acts.

As you say, Nomorobo does an excellent job of blocking nuisance calls on our Comcast landline. We probably average five or six blocked calls each day; only one in ten or twenty slip past Nomorobo. And it's free for Comcast telephone subscribers. I'm thinking about getting a newer set of cordless phones that have a "no first ring" option so that we never even hear that first ring.

Yeah, I'm a Nomorobo fan!

I haven't had much trouble with nuisance calls to my cell phone, but I'll consider paying for the Nomorobo service if/when I do.

 

[John Connor]

That is not how Nomorobo works; callers do not enter a code to get through. My understanding is that through monitoring all the incoming calls made to its subscribers, Nomorobo maintains a list of telephone numbers that exhibit robo (i.e. mass marketing) dialing patterns. Your Comcast calls go to both you and to Nomorobo. If the incoming telephone number is on Nomorobo's list, then Nomorobo answers and hangs up for you. It takes a bit of time for Nomorobo to check an incoming number its list, so your phone rings once before Nomorobo acts.

As you say, Nomorobo does an excellent job of blocking nuisance calls on our Comcast landline. We probably average five or six blocked calls each day; only one in ten or twenty slip past Nomorobo. And it's free for Comcast telephone subscribers. I'm thinking about getting a newer set of cordless phones that have a "no first ring" option so that we never even hear that first ring.

Yeah, I'm a Nomorobo fan!

I haven't had much trouble with nuisance calls to my cell phone, but I'll consider paying for the Nomorobo service if/when I do.

This is what I was referring to.

Another important feature is that if you're unlucky enough to have a number that some robocaller chose as its spoofed Caller ID for a week, you can still make calls to a number that's set up with Nomorobo. When Nomorobo intercepts a call, it gives you the opportunity to enter a response on the phone keypad to a randomly generated audio question so you can prove you're a real person—much like the CAPTCHA responses you have to enter on many websites. Enter the right answer, and Nomorobo will let the call go through.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492079,00.asp

 

[PowerEngineer]

Learn something every day. Thanks!