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I have been getting calls that immediately start with, "Thank you for choosing Marriot Hotels!" for a couple years now. The message goes on to say how I am getting this great offer because I am a valued customer. On a couple occasions, I stayed on the line to get a human, they ask yes/no questions (are you over 28? do you have a valid credit card?). I just replied with questions of my own, and they immediately hung up. I can continue to ignore the calls, but they are always from a random local number and I get nearly twice as many of these calls than I get legitimate calls.
I did a search and found this has been around for a while and Marriot is aware:
http://news.marriott.com/2015/05/marriott-international-responds-to-continued-phone-scam-updated-oct-20-2015/
I have deliberated about posting, but I don't see the FCC [US Federal Communications Commission] as being able to act unless I can provide them something more than the spoofed phone number. Providing the number(s) probably won't help as they are spoofing the caller ID. I know that this is a long shot, but is there anything anyone can suggest beyond creating a spreadsheet of phone numbers, dates, and times to log these calls? Would that even be useful?
It seems that something is fundamentally broken with the current phone system, if this spoofing is even possible. But that is a side topic here, the real question is, what can I do, if anything, to get the data the FCC would need to shut this down?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by marknmel on Wednesday March 15 2017, @12:46PM (2 children)
Done this. I have used Asterisk PBX to create a smart answering machine, Whitelisted numbers get to talk to us (rings then voicemail, blacklist numbers get played a SIT tone). There is lots of all in one distributions that allow you to do this. You'll need an old pc or RPi, and an ATA (analog telephone adapter). ATA's are about $50.
There is nothing that can't be solved with one more layer of indirection.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by shipofgold on Wednesday March 15 2017, @01:39PM (1 child)
I did exactly the same thing as I realize that 99% of telemarketers and political campaigns use robo-dialers as described above.
As a result I have implemented my version of CAPTCHA by doing the following:
-- numbers in my callername DB (aka Whitelist) ring through to the house phone
-- numbers in the special_action DB get one of three actions:
direct to VM with no announcement (automated messages from the school district),
direct to VM with announcement (people I don't want to talk to)
direct to Zapateller() which gives SIT tone (known PIA numbers like the Marco Rubio campaign)
-- if the callerID doesn't fall into either of these categories then they get an announcement "Please press 9 if you are not a computer". If they press 9 they ring the house phone...if they don't they go to voice-mail...robo-dialers never leave voice-mail
I generally don't mind talking to humans, and if '9' is pressed then I definitely know they are human. When I expect callbacks from somebody I don't have in my callername DB I don't need to add them immediately (ie. a repair guy calls me back).
I must say that this has killed almost all telemarketer calls. I still get the odd call from a Realtor asking if I want to sell my house, or a window washer asking if I need my windows washed, but I figure those guys are local and I don't mind supporting small business (or at least I am not rude to them).
Asterisk runs great on Raspberry PI and can do amazing things if you take the time to learn it. I set mine up 10 years ago and never looked back.
The only thing I fear is when robo-dialers learn to press '9'...then I will need to randomize the digit...I figure I have a few years to go.
When I retire and have time, I am going to figure out how to transfer to 'lenny' and see if I can torture a few tele-marketers.
If only I could get it to work on my mobile.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday March 15 2017, @11:42PM
What ATA do you use with your Raspberry Pi?