Re: TeleTrap from TelTech Systems [Telecom]
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Posted by Dan Lanciani on February 18, 2009, 8:02 pm
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|A friend emailed me the following article URL: | |<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29235628/> | |Summary: | |> TelTech Systems ... is excited to introduce "TrapCall," the first |> cell phone service that unblocks blocked calls, and so much more. |> [...] When a blocked or restricted call shows up on a users cell |> phone, the user just presses the button on the phone that would |> normally send the call to voicemail. The call then loops through |> TrapCall's systems where it's unmasked, then sent back to the user's |> phone, with the caller's number displayed as the Caller ID! | |Is that even possible or feasible? They probably simply substitute the ANI for the CallerID. There used to be some carriers that would do this for you but I think they had regulatory issues. I suppose it's possible that when the CallerID is present but the presentation blocking feature is set they just unset it. That would really be asking for trouble I think... Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Thad Floryan on February 19, 2009, 11:19 am
Please log in for more thread options  service could work. Below is my diagram of call sequence described in the MSNBC article: [Spammer]>--->[ Spam ]>--->[TelTech ] [Victim]<---<[TeleTrap] Spammer calls Victim with Caller ID blocked or spoofed; ANI is very likely not available for the victim since it's cell phone service. Victim's instrument forwards (?) the still-unanswered call to TeleTrap which returns "some" equivalent of Caller ID, and Victim can make a decision to answer or not. Per my understanding, ANI is a separate system from Caller ID (and is what's used typically for 911 service and also by some large companies). I don't understand what it is that's handed-off to TeleTrap and what it is that TeleTrap could return that would be displayed as an equivalent to Caller ID on the Victim's phone during the ringing interval (already beyond the normal placement for Caller ID info). There's a lack of technical information at <http://www.trapcall.com/> . :-) | |||||||||||||
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Posted by danny burstein on February 20, 2009, 9:07 am
Please log in for more thread options [snip, regarding how "trapcall" works]While I have no firsthand knowledge of their system, I'll take a guess based on the info on their web page. What they claim to do is enable a recipient _on some cellphone accounts_ (that's part of the key here), when receiving a call that has CNID blocked, hit a few keys, route the call back to Teltech (Trapcall), and then get the call re-re-routed back to them, this time with a CNID stamp. There are two tricks here which let it work. At least from a technical side. I'm not sure of the legalities.. a: When the cellular customer first "gets" the call and then hits the "deny" button, the call is redirected to the server at teltech. This is the same situation as if the original recipient bounced it to v-mail or... as in many cases, to their landline office or home phone. In these situations the call to the third party is treated just as the original one would be, and the caller ID, if present, gets sent forward as well. In other words, if you're at home (and you've got a landline with caller ID display) and you've got your cell phone set up to "bounce" to your home phone (either automatically or when you hit a key), and a call comes in, you'll see the first CNID on your cellphone. Then, when you bounce it over, it'll show up on your land line. The original caller doesn't get any obvious indication that the call has been kicked over to a different phone. Now if the CNID is blocked, then neither your cell phone nor the land line will show it. BUT.... b: now we get to the magic trick. In reality standard CNID is, indeed, sent from the original caller along with the call initiation itself. If it isn't "blocked", then it gets transmitted to the recipient's phone. If the caller has chosen to block it, then the CNID string makes it "all the way" to the "central office" (term used a bit loosely) that's just before the recipient. That CO, instead of continuing to pass the CNID, sends along a "private" or "blocked" message. Keep in mind, again, that the CNID _is_ making it right to that last central office. What I suspect TelTech is doing is simply grabbing that CNID on the "bounced" call, and instead of dumping it onto the side, they've decided to pass it through. As to the legalities: On the one hand the FCC is pretty strict with CNID blocking. On the other, and this is where I suspect TelTech is hanging their hook, if the recipient is paying for the call (as in an "800" number), then they're allowed to get the info. (Usually it's via ANI rather than CNID, but the concept is the same). Since cellular customers pay for incoming calls, then a good case could be made (and I've made it in the past, but never pushed it through...) that cellular accounts should be able to similarly see who's calling. -- _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Mike Blake-Knox on February 21, 2009, 6:14 pm
Please log in for more thread options What's probably happening is that the cellular carrier is passing along the original CNID plus the cell phone number just as if it was going to a voice mail. SS7 then carries this plus the ANI to TelTech through the normal gateway to an IEC. The original concept was that an IEC would honor and pass along the presentation restriction info. Here we would seem to have a case where the "IEC" isn't honoring the presentation restriction. I've seen the reverse in real life. A customer's call center CTI system wasn't receiving ANI on as many calls as expected. Investigation showed that these were 800 calls placed from a blocked number. The IEC had copied the presentation restriction info from CNID into the ANI (which had the right number when the call reached the call center) and the ACD vendor was "enforcing" the presentation restriction by not including the ANI in messages to CTI. Mike | |||||||||||||
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Posted by T on February 22, 2009, 1:11 am
Please log in for more thread options mikebkdontspam@knology.net says...I recall some time ago I was using NetworkPlus 800 service. ANI is a beautiful thing, you cannot block. Ane Net+ would transmit the ANI as CLID. | |||||||||||||
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> |A friend emailed me the following article URL:
> |
> |<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29235628/>
> |[...]
> |Is that even possible or feasible?
> They probably simply substitute the ANI for the CallerID. There used
> to be some carriers that would do this for you but I think they had
> regulatory issues. I suppose it's possible that when the CallerID is
> present but the presentation blocking feature is set they just unset
> it. That would really be asking for trouble I think...