Voter surveys difficult due to cell phones [telecom]

Per HAncock4:

I'm eagerly awaiting what seems to me to be the real solution: Challenge-Response.

- Somebody calls my number

- My phone does not even ring

- Caller hears "Press 1 for Fred, Press 2 for Sue, Press 3 for Joe...." ending with press 1-2-3 for Pete. Experienced callers know that they can press 1-2-3 as soon as they hear the pickup.

- My phone finally rings when somebody presses 1-2-3.

- I have some options on how to set it up so that failures can be totally ignored, go to voicemail, leave caller's number in a log, and so-on and so-forth.

Probably already available if somebody has a home PBX system.

An enhanced answering machine would do it for me on my land line.

I wonder of the pieces are already in place, just awaiting the right app on my Android cell phone.

As it is now, all my phones are on both state and fed no-call lists, I work at home, as a practical matter I have to answer every time the phone rings because it might be a client needing help.

I'm writing software, so every time I have to answer the phone the little house of cards I have in my mind goes "Poof!" and after the call it takes a couple of minutes to re-create it.

I'm getting at least a dozen telephone solicitor or robo calls a day...DNC lists notwithstanding...

I'm right on the edge of being a single-issue voter on this. Not quite... but disturbingly close.

It's even a problem on cell phones lately. I just installed the Android app called BlackList - with it the phone never rings if your number is in the list.

Now if I could only do something about the spam texts.

Or more that irks me - the text message I got from my carrier - in Spanish no less.

How does "Blacklist" work? Can it be used on any Android-based phone?

Bill Horne Moderator

Per T:

Both my Samsung candy bar phone and my Samsung smart phone have a built-in "Reject List". You select a number from "Missed Calls" or "Received Calls", and then select the option that adds it to the Reject List.

It mitigates the robocalls, but is not a complete solution bc you have to first establish that the number is one that sb rejected. Also, the robocallers tend to change numbers... and there are always new ones cropping up.

FWIW, I read somewhere that the FCC has offered $50,000 to the winner in a contest to develop a technical means of avoiding robocalls. Seemed kind of pinchey to me.... Maybe 5 mil would get some attention...

I disabled texting entirely after being burned by some third-party player that started sending me "Diet Tips" and reaping dollars for it by charging against my unused minutes.

Went round-round with tMobile support on that one and came away with the understanding that anybody with texting capability is vulnerable to these scams. They key seems tb the scammer harvesting one's mobile phone number from somewhere.

It sounded so safe and so lucrative that I actually caught myself wondering if I could get into it myself.... But only for a moment.... -)

Yes Blacklist works on any Android phone. You simply go in, it can pull up your call log and from there you can tell it to block numbers.