[VoiceOps] ANIs flagged as telemarketer/spammer/scammer

Thu Aug 30 21:10:27 EDT 2018

T-Mobile definitely does it on the network level and my iPhone shows Scam
Likely sometimes.

On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 4:04 PM Alex Balashov <abalashov at evaristesys.com>
wrote:

> Thanks, David.
>
> Setting aside the question of "how" - I agree with your speculations on
> the "sauce", "where" is it done? Do the US mobile majors do this at the
> network level? Do some of them use Google's service for it, which as I
> understand is baked into the Android Phone app but may not be enabled?
> What about on iDevices?
>
> I'm not really concerned with people who use apps to screen
> telemarketers. They're just not a big factor for me; most people do not
> use these apps. I'm interested in what happens by default without the
> user's intervention.
>
> On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 11:00:49PM +0000, Hiers, David wrote:
>
> > Hi Alex,
> > I have no idea how it is actually done, but there are lots of useful
> metrics just lying around that one could use.  Things like:
> >
> > The last time a specific terminating number called a specific
> originating number
> > Number of calls
> > Rate of calls
> > Ratio of originated/terminated calls
> > Time of day
> > ASR
> > Call duration
> >
> > Like any kind of dynamic reputation metric (credit score, IP Address
> reputation, credit card fraud detection, etc), I bet the actual
> secret-sauce is pretty closely held.  Gotta be some patents in this area,
> though.
> >
> > I'll also bet double that you could come up with a wicked method for
> weeding out the "probably unwanted" calls!
> >
> >
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: VoiceOps [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Alex
> Balashov
> > Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2018 3:27 PM
> > To: voiceops at voiceops.org
> > Subject: [VoiceOps] ANIs flagged as telemarketer/spammer/scammer
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > So, of course, it is a known problem in the legitimate side of the lead
> engagement call centre, survey, etc. business that ANIs get flagged as
> "telemarketer" pretty quickly and start showing up that way on people's
> phones.
> >
> > Your normative viewpoint on that may vary depending on what you think of
> lead gen calls, but regardless, a reasonable person would differentiate
> > between:
> >
> > (1) Legitimate outbound dialing operations that are following up with
> leads who provided their phone number and agreed to be called (at least, as
> a matter of clicking "accept" on _something_), or for some other legitimate
> mass-dialing purpose, and who actually own the DID inventory from which
> they present local-market ANIs and can in fact be reached on those numbers;
> >
> > (2) Illegal spammers who use fake ANIs and call people who did not in
> any way consent to being called by them.
> >
> > I am trying to learn a bit more about how this is done and what a
> legitimate, above-board business can do about it.
> >
> > Ignoring the factor of third-party call-screening apps (which most
> people with a mobile don't use), where is this generally implemented? As I
> understand it, T-Mobile do it on the network level. I have T-Mobile myself,
> and probably 2/3rds of unfamiliar numbers, including quite legitimate ones,
> show up as "Scam Likely" — I know that's come up on the list before. AT&T
> displays "Telemarketer"; do they do it that way too, or do they use a
> Google Android feature for that which they enable as part of their carrier
> defaults for carrier-issued phones? What about other carriers and Android?
> >
> > As far as I know, Apple don't do anything like this. Do people with
> iPhones just not receive this "service"? How does that work?
> >
> > Asking where the central, or the most influential authority lies and who
> provides it goes to the heart of the real question, which is: what can a
> legitimate business do if their number has been blacklisted this way? As I
> understand it, the maintainers of these lists, along with the criteria for
> getting on them, are elusive and inscrutable, and there's really no
> recourse and no appeals process. I furthermore understand that this has led
> to the widespread approach of rotating ANIs, but that's a losing battle;
> they get flagged too. I imagine it won't be long before the criteria for
> "Scam Likely" are just "number appears to call lots of numbers in this rate
> centre and otherwise hasn't been around very long".
> >
> > But this is all just conjecture on my part; I really don't know much
> about how my carrier, anyone's carrier, or some BigCo that's behind my
> mobile OS decides that a call is a "telemarketer" or "scam" call. If anyone
> can shed some light on how this really works and what, if anything can be
> done about it, I would be most appreciative.
> >
> > --
> > Alex Balashov | Principal | Evariste Systems LLC
> >
> > Tel: +1-706-510-6800 / +1-800-250-5920 (toll-free)
> > Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.csrpswitch.com/
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> --
> Alex Balashov | Principal | Evariste Systems LLC
>
> Tel: +1-706-510-6800 / +1-800-250-5920 (toll-free)
> Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.csrpswitch.com/
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