what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

Just got my latest non blocked or marked spam? call of the day on my fios landline and this one was marked "Name Unavailabl" on caller ID.   Of course it was a robocall but anonymous call block didn't block it.

What does that feature ACTUALLY block?   For a while I thought it actually did something but now I have my doubts as the number of "Name Unavailabl"'s is ticking up every day.     I hardly ever see the SPAM? marking anymore and my landline is becoming more of an annoyance than anything these days.

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Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

As a followup, yesterday I got 16 spoofed robocalls and only one was marked as SPAM? by Verizon.    It's also the only one nomorobo also caught.   This in spite of having every call blocking service that they provide turned on.    8 of them occurred between the dinner hour of 6:05 to 6:48.  As of 11:30 today, I have already gotten 4.   The third one prompted me to call Verizon support to complain and my call got escalated to a supervisor.

I explained that it's clear that they don't block robocalls and can't be validating the callerID like the "stir/shaken" law was supposed to do (and that VZ advertises that they have implemented).  They also aren't blocking invalid (illegal) phone numbers that you don't need any callerID to know are invalid and numbers that are not in service.   

She basically said "we try our best" and suggested I use the call blocking list.   I told her if they gave me a list of 1000, I would fill it up as the numbers change every day and I would have to tolerate the 1000 calls coming through the first time.

She said my only recourse is to file a complaint with the FCC which I will be doing shortly.  So if you are going through the same aggrevation for a service that you are actually paying for, I suggest you just start with filing the FCC complaint as it doesn't sound like a complaint to support will accomplish anything.

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Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

As an example, if you add *67 to the start of your telephone number, the call will be sent to a recording directing you to unblock your telephone number in order to let the call complete.

Spam calls are not anonymous calls per-se' because there is a telephone number associated with the call.

It is difficult to properly block spam calls because telemarketers can spoof working telephone numbers. Imagine if your landline is spoofed by a boiler-room outfit to blanket-call people. Your telephone number could be labeled "Spam" which would pose all sorts of problems.  🙁

Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

I fully understand you can block your number from being sent.

But I just now got a call that displayed NO phone number and the name part said "PRIVATE CALLER".    Not sure how much more anonymous it could be than not showing me a phone number or a name, but that call rang on my phone in spite of my having anonymous call block turned on.

So the only thing I can assume is that "anonymous call block" just doesn't work.

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Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Verizon used to offer an optional service called "Call Intercept".

If a caller's Caller ID did not contain valid information, the caller would be forced to verbally identify themselves. Then the recording would be forwarded to the called party for review. That person would have the option to accept or reject the call.

I used to subscribe to it. Sadly, when I upgraded my FiOS service a few months ago, I had to drop it when Verizon ported my telephone number out of their legacy 5E switch and into their packet switch. ☹

Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

Call Intercept sounds pretty much what google voice does.  And can't remember the last time I got a robocall on my google voice number.

And not sure what VZ just did but now I'm getting a LOT of single ring calls.  No, not the nomorobo single ring ones, those displayed the number on the CID and I could go to their site and see if the number was blocked.   These are so quick that they ring once but abort so quickly that nothing appears on CID.  I can go into in my fios call management and see them there.  All show as "missed calls" and all have a name and a number associated with them so are not anonymous calls.   I plugged a few in at nomorobo and none were on their block list.  And they aren't on my personal block list either.    I've gotten at least 4 today so way too much of a coincidence that that many robocallers are suddenly aborting calls for essentially no reason--and too fast for them to know if the number is even active.   At least 3 displayed town names, one displayed a financial services company name in fios call management.

Have no idea what's going on now.   If this is VZ doing something, it would be better if they didn't even ring the call if it was a known spoof. 

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Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Those short rings could be originating from the same sender. The originating party could be utilizing an auto dialer. Without some digging, it's all pure conjecture on my part though. 🤔

Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

I just got another phone call on a number not in service that I've previously reported to them on their reporting form https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/

I mean how hard is it for them to verify a number isn't in service and thus should be blocked if a call comes in on it?????  But clearly they don't even do that.

So besides them not blocking anonymous calls, not blocking spoofed calls like the stir/shaken law was supposed to stop (and that they advertise that they've implemented), they also don't even apparently look at numbers reported to them as being spoofs and not even in service.

Personally I don't think they've actually done ANYTHING to block robocalls. 

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Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
dexman
Community Leader
Community Leader

Now that I think about it, about a year or two ago I ran into a situation where, despite my having Call Intercept on my land line, I would see occasional calls ring in with "UNAVAILABLE" showing up for both name & number.

I opened a ticket with Verizon Repair. After a day or two, Verizon was able to find the call record.

What the company discovered is that the calling party was sending an originating telephone number that had the incorrect number of digits. (I think the caller was adding one extra digit).

This caused Verizon's system to send the calls along with no Caller ID info attached. There was nothing Verizon could do to stop such calls from passing through.

Eventually the calls stopped and everything returned to "normal".

Re: what does anonymous call blocking actually block?
fastKitty
Newbie

It really is just pathetic how bad Verizon call blocking is and every day I find something new that amazes me how bad it is.   Seems like people actually even taunt them to try to block a call or something.

Just now I got a robot voice caller trying to sell some kind of auto insurance.   The CID was spoofed to display "NOT IN SERVICE" and sure enough, the number isn't even in service.   Seems like they were daring them to block the call but they didn't.

It's equally horrible that VZ doesn't seem to reach out to anyone with issues like this.   I can be happy I rarely get spam calls on my t-mobile cell phone because if their cell phone spam blocking is as bad as their voip service, I'd be off of it in a day.

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