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

so as a continuing update, I reported Verizon's apparently lack of actually implementing Stir/Shaken based on everything I've seen to my state for investigation because the phone annoyance has continued relentlessly.   They got in contact with Verizon and someone from Verizon Wireless contacted me via email.   When he found out that this was a FIOS account, he basically said he couldn't help me.   He claimed he would send this to someone from the FIOS division and they would contact me within a few business days.  It has now been close to 2 weeks since then.

I have since recontacted the state mentioning that they need to specifically reach out to the FIOS side of the company since they are so singly focused that they don't seem to deal with anything not in their specfic bucket OR from a consumer complaint to their customer service.

It's a shame because I just got a bogus call (they aren't in my service area and of course a spoofed number not blocked by Verizon) because otherwise it would have been tempting to just leave.

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

In my continuing frustration with Verizon doing nothing about robocalls I've since been told by various people at Verizon:

  1. https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/ is only looked at if you get a number marked SPAM? that really is not spam.    This in spite of a radio button to select to report a spam call that isn't spam.  Someone later disputed this so have gotten contradictory advice.
  2. The proper place for reporting spam calls is by sending email to: verizon.robocall@verizon.com    I give them the time, number, caller ID display value, and anything else I know about the call.   Not sure what they really want as they haven't asked for more information.   You will get a response that generally will say "we have passed the issue to our upstream provider and they will have it resolved in 24-48 hours".      I've yet to see what good it really does because I have since gotten repeated calls on the same number after reporting to this email (and the website).    I've also reported LIVE valid numbers that really don't appear to have been spoofed by robocallers and have yet to see them take one of those numbers down either by calling them later.
  3. The people monitoring the email say that sending it there has no control over a number getting marked SPAM? on the link and that's the purpose of the people at the website link.  But as I noted,  oher people responding at the same email address have also said that site isn't for doing that.  So who can you believe?    In any case, I've yet to see the website cause any spam to get marked spam ever given I've gotten repeated calls from numbers I've reported.  And even if nomorobo catches it, that has no impact on them adding SPAM? to it.
  4. VZ not only doesn't seem to really validate that a call is legitimate, but they also don't even appear to validate that a phone number is legal.   I've gotten calls from area codes that don't even exist and calls from phone numbers that are just illegal (like the number after the area code can't have specific values) but they happily pass those calls through.
  5. The anonymous call blocking setting (to answer my own question), doen't appear to do anything.  I gave the spam blocking email people an example of call that came through with no phone number and no contact information as both reported on my phone AND in the calling history on the website and they could not give me any reason how it possibly got through.

I've now given the phone blocking email people over 275! spam call details (time/number/display value) that reached my number in the less than the last 6 weeks.   All I've ever really heard are excuses that the are passing it up to the upstream provider.   How they know who the upstream provider is without also blocking them is beyond me and they won't tell me.  In any case, it seems to do no good.

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

I once provided some details about calls marked "Unavailable" were getting past the Call Intercept system.

Verizon discovered that the calls were being received from overseas and contained the wrong number of digits for the calling telephone number. The system didn't know what to do with the extra digit, so, it just passed the call along as Unknown.

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

Besides everything else, I now feel that sending email or posting to:

verizon.robocall@verizon.com  

https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/

does absolutely no good.  They don't seem to care.   I've given them SEVERAL blocks of 100 numbers that are all used by the same robocaller.  They are the same caller because I've selectively called 20+ numbers in each block and you get the same exact recording.  The CID information for them is the same when they call.  When I gave the people at the above email address the phone number blocks with the details on them, and the call information for the call in the blocks that I got, all I still got was the "we are passing this to our upstream provider".  Days later I get another call from another number in the same block.   Nothing gets blocked.  They don't seem to care.

Today I got a robocall from the same exact number I previous reported to this email address--not even another number in the same block, the same exact number.    So the "we are passing to upstream provider" did no good, VZ didn't block it from happening again and whoever this upstream provider is didn't do anything.   And the number isn't even valid so not sure why they let it through but they still do even after I reported it. 

I have no idea why if they can figure out who the upstream provider is, that they can't block spoofs.  They do "claim" they have implemented Stir/Shaken but I see no evidence of that.

As for the web URL for marking spam, they are equally useless.  Those same calls are not marked SPAM?    I've now reported 410 bogus spam calls to the email address and also reported them to the web URL for SPAM? marking (I've been doing the web url much longer but have no idea how many I've sent to them).     Out of all my "recent" 410 reported calls, I've gotten exactly 3 marked as SPAM?      48 of these are on nomorobo's block list so even they don't do that great a job but gobs better than Verizon seems to do.

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

Yesterday I exceded the 500 mark for calls reported to the verizon robocall email reporting system since October.  So over 500 in less than 3.5 months.   Unbelievable they do nothing about their problems.

Today I got a robocall from 467-003-xxxx 

How they let that one through is beyond me.   003 is illegal for those character positions and 467 isn't even a valid area code.   It's such a bogus number in so many ways.

And they CLAIM they validate callerID?   impossible....   They lie in their marketing and they lied to the FCC about implementing stir/shaken.

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

The problem of telemarketers (both domestic and international) affects more than Verizon.

I have local friends that have landline service through Comcast and RCN. They, too, have problems with spam calls.

For some, the answer is to drop landline service altogether and use a mobile phone for telephone calls.

The problem there is that telemarketers call mobile phone numbers as well. Blocking numbers at the device level only pushes them straight to voice-mail and the user still receives new message notifications.

The government is reportedly going to push gateway providers to take responsibility for screening incoming traffic.

But this problem is not limited to Verizon. It is an industry-wide byproduct of VoIP technology.

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

But Verizon claims they validate callerID.  They clearly do NOT.   It's one thing to get spam calls, another to get them on invalid not in service numbers when Verizon claims they validate that the callerID is accurate.

Today I hit a new low.   I previously had reported a number which has an INVALID area code and an INVALID exchange on their spam reporting website: https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/

Today I got another call from the SAME number and when I tried to report it, the website said "invalid number".   It didn't get marked SPAM? and it didn't even get blocked.   So Verizon website deverlopers know it's an invalid number but their network engineers are doing NOTHING about blocking it or even marking it SPAM.

It's a prime example that spam might be an industry wide problem but also that Verizon is doing nothing about it except making false claims that they are.

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

Verizon is beginning to verify telephone numbers. Within the past few days, I've received two telephone calls from numbers that had "[v]" in front of the name.  That symbol means that the caller is verified. Spoofed calls are still arriving, but they lack that symbol as a part of the call record.

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

Last week I got another anonymous call, no user information, no phone number.   I asked the robo call people what's going on.  Their answer "we don't know, you have to ask customer support".

So today when I got yet another, I got on the support chat.   They veriifed, I'm assuming, that everything I said was correct and told me "turn anonymous block off and then back on."   I told them I've done that many a time before but I'll humor you and do it yet again.  So after I did that, I asked them if they could send me an anonymous call to test it.  "no, we can't do that".   So I told them, you had me do something that you have no clue as to whether it would even help or could test????

I'm guessing this is how verizon gets people off support calls.   I did tell them to put our chat into my customer records so next week when I get back on support when it happens AGAIN, that they won't tell me once again to do silly things that won't do any good, and even if it did would indicate they have other problems anyway.

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

It's hard to believe I can ever reach new lows with Verizon's futility and lack of caring about their own customers but today was probably close.

I got 9 robocalls calls today, Friday is usually low, but it wasn't necessarily the number but who they are from.   I've repeatedly reported to Verizon that most of these calls are originating from two peering networks Peerless Network and Peering Hub.   Today I got 3 from each.  And Verzion knows they are sending sc*m calls onto their network and are doing NOTHING to block them.

I've now provided Verizon with details of 21 of such calls this month alone coming from Peering Hub and 11 this year from Peerless Network and they've done nothing to block them, nothing to prevent their calls from annoying their customers.    They are "almost" as much as fault as the crooks behind such calls for doing nothing to protect their customers at this point when they clearly know these networks are a problem.

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