Today, I received an Email from Verizon (Ma Bell) advising that, starting on December 18th 2017, Caller ID data appearing on displays for residential customers, will include the word "SPAM?" if an ANI is flagged as being involved with Spamming activities.

It will be interesting to see how well this enhancement works out.

It's great to see that the service providers are finally stepping up an doing something to curtail a practice that has obviously gotten way out of control.

I'm using Time-Warner/Spectrum for my residence line here in NC and they have the "NoMoRobo" feature that can be activated on the line. It parallel-rings all of your calls into their server, where they maintain a list of all known numbers associated with junk callers. Sometimes, if the number isn't already in their database, the calls will get through, but they do a pretty good job of staying on top of them. Every once in a while, these calls may ring once if their system is busy, but they never actually make it through. It is such a welcome relief.

Now, if we could get Verizon Wireless to follow suit!

The newest trick is for these con artists to spoof a local area code and exchange, making people think it's a local call. What's really wrong is that they will throw in any random four digits for the rest of the number. You call the number back and the supposed originating party is totally unaware. They become the victims as well. The worst part is that the victim's caller ID data appears. It has already happened to my number several times. They haven't figured out a way to catch these just yet. Like with any crime, the criminals always seem to be one step ahead of the authorities.

Yet another miracle of VoIP and one of the main reasons why I'm not a fan of VoIP. It's fake. It's all fake. There's no way to regulate it since it is happening worldwide.

I've noticed an increase in the number of incoming calls that show the same NPA/NXX as my home phone. What the telemarketers fail to realize is that Verizon sends the word "MASSACHUSETTS" as the name when a non-working ANI is utilized.

It's a dead giveaway.

All providers should be doing something similar...

My At&t cell blocks what they believe to be fraud automatically. My office lines from Altice don't.

All Altice want's to do is take your money.

-Hal