Apple is Building a Major Defense Against Spam Calls Into iOS 13 (theverge.com) 108
Apple is taking a new step to combat spam calls in iOS 13. Today, you can already install third-party spam call screeners on your iPhone, but if that's not good enough (or something you don't want to do), iOS 13 will add a new solution this fall. From a report: iOS 13 will be able to automatically silence any calls coming in from an unknown number. Even better, it'll automatically send them to voicemail. The new "silence unknown callers" option can be toggled on or off based on your preference, but I'm thinking most people will enable it right after updating and leave it that way. The feature is explained on this page of what's new in iOS 13. So many of the spam calls we're bombarded with on a daily basis are spoofed to look like a local number. But Apple says that iOS 13 will "use Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages." Any number that can't be found in one of those places will be routed to voicemail.
About time (Score:2)
Seems like the only calls I get on my iPhone are spam calls
Re: (Score:3)
It has gotten so bad, and the carriers have done so little, I have decided that they must be planning on getting themselves out of the voice business. Nobody I know is glad to hear their phone ring.
A.
(Who currently uses a silent ringtone as the default)
Wrong again (Score:2)
You've been able to download apps for iOS for a long time now that do pretty advanced call blocking. I use Hiya.
ON Android you need to use the same apps because you need something that looks are crowdsourced rules for new spam numbers, it's nice to block them but you really want to BLOCK block them.
The apps leave a stain, the stain is a warning (Score:3)
The apps leave a stain, the stain is a warning.
It is with my iPhone's data privacy that I set my secure app storage in motion
Re:Meh (Score:2)
I said "read the voicemail" because all my voicemails get transcribed to text by default, I can read them. It just works. Maybe Apple should get some of that "just works" magic.
Oh yes, I am taunting. Until Apple opens up their system, they will be the inferior platform.
Re: (Score:2)
Err...iPhones have had that voice mail transcribe to text for a long time, pretty much I think since the 1st or 2nd iPhone model?
I think they coined the term "visual voicemail" for this?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Visual Voicemail let you see and individually play your voicemails rather than having to listen to them in order like an old answering machine. It was a great improvement, and did come with the original iPhone.
Transcription came later.
A.
Re: (Score:2)
Err...iPhones have had that voice mail transcribe to text for a long time, pretty much I think since the 1st or 2nd iPhone model?
I think they coined the term "visual voicemail" for this?
You are confusing Visual Voicemail with Voicemail transcription. Visual Voicemail means you don't have to dial your voicemail then press buttons like 1 to replay message 2 to skip to next message, etc.; instead, you get see a list of the voicemails showing who they are from, time left, and message duration. Then you can cherry-pick a message to listen to.
Voicemail transcription, on the other hand lets you read the message without having to listen to it. This is especially useful when you have old relat
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Meh (Score:2)
The next batch of malware (Score:2)
Here's what I want ... (Score:4, Informative)
I'd like SPAM calls to be rerouted, at the caller's expense, to a call center in Bangladesh where operators will talk to them for hours w/o agreeing to anything. Hopefully the international long-distance charges will drive them out of business.
On a more practical level, I always report SPAM calls (that leave voicemail) to the FTC National Do Not Call, Report Unwanted Calls [donotcall.gov] site. Don't know if it actually helps, but pretty sure it can't hurt.
Re:Here's what I want ... (Score:5, Informative)
Lenny is what you want. https://toao.net/595-lenny [toao.net]
I personally use robokiller on my phone. Meh, it works, but it's not 100%. I'd say 90%. Eventually it does catch the new miscreants being hatched every minute.
I used to fastidiously report to Do Not Call Registry, but that thing has less teeth than my gramma did, so... *thhhpppt* it makes no difference. Gov't is powerless to stop this.
Re: (Score:3)
Lenny is what you want. https://toao.net/595-lenny [toao.net]
I personally use robokiller on my phone. Meh, it works, but it's not 100%. I'd say 90%. Eventually it does catch the new miscreants being hatched every minute.
I used to fastidiously report to Do Not Call Registry, but that thing has less teeth than my gramma did, so... *thhhpppt* it makes no difference. Gov't is powerless to stop this.
I live in the UK where spam calls are rare. The Government absolutely has the power to stop this by making telco's responsible for accurately identifying calls and financially responsible for facilitating spam calls. They US government is just refusing to exercise this power.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like SPAM calls to be rerouted, at the caller's expense, to a call center in Bangladesh ...
Unfortunately, when you reroute calls YOU pay the toll for the added hop.
Dumb and Dumber (Score:1)
"But Apple says that iOS 13 will "use Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages." Any number that can't be found in one of those places will be routed to voicemail."
That's the bar we're setting for AI these days? That a simple set search is now "Siri intelligence."
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
host file
host file
host file
Re: (Score:2)
Glorified table lookup == A.I.
Hooray! (Score:2)
Exactly the feature I was asking for.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hooray! (Score:5, Insightful)
No, Android has been doing something better since 2015. It is actually looking up the number in databases to see if the number is a known spammer or an unassigned phone number, and marking it as Likely Spam.
Of course, there's a privacy tradeoff involved in sending every incoming phone number to a central server, which I assume is why Apple is almost four years behind, but what Apple is doing really isn't a good fix for the problem, because it guarantees that critical calls from unknown numbers (e.g. your cab/Uber driver) never get through.
Re: (Score:3)
And just to avoid the obvious response, yes, I know you can use a third-party app to filter your calls, but that requires you to trust that third party. I'd much rather trust Google or Apple to have a complete list of my calls than some random company that I know nothing about, whose privacy policies and security practices may or may not be robust, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
No, Android has been doing something better since 2015. It is actually looking up the number in databases to see if the number is a known spammer or an unassigned phone number, and marking it as Likely Spam.
Of course, there's a privacy tradeoff involved in sending every incoming phone number to a central server, which I assume is why Apple is almost four years behind, but what Apple is doing really isn't a good fix for the problem, because it guarantees that critical calls from unknown numbers (e.g. your cab/Uber driver) never get through.
This. It has a few flaws though.
1. It's dependent on user feedback. This is a plus where your private hire driver won't be marked as spam, but a minus where a spam company pheonixes [wikipedia.org] and buys a whole bunch of clean phone numbers under their new name.
2. It relies on caller number ID being accurate and transparent (I.E. telcos do not permit number spoofing). Not really an issue in the UK though.
3. False positives. Like any blocklist, it can end up with false positives, I've had a few sales calls marked as
Re: (Score:3)
I don't want to know if it is likely spam. I want it to not ring and not interrupt, go directly to voicemail.
I know I could get something similar by allowing Google to spy on me 24/7. Now I won't have to.
Re: (Score:1)
Exactly the feature I was asking for.
All they really need to do is fix the settings so "do not disturb" can be set to only allow calls from contacts, while AT THE SAME TIME allowing texts from contacts.
Right now, do not disturb shuts off all notification for texts, but lets contact calls through. Which is exactly the opposite of what really should happen.
There is no solution to a problem... (Score:4, Funny)
There is no solution to a problem that won't create a new problem. Now when I call my voicemail:
"You have..." (drum beat)
"one...hundred...and...seventy...nine..."
"new messages"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
First thing I do on every phone / SIM I've ever owned - disable voicemail.
Re: There is no solution to a problem... (Score:1)
They will send you a text message with the phone number. Then they will phone. Itâ(TM)s a number in your messages, so Siri rings it through.
Better? (Score:2)
Even better, it'll automatically send them to voicemail.
That's not better. Once a number is tagged as a spam origin, you don't want for them to be able to leave messages in your voicemail. You want the worms ignored, if possible while giving them a hard time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not routing just spam calls to your voicemail, it's routing ALL calls where it can't ID the caller from your contacts, emails, or messages to your voicemail.
What I currently do - manually - is send any call from anyone whose number I don't recognize right to voicemail. This will save me a button press, at least on the "spam likely" calls.
So it's a welcome addition, but iterative rather than revolutionary.
dumbest possible non-solution (Score:1)
Of course people get calls from unknown numbers. Like if you have a contractor coming to work on your house he's going to call from a number you don't know. More than that, most calls come from people I don't know because if it's a friend they'll send a text or e-mail.
The basic solution is for the telco companies to use technical measures to stop number spoofing. The better solution is to treat these issues as a law enforcement matter and have those assholes imprisoned or shot.
Muting all calls from people y
Spoofed-as-local should be trivial. (Score:3)
The basic solution is for the telco companies to use technical measures to stop number spoofing.
One problem with telco blocking is that they have to connect calls originating on other networks (due to antitrust laws from the start of telephony, where the bigger companies would kill their competition by not connecting their calls) and they (currently) can't validate the numbers the other telcos claim.
But if the number is one that SHOULD have come from THEIR OWN NETWORK, they could reject it out-of-hand as a
Re: (Score:2)
*shrug* this is just automating what I already do. Legitimate callers leave voicemail.
AI, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Siri Intelligence is branding.
Defense against spam calls ... (Score:1)
Simple.
All calls to my number get answered with the following message "Nuclear Launch Control. Please press 1 to enter your target package or 2 to speak with the Command Duty Officer". Only if "2" is selected does the phone ring.
Works very well.
Re: (Score:1)
This is DND+ (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a minor feature update to justify changing their privacy policy to allow them to run all your messages and emails through their AI algorithms
Do Not Disturb mode does this... (Score:2)
I can have Do Not Disturb mode dump all callers that are not on my contact list to voicemail. You can turn on "if someone rings twice, let them through", but the robospammers caught onto that and now call twice.
I do applaud Apple for taking measures, but robocalls need to be handled by telcos who need to stop CID spoofing, as there isn't much Apple can do about it.
PBX (Asterisk) (Score:2)
The Android apps included PBX like control of the cellphone when they were not tied down to full spectrum ads. You could write rules to route any call, to anywhere, or nowhere. Spies do not like you to have control.
My home PBX has the only number I share with anyone. Calls can be passed immediately to my cell, voice mail in my PBX, or high pitched noises. My cell only has to be called, and ring-able by my home PBX. The VM number on the phone busy-forward is not there, so when ignored, they cannot leave mess
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Asterisk for years with a POTS card. Can you recommend a VoIP provider that is good for home use and light business?
Re: (Score:2)
No. Teliax was perfect for years, but upgrades and life timings lost them for me. I will not name the current, for minor VOIP issues, and bigger disagreement on business practices.
This won't work! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Exchange (neighbourhood) spoofing has been around for years. It works in neighbourhoods, but it makes no sense on a cell phone. The chances I will ever meet someone on my exchange are infinitesimal. I've considered getting another number in an area code where I could just block the entire area prefix, knowing that I'll never receive a call from there. If wild card blocking existed that would take care of exchange spam immediately.
Re: (Score:2)
I have some limited experience with using T1 trunks. You could use any number you wanted while placing a call.
Telcos might have recourse to refuse to place calls that arrive bearing a number that is not one that would, in turn, be directed down the originating trunk.
I'm not sure what sort of reasonable applications would break under this circumstance. I suppose a machine that patches throught calls and wants the forwarded call to retain its caller ID might be screwed.
Re: (Score:2)
So set the default to absolute silence.
And then whitelist numbers (why would you whitelist yourself or a random number) by adding them in as a contact and setting a ringtone on that contact / group.
Been doing it for years. My phone just "rings" to them, never lets them leave a voicemail, doesn't disturb me unless I know the person ringing, and if I need use the phone, I just press the hangup button if it's ringing.
Anyone else will text me or let me know who they are. All the missed calls - unless they loo
Re: (Score:2)
Those are the easiest ones for me to ignore, because I don't know anyone else with the same area code and exchange as me, and it's not physically nearby (I moved) so it's vanishingly unlikely to be a delivery person, contractor, or other person I actually need to deal with.
App? (Score:1)
On my phone, I can set the default ring to nothing & then assign a ringtone to entries in my contact list.
The phone does not ring unless the number is from one of my contacts & if they wait long enough, it goes to voicemail.
It takes an app & AI to do this on an iPhone?
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking exactly the same.
Apparently, people actually *customising* their iPhones is a bit unusual.
I remember a friend of me relaying the debacle he had to set a piece of music as a ringtone. He gave up in the end, despite achieving it eventually, it was just too much hassle to do for multiple contacts, etc.
It was a few years ago, so maybe iOS changed, but it used to involve all kinds of iTunes / sync / AAC nonsense.
Every phone I've used since the non-smartphone Nokia died was just a matter of changi
A weird problem with this (Score:2)
So where I live (Montreal, Quebec), it seems that hospitals call from blocked numbers. Since spam calls always come from spoofed numbers now, I always pick up when the number is blocked, but let it go to voicemail if I don't recognize the number otherwise.
I'd really love all the spam numbers to be blocked, but I 100% want numbers hidden from me to go straight to me. Hopefully there'll be a setting for that. I'm not holding my breath, though.
A Day Late (Score:2)
The new "silence unknown callers" option can be toggled on or off based on your preference
My landline phone company already has the feature ignore all unknown callers. My phone doesn't even ring. The spammers have already moved on to spoofing the number. So Silence unknown numbers is a feature I needed 3 years ago. Today I need something new. Like the phone company not allowing spoofed numbers. The phone company has no incentive because they make alot of money on these calls.
Ehh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds great in principle - but I suspect it'll end up being turned off when you (say) can't hear a call from the delivery guy who is unable to find your house.
Good thing it can be turned off (Score:2)
Not helpful when some people have to pay for call time while accessing their voicemail. Good thing it can be turned off and I hope it's off by default.
Useless. (Score:5, Insightful)
My kids are at school. One of them has an emergency and a responsible adult from the school calls me. Which teacher was it? Have I entered every single teacher into my phone Contacts? And all the parents who are chaperoning the day's outing? No, absolutely not. No one with kids will use this feature.
I took my car into the mechanic. I get a call from one of the mechanics who's working on it, and who happened to use his cell since it was more convenient than walking into the office. Have I entered all the numbers used by folks at the shop into my Contacts? No, certainly not. No one who uses the service industry will use this feature.
I'm closing on a house. I get a call from someone at the Escrow agent, or the Inspector, or the lender. Have I entered all those numbers? No.
My gardener has to call to reschedule. Or my plumber. Or my electrician. Or my hot-tub maintenance person. Or my security company. Or the gas company. Or my cable company. Have I entered all those numbers? No.
My parents call my cell-phone via Skype. Which number does Skype happen to route its international calls through on this day? I don't know. I don't have it in my Contacts.
This feature of "blocking unknown numbers" is just plain useless for most adults with responsibilities. And once it's combined with the FTC's "no caller-id spoofing" so that each company employee shows up as calling from their own personal desk line (rather than the company's central number) then it'll be even worse.
(Do I have alternative solutions to phone spam? Yes I do. Let the FTC institute a requirement on phone companies where if I get a call then there's a keypress I can use to report+record it as spam. Oblige the companies to track call originators by their billing address rather than the caller-ID they claim. If >1000 people report spam from a particular billing address then the phone company must start collecting 1c/call in escrow. If >10000 people report spam on a particular billing address then the FTC is obliged to investigate and make a "spam/notspam" determination within 4 weeks. If it decides yes it is spam, then the phone company is obliged to pass on that 1c/call to each customer who reported it. I suggested 1c as a placeholder but I'm guessing once we calculate economics incentives then 5c might be more appropriate.)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be amazed if this functionality was compulsory.
Re: (Score:2)
My kids are at school. One of them has an emergency and a responsible adult from the school calls me. Which teacher was it? Have I entered every single teacher into my phone Contacts? And all the parents who are chaperoning the day's outing? No, absolutely not. No one with kids will use this feature.
If a kid at school has a real emergency, he probably needs a doctor more than a parent.
As a reminder, the humanity survived without cell phones during many, many years.
Re: (Score:2)
Each and every one of your examples other than skype is either overly contrived and/or easily solvable by listening to the message and calling the caller back.
An unlisted teacher/parent calls you with an issue with your kids? You call back. The teacher/parent will not have direct to messages activated when chaperoning.
A mechanic calls you with an issue on your car? You call back. The mechanic will either not have direct to messages activated or would use the office line so that he doesn't get work calls on
Re: (Score:2)
> My kids are at school. One of them has an emergency and a responsible adult from the school calls me. Which teacher was it? Have I entered every single teacher into my phone Contacts?
Would the school not be calling from the school's number?
> And all the parents who are chaperoning the day's outing?
In my experience, you usually get an email with these numbers. TFS says that numbers in email get whitelisted. So, not a problem.
> I took my car into the mechanic. I get a call from one of the mechani
Re: (Score:2)
In every single one of these cases why wouldn't they leave a message if it's important? I have received calls from about 90% of those cases you listed and they always left a message and I called right back within a minute or 2.
I don't see the problem here. This is how I already use my phone. I never answer unknown numbers and just call back if it was somebody I need to talk to based on the voicemail.
I even ask that in my voicemail greeting. "If this is the first time you are calling me, please leave you
Band-aid (Score:2)
While this is a great defense, it's still a bandaid.
This problem is squarely the responsibility of the phone companies. They should be able to tell where phone calls are originating from and whether they are legitimate. There is already an industry-wide mechanism for determining ownership of a given phone number. The next logical step is to reference that database during initial call routing.
I don't know how difficult this would actually be to do, but we're long past the point where this simply has to be
Major Defense? (Score:1)
Sounds better. I was hoping they had the AI to track down the people that put up the robot and send a task force of commandos to beat the living daylights out of them. Able to breach even the most heavily fortified call centers, they come with the new phone service. Once caught they give you a menu where you can decide from 1 (slap on wrist) to the dreaded 0 (waterboard for a day, electrodes under the finger nails, pillory for a day and they have to watch a Cher concert. 00 to remove the Cher concert if you