29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981 Add this Digest to your personal   or   The Telecom Digest for March 06, 2011 Volume 30 : Issue 57 : "text" Format Messages in this Issue: Re:Annoyance Calls (Fred Atkinson) Re: Annoyance Calls (Fred Atkinson) Re: Annoyance Calls (Dave Garland) Re: Annoyance Calls (Sam Spade) Re: ShopAlerts by AT&T (Sam Spade) ====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:27:36 -0700
From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re:Annoyance Calls
Message-ID: <20110305002840.44036.qmail@gal.iecc.com>

At 06:25 PM 3/3/2011, Sam Spade wrote:
>fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com wrote:
>
>
>>       I guess I'm going to be filing a complaint with the Federal Trade
>>Commission soon if I don't resolve this.
>
>All the FTC does is gather statistics on these telephonic 
>invasions.  If you push them hard enough they will advise you that 
>federal law permits you to file a lawsuit agains the violator.

         The problem is: I don't know who the violator is.

         And can I file against them in New Mexico when they are on 
the opposite end of Texas from me?

         Regards,

                                                 Fred



Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:41:02 -0700
From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls 
Message-ID: <20110305004205.45951.qmail@gal.iecc.com>

At 03:14 PM 3/4/2011, Jeff or Lisa wrote:
>On Mar 3, 3:34 pm, fatkinson.remove-t...@and-this-too.mishmash.com
>wrote:
>
> >       I have been getting annoyance calls from phone numbers in Harlingen,
> > Texas.  The latest numbers are . . . :
>
>Is it possible those numbers are spoofed?
>
>
> >    I called my VOIP company.  They are unable to help me contact the
> >offenders.
>
>Why can't your carrier help you?  Aren't they responsible to do so
>as your telephone service provider?  My local carrier has an office
>specifically to deal with serious harrassment calls.  The number is
>reported by dialing 1157 immediately after the call is received.  I
>think that's a standard service, and I believe it uses the ANI, not
>Caller-ID, so is more accurate.
>
>
>sample description:
>
>"Call Trace automatically initiates a trace of the last call you
>received. You can use this feature to trace unlawful or threatening
>calls that alarm, frighten, or harass you. The trace results include
>the calling and called number and the date and the time of the call.
>The results are sent to the Verizon Unlawful Call Center and are
>stored for future action.
>
>Your phone is already equipped for Call Trace; there is no charge for
>the connection. Charges and fees for using Call Trace may vary.
>
>Note If you are threatened with bodily harm or an explosive device,
>use Call Trace and immediately contact your local police department.
>
>All calling features are subject to availability and compatibility
>restrictions."
>
>for full description and instructions please see:
>http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/phone/calling+features/call+trace/call+trace.htm
>
>another carrier's description:
>http://www.corp.att.com/smbcc/aio/aio_callmgmt.html
>
>[a google search on "Call Trace 57" yields many results.]

         They are responsible IMHO but they refuse to do anything.

         The carrier is Phone Power (http://www.phonepower.com).

         I gain nothing by getting the number.  I've already got it.

         What I need is to know who that number belongs to.

                                                 Fred



Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:09:59 -0600
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls 
Message-ID: <iks9ic$qae$1@news.eternal-september.org>

On 3/4/2011 4:14 PM, Lisa or Jeff wrote:
> On Mar 3, 3:34 pm, fatkinson.remove-t...@and-this-too.mishmash.com
> wrote:
> 
>>    I called my VOIP company.  They are unable to help me contact the
>> offenders.
> 
> Why can't your carrier help you?  Aren't they responsible to do so
> as your telephone service provider?  My local carrier has an office
> specifically to deal with serious harrassment calls.  The number is
> reported by dialing 1157 immediately after the call is received.  I
> think that's a standard service, and I believe it uses the ANI, not
> Caller-ID, so is more accurate.

And who would that carrier be?  In my case, I have DSL from Qwest, but
all my phone service is from voip.ms (well, aside from the prepay
T-mobile cellphone that's my backup), there is no landline.  (And I
know one person whose entire phone service comes from "Magic Jack",
via a neighbor's insecure wifi access point.)  I just looked in the
ATA configuration, and don't see any appropriate code to dial for call
trace (though I might just be missing it, there are some fairly
cryptic settings).  *57 turns call waiting off.  Oh, and voip.ms is
located in Montreal, not the US (though they do have some servers here).

Interestingly enough, *77 is "Block ANC Act Code".  I wonder if that
does what it sounds like.  I suppose it might depend on my upstream
vendor.  Anybody know an ANC readback number I could test it with?

Dave



Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:28:48 -0800
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls 
Message-ID: <7Judna3qnNYNp-_QnZ2dnUVZ_sSdnZ2d@giganews.com>

Lisa or Jeff wrote:

> Why can't your carrier help you?  Aren't they responsible to do so
> as your telephone service provider?  My local carrier has an office
> specifically to deal with serious harrassment calls.  The number is
> reported by dialing 1157 immediately after the call is received.  I
> think that's a standard service, and I believe it uses the ANI, not
> Caller-ID, so is more accurate.
> 
>
As I recall there is a charge for each trace you make, plus the local 
carrier won't do anything about it unless there is a police report.



Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:13:24 -0800
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: ShopAlerts by AT&T 
Message-ID: <uo-dnUxjb8jYAezQnZ2dnUVZ_uWdnZ2d@giganews.com>

John Levine wrote:
>>Have we had a discussion of the merits of this way versus the US way of
>>doing things where the example of this thread costs the (passive) receiver
>>money?
> 
> 
> Often.  People in caller pays like it because incoming calls are "free",
> but of course they're not, they're charged to someone else.  Caller
> pays has what's known as a "terminating monopoly", which means that if
> I want to call your mobile, I have to pay whatever price your carrier
> sets for people to call.  As a result, terminating prices tend to be
> very high, and the actual per-minute price people pay is considerably
> higher than in mobile pays areas.
> 
> In North America, where it's all mobile pays, we're quite aware of the
> price of both outgoing and incoming calls, so there is a great deal
> of competition for both.  I pay 10 cents/min on my cheap low volume
> prepaid phone; people who talk a lot and have monthly bundles pay less.
> 
> R's,
> John
> 

I suspect flat-rate, local area, wireline subscribers in the US would 
revolt if they had to pay for making a local call to anyone.

And, I suspect the regulators protect them from that happening.




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