Would be nice to have the ability to block specific area codes and telephone prefixes with the use of wildcards (***).
Phone Power - Forum - VoIP & Phone Services News, Updates & Support » General Discussion » Feature Requests
Call Blocking - Block Area Codes and Prefixes
(23 posts) (7 voices)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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This has been brought up in previous threads. We are working on a call control system that will allow users to block with wild card variables. For instance
Block (888)xxx-xxxx would block all calls that came from the toll free number 888.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just wondering if there are any updates on this?
I'm getting a lot of spam calls from some telemarketer in Washington state. While they keep changing/spoofing their number all the calls are coming from Washington state area codes.
Posted 11 months ago # -
The ICM feature is still in alpha testing. I flagged your account for beta testing.
Posted 11 months ago # -
bornconfuzd said:
Just wondering if there are any updates on this?I'm getting a lot of spam calls from some telemarketer in Washington state. While they keep changing/spoofing their number all the calls are coming from Washington state area codes.
Washington state is where I was getting all the spam calls from as well. There is a crappy little telephone company up in that state that caters to the illegal telemarketers, although they will tell you otherwise. That is why in another post I mentioned that it would be nice to be able to just block a particular telephone company. But the telephone calls from their crappy customers, aka spam marketers, all of a sudden stopped on my cell phone when I tracked down their 1 man operation and then called and threatened them.
FYI: The telemarketers are not necessarily from Washington, as I found out. They just use that particular company which issues Washington state numbers, most likely through VOIP.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Yup I have been call from the jack@sses (only twice this month). Having a business I always gets calls from at least one tool a month wanting to sell me compressed air. I tell them I why would I pay for your overpriced air at (insert price per bottle) when compress are less the 100 bucks. Hate telemarketers trying to sell me s#@t. I wish so bad PhonePower would make something requiring peeps to state their names (like Google Voice) so I can ignore idiots more easily. JMHO
Posted 11 months ago # -
Sorry, I didn't realize that blocking area codes was what ICM was going to allow!
FWIW this outfit, IND SUR GROUP, which I believe stands for All India Survey Group, is calling us multiple times a day. I've blocked or "forwarded" 6 or 7 of their numbers which has really cut down on the calls that get through and we now go days without a call, but today again, they hit me with a call from a different number.
Relief, whether through ICM or some other method, cannot come soon enough!
Posted 11 months ago # -
The number in your first screen shot has never called me, but the second number in the second screen shot has rang my cell phone and when I reported the call, I was advised the company was Pacific Telecom Communications Group. I was also advised by my cellular carrier that they are a scum company. It is odd that it is known that this company is SCUM, yet nobody stops their abuse.
Anyhow I did a little searching on my own, found out the info on their company. When I called Pacific Telecom, they played the innocent role and tried to pass the buck. After I made it plain and clear that if I received one more call, I was going to book the next flight out of my town and track down their little operation, all the called ceased! Funny how they were able to STOP all the little scamming customers from calling me.
Since that call, I actually receive very few junk calls. Most likely 90% of the junk calls are going through their little scam operation. That is why I said before, if there was just a simple way to block this company, I think the junk calls would be close to eliminated. I have never received a spam call that originated through a legitimate telephone company such at the Ma Bells and the well know VOIPs like PhonePower, Vonage, etc.
See this for more info on these clowns:
http://wikiwarnings.com/2012/01/03/pacific-telecom-communications-group/
http://www.scaminformer.com/scam-report/pacific-telecom-communications-pacific-telecom-communications-group-universal-card-c29438.htmlDo as I did. Call and threaten to visit them in person. After that you will see that call blocking is not so important anymore.
Posted 11 months ago # -
So, I've discovered an entire website devoted to what appears to be the actual culprit in my, and many others, case and is the same outfit pointed out by bv12345
http://telemarketerspam.wordpress.com/
Looks like they make their real money by ripping off the phone companies including Phonepower!
Quote from the blog;
"Pacific Telecom’s telephone numbers are Calling Name (CNAM) provisioned. This means that for every outbound call that originates from their network, Pacific Telecom can collect a CNAM fee for transmitting the caller ID information to the Local Exchange Carrier receiving the call.
CNAM fees are typically fractions of a cent per call. However, when these fees are aggregated across hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of outbound calls per week, it can amount to significant money. Huge volumes of unsolicited telemarketing calls can drive huge amounts of revenue into Pacific Telecom’s pockets. Publicly traded telecommunications organizations have revealed in regulatory statements that these fees amount to many millions of dollars."
Is this true? If so, it sounds like all of us, including Phonepower management should be involved in trying to stop these guys.
This must also explain why so many of these calls simply hang up when we answer. They got what they wanted, a charge to our phone company.
Posted 11 months ago # -
These are most, but not all, of the numbers used by Pacific Telecom/Ind Sur Group, in calls to me;
Organization: IND SUR GROUP
(360) 474-3942
(206) 496-0955
(206) 496-0953
(360) 474-3925
(503) 457-1368
(971) 208-9956According to what I've read these numbers don't belong to them. They're either not currently in use by anyone or they're stolen from people who are just as much victims as those who are called.
Point being, it appears that the ability to block individual numbers is simply pointless and useless in a case like this.
Posted 11 months ago #
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