<story><title>US breaks up IRS phone scam operation</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/business/irs-phone-scams-jeff-sessions.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>r00fus</author><text>Not sure what carrier you&amp;#x27;re using but T-Mobile in the US just released &amp;quot;scam block&amp;quot; ( I had &amp;quot;scam ID&amp;quot; turned on previously).&lt;p&gt;In addition to marking calls as scam, now they simply block them outright. Getting approximately 0 scam calls in the past 2 days.</text></item><item><author>anonymous5133</author><text>I think the problem has gotten so serious that the traditional voice-based phone system is pretty much unusable. I don&amp;#x27;t even bother to answer the phone. Instead I have a voice mail message that tells people to send a text message instead. I can&amp;#x27;t be the only one who does something like this or has some other system in place to not have to deal with robocalls&amp;#x2F;scam callers.</text></item><item><author>jonathanmayer</author><text>I worked on countering phone scams and robocalls at the Federal Communications Commission for over a year. This operation was a big win and an impressive international collaboration.&lt;p&gt;That said, the robocall problem is getting worse, not better. Robocall volume is at an all-time high: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;robocallindex.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;robocallindex.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many respects, the problem of telephone spam today is similar to the problem of email spam in the early 2000s. Litigating against spammers had limited efficacy, so the community developed blacklists, better filtering, and stronger authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC).&lt;p&gt;Until the major carriers get serious about similar steps, especially filtering and authentication (i.e. SHAKEN and STIR), these fraudulent calls won&amp;#x27;t stop. And, in the interim, vulnerable populations will continue to be disproportionately victimized.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>supertrope</author><text>Job seekers and those with medically needy relatives are among those who cannot tolerate any false positive especially if calls are entirely rejected and cannot even leave a voicemail.</text></comment>
<story><title>US breaks up IRS phone scam operation</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/business/irs-phone-scams-jeff-sessions.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>r00fus</author><text>Not sure what carrier you&amp;#x27;re using but T-Mobile in the US just released &amp;quot;scam block&amp;quot; ( I had &amp;quot;scam ID&amp;quot; turned on previously).&lt;p&gt;In addition to marking calls as scam, now they simply block them outright. Getting approximately 0 scam calls in the past 2 days.</text></item><item><author>anonymous5133</author><text>I think the problem has gotten so serious that the traditional voice-based phone system is pretty much unusable. I don&amp;#x27;t even bother to answer the phone. Instead I have a voice mail message that tells people to send a text message instead. I can&amp;#x27;t be the only one who does something like this or has some other system in place to not have to deal with robocalls&amp;#x2F;scam callers.</text></item><item><author>jonathanmayer</author><text>I worked on countering phone scams and robocalls at the Federal Communications Commission for over a year. This operation was a big win and an impressive international collaboration.&lt;p&gt;That said, the robocall problem is getting worse, not better. Robocall volume is at an all-time high: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;robocallindex.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;robocallindex.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many respects, the problem of telephone spam today is similar to the problem of email spam in the early 2000s. Litigating against spammers had limited efficacy, so the community developed blacklists, better filtering, and stronger authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC).&lt;p&gt;Until the major carriers get serious about similar steps, especially filtering and authentication (i.e. SHAKEN and STIR), these fraudulent calls won&amp;#x27;t stop. And, in the interim, vulnerable populations will continue to be disproportionately victimized.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kurthr</author><text>I hope it works... it&amp;#x27;s kinda terrifying that getting no scam calls for 2 days is significant!&lt;p&gt;I have a test&amp;#x2F;dev phone that I used for a project several years ago with an associated ph#. I forgot about it (don&amp;#x27;t think about the charges accrued 8^) for several years, but just charged it and turned it on.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a number that was never used or answered for 3 years and it gets several scam calls a day. They must be calling every valid number.</text></comment>