back to article Vodafone UK blocks bulk nuisance calls. Hurrah!

Vodafone blocked 425,000 nuisance and scam calls in a single day, while testing new call-barring technology for its UK mobile network. And during a week of tests, nuisance and fraudulent call attempts plummeted to less than 1000 as the bad guys realised that Vodafone could and would block their calls. Success. The new, …

  1. Vimes

    Meanwhile over at Three they're apparently more concerned with their attempts to push targeted advertising and promoting it as ad-blocking, rather than provide anything really useful such as this...

  2. aelking

    real calls

    Now if only they could actually connect real calls.

    Current voda customer.

  3. Richard Jones 1
    Flame

    Tell BT and EE

    Title says it all, I had another parasite ring on my emergency phone today while I was busy dealing with something important. Frankly watering the porcelain is more important than scammers and what I was dealing with was more important than that.

    Mind you watering the scammers that way is a delicious thought

    1. Commswonk

      Re: Tell BT and EE

      Title says it all,

      Yes it definitely does. I am heartily sick of having to get out of my chair (often when eating) to find nobody at the other end or somebody with whom I have neither the desire or need to communicate. (And I don't mean EE; my PAYG mobile is, er, Vodafone.)

      I frequently get into trouble from Mrs Commswonk* for telling spam callers what I think of them in no uncertain terms.

      *Actually I get into trouble from Mrs Commswonk for all sorts of things but they are outside the scope of this thread.

    2. Sunil Sood

      Re: Tell BT and EE

      BT is due to do something similar later this year: home.bt.com/news/bt-life/bt-offers-breakthrough-service-to-divert-huge-numbers-of-nuisance-calls-11364039280071

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Tell BT and EE

        Reading the reports it seems some thought has gone into the BT service. I particularly like the 'sting'. Firstly, BT connects the call so the caller gets billed and secondly because the call is connected the auto dialer connects the call to an operator, who then has to play Russian roulette in determing whether they have been connected to a real person or an uncompromising answering machine...

        So two great disincentives, the first financially hitting the operator's pockets, the second psychologically hitting the employees.

        Next we only need to link the answering machine to Siri/Cortana/Alexia/Now and we can play ELIZA chat!

      2. Why Not?

        Re: Tell BT and EE

        Thanks I went to read this and of course the advert underneath was 'new way to check PPI'.mde me laugh.

        its difficult to understand why this has taken so long.

        I wonder will the be effective against Dave from Mumbai? You know the one with a thick accent and very worried about the accident you had in your car recently. Or will foreign cold callers be exempt as they don't pass their ID through?

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Tell BT and EE

      Have you signed up?

      "In further call-blocking news BT has recently announced that it's rolling out a new service to block even more calls. The service doesn't yet have a name but it essentially works just like the spam filter you have on your email account. BT will be using huge amounts of data to identify numbers that are making very large call volumes; it then diverts any calls from those numbers to a special voicemail box without bothering you. You can go and check the messages in that box if you're worried you've missed anything important, but let's admit it, it's not very likely. You can register your interest for the scheme by heading to this BT page"

      [Source: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/mobile-phones/1401522/bt-bt8500-review-the-best-call-blocker-phone-yet 9-Mar-2016]

      So suggest this story about Voda testing tech, is an attempt to be seen as being proactive rather than simply following in BT's wake.

      1. David Gosnell

        Re: Tell BT and EE

        Knowing BT, they'll be charging extra for the privilege though.

  4. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Finally, somebody bloody does something about this after not giving a toss for years and just getting fat off the interconnect charges!

    1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
      Pint

      Yes; well done Vodaphone. If they can do it then we can tell other providers they can too. It is long overdue but it is good news for everyone.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Indeed, I'm just amazed it was Vodafone that did it first. They are the only network I have ever paid to leave early.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Economic reasons

      Telcos haven't been getting fat off the interconnect charges.

      The vast majority of these calls are injected fraudulently and the terminating telco is having to bear the cost of carrying them across its network without being paid for it.

      It's in their own economic interest to block such calls from getting into their system. This is self-interest dressed up as consumer protection.

      Voda might well be first but the other telcos will follow very quickly. The factor of the crooks concentrating their efforts on the other networks will see to that.

  5. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Pity they only care about their customers - be nice guys and give/license your technology to other mobile operators.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      be nice guys and give/license your technology to other mobile operators.

      Not sure what tech Voda have, but this is basically applying real-time cloud-based AV tech to voice comm's. So perhaps the only tech Voda has is the knowledge of just what is involved and few scripts...

  6. Chris G

    If only

    They would extend the technology to Vodaphone Spain and apply it to their own bloody annoying spam calls and text messages.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If only

      That's obviously high in the priorities.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    testing new call-barring technology

    took some time, eh?

  8. Terry Cloth

    Does it work with landlines?

    Here on the U.S., I can get a service (don't know how effective) to block spam from VoIP phones (free) and cell phones ($5/month). Liking my landline (and not understanding why people would pay for dropped calls, unintelligible transmissions, etc.; oh, yeah, get off my lawn), I'd like some parity on spam-stopping.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Does it work with landlines?

      Yes, but in here in Europe unsolicited communications of all forms are illegal. Why should we pay for a service to prevent illegal behaviour?

      The UK seems to suffer from poor regulation and implementation. Fines obviously aren't high enough and the regulator doesn't seem to hound the telcos hard enough to clamp down on this kind of thing. In Germany the telco providing access to the POTS can be sanctioned (including being banned) if it does not clamp down on abuse; fines have been significantly increased. Result: I have had no nuisance calls at all in the last five years on the landline and I can't remember ever getting them on my mobile (number unchanged for 15 years).

  9. Andy Non Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Nuisance calls are a plague

    Luckily I don't get many on my BT mobile, but the BT landline gets hammered with nuisance callers despite being registered with TPS. Like someone else I got fed up of leaving off my dinner etc to pick up the phone only for it to be a recorded sales message about PPI, home improvements, my computer has got a virus etc so I've set the answering machine to automatically answer all calls on two rings saying "Hello, all calls are screened for nuisance callers. Someone will pick up the phone and speak to you or call you back after you state who you are, who you want to speak to and the reason for your call. Thank you." And that effectively eliminates 100% of all unwanted calls. Most telephone sales people hang up as soon as they hear the answering machine. Family and friends etc don't mind the message and legitimate callers such as the bank or doctor patiently oblige with my request to state who they are etc and I go and pick up the phone. Interestingly the number of nuisance calls has gone down anyway over the last few months since I adopted this call screening approach.

    1. John Sager

      Re: Nuisance calls are a plague

      TPS is pretty much useless now. Most of the spam calls I get on the landline are either international, even with a proper CLI, or VOIP with a made-up CLI. Interestingly, many of those have a kosher UK code but only a 5-digit number. So easy to spot since virtually all UK local numbers are 6-digit (or 7 for a few) after the code. Some are withheld, and I would just send them straight to the answering machine, but unfortunately we get calls from the local hospital that really need to be answered and they withhold by policy rather than giving a presentation number. I have discussed it with them but no change yet.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Nuisance calls are a plague

        "TPS is pretty much useless now. Most of the spam calls I get on the landline are either international, even with a proper CLI, or VOIP with a made-up CLI. "

        Yup. The only way to work out who's behind them is to get them talking. Sooner or later they'll let slip enough information to allow the ICO to ID them and in the meantime it keeps them busy not being able to defraud someone else.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Nuisance calls are a plague

      > "!ve set the answering machine to automatically answer all calls on two rings saying "Hello, all calls are screened for nuisance callers....."

      > ... Most telephone sales people hang up as soon as they hear the answering machine

      Most autodiallers will determine it's an answering machine (humans say "hello" or other greeting, then wait), so the odds are pretty good that the telesales dweebs never heard your message.

      If you'd like to waste their time a little, make the start of the message sound like a human answering and leave the message part 10-15 seconds into the call.

      The interesting thing (for me) is that when I moved away from BT to TT, I dumped the old number, made sure it was ex-directory and registered it with TPS. It only started getting calls after Experian got hold of it and started selling it.

      Because TT wouldn't change the number because of nusiance calls, I dumped _that_ number when I changed provider again (people do it on mobiles. i don't see why we get so attached to landline numbers) and did the same again. I _also_ picked up a 070 number for £12/year (the last 5 digits spell FUCK-U as a clue to anyone with half a brain) and give that to businesses or anyone else untrustworthy.

      If they want to pay £1.50 to call me then they're welcome to do so (I don't get any revenue and when I explained to the telco why I wanted them to charge the max rate anyway, they went along with it) So far that number's had a few sales calls. I had one guy talking for 15 minutes before letting slip how much the call was costing him..... <mwa ha haaaa>

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Finally

    Been told by various networks for years this is impossible. Granted that's the company line, but it's maddening.

    I always maintained it was perfectly possible on a technical level. I can think of myriad solutions, starting with a white or black list. Of course, I never got anywhere.

    I've managed it for companies I've done telephony for, on both Cisco and Mitel systems, for instance.. Not that small to medium enterprise is likely the same tech, but I feel a bit validated for privately thinking the telcos just needed to get their fingers out.

    As a giffgaff customer... A wait is in order but it gives me more ammo to complain. Of course trucaller and the like on my rooted android does the job.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Same basic algorithm as Google's Gmail uses to screen out spam nearly perfectly...

    Just look at the traffic, and block it where appropriate.

    The 'where appropriate' is trivial, rules-based. Adapt as required.

  13. I Like Heckling Silver badge

    BT8500 Home Phones

    My pensioner mum was in need of some new phones for her house after her old ones started to go wrong. She needed something with a clear screen (preferably backlit and colour) and slightly larger than average buttons (or big written numbers).

    She's also been getting 3 or 4 scam/spam calls per day for the last 12-18 months, which can start from 8am to 9pm... Luckily I've taught her well and she no longer even gives her name out to anyone who calls until they identify themselves, and never gives out personal information.

    So I found a quad set of the BT8500 phones with call screening/blocking built in... Even managed to get a manufacturer refurbished set for £60 instead of £120.

    I fitted them and programmed some important numbers in on Friday last week... She's not had a single spam/scam call get through since then.

    I've been so impressed with them, that I've ordered an identical set for myself... I already have truecall setup on my mobile as part of the CMOS on my Wileyfox Storm which has stopped all scam calls to that too.

    My actual quad set of phones + 2 spares will then be punted back through ebay to recover some of the cost of the new ones... I'm hoping that I'll get at least £30-40 for them.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: BT8500 Home Phones

      My mum was getting loads of nuisance calls but these have virtually ceased since we got her on TPS. But being able to block on the phone is definitely worthwhile.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: BT8500 Home Phones

        Only work when the scammers don't use the Caller Id of a valid business, such as a bank, utility, etc. ...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BT8500 Home Phones

          "Only work when the scammers don't use the Caller Id of a valid business, such as a bank, utility, etc. ..."

          Only, surely, if that bank or utility is in the phone's user-entered white list? Else the call goes to the answering machine along with all the other unknowns.

    2. We're with Steve
      Thumb Up

      Re: BT8500 Home Phones

      I got a Callguard phone a few months ago and found the same. I have not have to "loose my s***" with anyone on the landline phone since. I also get less grief from my wife for "loosing my s***" in front of the kids. I occasionally check the "failed list numbers" and find they are all scammers which gives me an extra warm glow as I perma-block the numbers.

  14. AndrueC Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Crappy Vodafone service is still a thing though.

    Today I took delivery of a new S7 Edge. First-off I had to wait over two hours this afternoon to activate the new SIM card because their systems were down for maintenance. No web site, no live chat. Got through to someone on the phone and they said they couldn't help and I'd just have to wait until their systems came back up. Secondly it turns out that you can't enable Wifi calling because a recent update has removed the menu option. Latest word is that Vodafone are hoping it will come back with the next update.

    Meanwhile I'm waiting for my Sure Signal to accept the new SIM. Apparently I have little choice but to wait. Some people have had success by removing the phone from the whitelist and adding it back but I can't do that because my number is the 'owner'.

    Their anti cold calling sounds good..but right now my phone is so borderline useless that I don't need special blocking technology :-/

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      To be fair to Vodafone (harrumph) I got a text today saying that Wifi calling was active on my account. The missing menu option appeared and now it's activated.

  15. arty169

    Good idea - shame it's too late

    Great idea Vodafone - (I suggested it to you 6 years ago and showed you how to do it). However, people are now so used to scam and nuisance calls that they're already screening most of their calls and only answering to known numbers.

    Focus your energy on connecting genuine calls and don't put lipstick on the pig.

  16. inmypjs Silver badge

    Shame it is only Vodafone....

    Today I had a landline call from a nice Indian lady from some Windows something or other department. She told me something about my Windows software having a CLSID associated with my phone number - just before I told her I didn't have a computer running Windows and hung up.

    Unusually it did have caller ID - 001701538412

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Shame it is only Vodafone....

      "Unusually it did have caller ID - 001701538412"

      Which is syntactically invalid for the North American Numbering System it claims to be from - 3 digit area codes and 7 digit localparts have been the standard there for 50 years so it's missing a digit.

  17. Andrew Jones 2

    OK, it's a step in the right direction - but presumably this relies on the presented Caller ID number right?

    We've started getting a lot more calls in the UK that use the trick they use in the US, where they call you from a number that appears to be a local number. In the last 6 months I've had about 40 calls that appear to originate from both the 01361 and 01896 area, but the few times I have answered them, they are clearly calls from a call centre and I know for a fact that there are no call centres in either of these area codes.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "presumably this relies on the presented Caller ID number right?"

      Wrong.

      CallerID data is entirely separate to the routing and ANI data that circulates within the network. You can see that if you have a ISDN PRI (even if callerID is suppressed) and like reading email headers there's more than enough data there to identify fraudulently injected calls if you can be bothered doing so.

      Voda is doing this because the cost of doing so it lower than the losses they're taking in allowing the calls to go through (they don't get paid for these calls, so terminating them is a dead loss). Now that threshold's been passed it's in their interests to dress up an automated DNC system as being in the interests of the consumer.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Voda is doing this because the cost of doing so it lower than the losses they're taking in allowing the calls to go through (they don't get paid for these calls, so terminating them is a dead loss)"

        I think that depends where the fraudulent injection into the PSTN is taking place Alan. If it's happening direcly on Vodafone's network then you're right, but if a transit operator is handing these calls to the terminating operator, the terminating operator will want paying. The fraud might have happened four or five operators back in the chain and the loss occurs much closer to the source usually.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

    If it does then the Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust is going to have a problem because all outgoing calls from East Surrey and Crawley Hospitals are made with 'Number withheld'.

    I can't fathom the reason why they do this. Can't they put the Hospical Switchboard number on the call but to be honest, I don't have a clue.

    Perhaps El Reg could get a statement from their Chief Exec why they do this. It would give them something to do while they wait for Apple to respond to their requests.

    Posting AC because I'm a patient at East Surrey and it is just about the crappiest hospital I've ever been unlucky to have been to.

    1. Da Weezil

      Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

      Hwyel Dda in West Wales do the same and despite calling them and discussing this in February, they have not had the courtesy to make the promised return call to clarify the reasons to me - after I explained to them quite clearly that their assertion that it was not possible was completely wrong, and that this was in fact quite normal.

      There is no excuse for the withheld CLI, from our local hospital The presentation number should be 01437 764545 - but then this shower have a long history of ignoring the views of local populace.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

      Privacy rules.

      The same reason they won't leave a (meaningful) message on an answering machine.

      It's not permitted for them to reveal that a patient is actually a patient of theirs for fear that someone else will get suspicious.

      "Honey, why are you getting calls from the maternity unit when we haven't had sex this year?"

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

      No, it won't block withheld numbers. Even if someone sets number withheld, the originating number still exists in the signalling messages between exchanges, it just doesn't get released to the receiving customer.

      Health bodies withhold numbers for data protection reasons. Leaving a CLI on a phone's call list that could be seen by someone else (home phones are household, not personal, devices) could give away that someone in the household is receiving treatment they'd rather the others didn't know about.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

        Quote

        Health bodies withhold numbers for data protection reasons.

        Not all of them do that by a long measure.

        Then they send you a letter with NHS writ big on the envelope. How does your argument stand up then?

        I long for the day that I could block all 'Number withheld' calls from my mother's phone. She's 94 and gets sometimes 10 a day. mostly Microsoft and Bt Security. As she does not have a computer she gets confused.

        For her sake (and thousands of others like her) can we please get Number withheld calls banned?

        I can't be that difficult now can it?

        1. paulf
          Unhappy

          Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

          Automatic "Withheld Number" call rejection is perfectly possible on the network side. It usually gives out a message informing the caller they must un-Withhold their number for the call to be put through (dialling 1470 is usually the way to override a default withhold). The downside is scammers could just use a fake CLID but it should stop some of the dodgy calls.

          Unfortunately Telcos like to charge something like £5/month for this service because profit. Since the cost of offering this service is near negligible (the software is built into the LE switch gear it just needs someone to enable it for that line) I can only conclude that Telcos are gits...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

          "Then they send you a letter with NHS writ big on the envelope. How does your argument stand up then?"

          The letter is addressed to an individual and doesn't say "STI Clinic" on it in big letters.

          A letter from the NHS could be about anything at all and I'd expect most people get at least one every year. A phone call from a hospital - less likely. To get a communication from a hospital means that you've been referred for tests or treatment by a GP.

          Letters aren't covered by the DPA - it's not an electronic method of storage or communication - though the system that produces the letter obviously is.

          People aren't making this up - it's standard practice. Ring your local NHS trust and ask to speak to the CIO's office. They'll explain it to you in excruciating detail if that's what you want.

          1. Julian Bradfield

            Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

            The DPA is not restricted to electronic communication or storage - it's about automatic processing. Also, for public authorities, all data is DPA-data, even if manually held and processed.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Will this block 'Number Withheld' Calls?

          "For her sake (and thousands of others like her) can we please get Number withheld calls banned?"

          For the sake of women escaping from abusive relationships and whistleblowers calling anonymous helplines, can we not?

  19. Adam JC

    Personally, with nuisance calls...

    I answer every single one, do my best to get through to a human being of some description and swiftly tell them to foxtrot oscar with some ferocity.

    A colleague of mine keeps answering them and then hanging up, he always gets return calls - I however, do not :-)

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Personally, with nuisance calls...

      The best attack is actually to waste their time: the calls are free but the "agents" have to paid, in theory. Would be ideal for some kind of bot…

      1. Known Hero

        Re: Personally, with nuisance calls...

        I like to spin random yarns on occasion, e.g. accidents normally involves car crashes with a tank and harrier jump jet. Most have a chuckle and I get left alone for a few months.

        It's not always I do this, but when they get really pissed off that your just ripping the piss I have noticed that they have a tiering system that if you annoy them they ramp up the calls big time, 4 or 5 a day for a month after particularly annoying one chap. Worth it though :)

        Also not sure why people are bashing vodafone for this. whatever the reason its good news, and hopefully other providers pick up on it.

    2. Why Not?

      Re: Personally, with nuisance calls...

      I have a towel & a rape alarm, I string them along for a few seconds talking really quietly. Just as they get interested I wrap the phone & rape alarm together in the towel, pull the pin & walk away.

      Only one ever phoned me back so his mate could hear it, they were laughing their head off by the end.

  20. Cereberus

    Scaring the scammer

    My tactic has always been to answer the phone and when I ask who is calling and they tell me I was in a car accident in the last 5 years (or whatever) I just ask them why they are calling the Air Ambulance emergency support line and do they realise someone could die because they are blocking the line. In the space of 2 weeks the number of calls I got dropped through the floor.

    If I am bored I ask them to give me the details and how they found out I had PPI / was in an accident / have a problem with my PC etc. I once strung out a call for 45 minutes about a car accident - so how did you get my info, when was the accident which you must know if you know I was in an accident and have been given that information, where was it.........

    Worst case it was a frivolous use of my time - best case it stopped another 30 or 40 people having to speak to these idiots.

    1. Known Hero
      Pint

      Re: Scaring the scammer

      and we all thank you for your time spent :)

  21. phuzz Silver badge

    I get maybe one spam call per fortnight, but there's <u>never</u> anyone on the line. It's almost always a conventional looking UK number (location varies), occasionally number-withheld, but when I answer, there is a second or so of silence and the the call is dropped.

    There's never a voice on the other end, there's no attempt to sell me anything. I have assumed in the past that maybe they're just checking my number to see if it's live, but no one has ever followed it up.

    Does anyone else get silent spam calls like this?

  22. Graham Marsden
    Mushroom

    Someone tell Virgin Media...

    I have anonymous call blocking on my phone, yet I still get ones [Fucking hell! I've just had to stop typing this bloody post because the phone went and it was another fucking silent junk call!!!] where it's silent and 1471 says "You were called at XX:XX we do not have the caller's number"

    If it can block withheld numbers, surely it's not rocket science to realise that if 1471 will give "we do not have the caller's number" is ALSO a call I don't want to receive, so they should screen this out BEFORE it rings!

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