I guess as somewhat of a telecom guy, SPAM calls.........especially robo calls........just PISS ME OFF! Here's why.

The danged telephone companies can stop spam tomorrow. They just won't. I do NOT know why. Not getting too deep (ask Trav for a better explanation), it has to do with the IAM message in SS7. There is a field in the calling record that we'll call "Caller ID". There is another field that we'll call "The actual freaking 10 digit telephone number of the phone doing the calling". These two fields are NOT THE SAME. And if a phone is, say, behind a PBX it may or may not have a DID (Direct Inward Dial) number associated with it. So in those cases, the calling record probably puts the main number of the PBX.

If you are with me.............the problem is simple as pie. The caller has a choice, IF HE KNOWS HOW, to override the "Caller ID" number and put any number he wants. Now, most of us don't have the equipment at our home to do that, but it's not expensive and it's not hard to do. And it's legal.

Thus, we have number SPOOFING. Spoofing is a technical term that simply means LYING. That's why they use numbers that are local to you, so that you'll think they are maybe ok to answer. Those are usually actual numbers, so if you block one of them, it might be your Aunt Suzie for all they know. And blocking is sort of useless now, because they've learned to not use that number when calling YOU again.

So, if the phone companies were required (by law???) to put the ACTUAL calling number, then every time you got a spam call you could get on a website like this one, and say 433-222-2222 is calling me with spam, so everyone call them and blow a whistle.

And if you are brighter than the average student, a light bulb has gone off in your head (a good place for it to go off) and you've thought "Wait. Toll free numbers aren't really the telephone number of a caller". And you're right. Toll Free numbers are the original spoofed number..........except the telecom companies keep a record of such numbers, which are nothing more than a marketing scheme to reverse the charges of a long distance call (which is almost nonexistent these days anyway).

Whew.

And here's the last sobering thought. If you answer........including your voice mail..........that is usually all they want. They are not actually trying to sell you anything many times. They are mining valid numbers. They call about 1,000,000 random numbers and they want to know which ones have humans that answer. They make a list of those, and sell that list! Guess to who? To a company right here in my little old hometown, Axciom. That company exists for one reason only. If you pay them, they can provide you a list.........an almost 100% accurate list.........of, say, every red-headed dentist in towns over 50,000 population. So when you answer a spam call, they gotcha. Your number is now sold.

There'll be a test later.