How to deal with constant prank calls?

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How to deal with constant prank calls?

Postby lobotiger » 09/08/2017

I'm a little curious on how things work for cases when you get prank calls or want to report on such calls? In the old days you pressed zero and talked with an operator. With this service, is that the way it's still done? Some background, we constantly get called from a particular number and we've confirmed that they're changing their caller ID so that it looks like it's coming from Hamilton (we're in Woodbridge and the caller is on a cell phone). Ideally I wouldn't mind just blocking the number but I don't believe it's possible with the service or my PAP2T. If I spoke with someone who could trace the call to identify the real device's number/IMEI or whatever, at least then I could contact their provider and try to get them to stop.

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Re: How to deal with constant prank calls?

Postby Jake » 09/08/2017

lobotiger wrote: Ideally I wouldn't mind just blocking the number but I don't believe it's possible with the service or my PAP2T.


I don't really have an idea on the rest of your questions, but I do know that you can selectively forward calls in the PAP2T. It doesn't actually forward them tot he number you set, they will go to your answerphone instead. Not ideal but it might help a little.

If you look on the User 1 tab in your PAP2T in the "Selective Call Forward Settings" section. There you can put the phone number you want to block followed by any number. As I said it doesn't matter what you put in there as they will go to your voicemail.
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Re: How to deal with constant prank calls?

Postby Liptonbrisk » 09/08/2017

lobotiger wrote:I'm a little curious on how things work for cases when you get prank calls or want to report on such calls?


Basically, you can't report them to FPL--unless the caller is using Fibernetics' services to make prank calls. Fibernetics/FPL is unlikely to care otherwise because FPL is not the source of the problem.

In the old days you pressed zero and talked with an operator. With this service, is that the way it's still done?


No.

Keep in mind that Fibernetics, Freephoneline's parent company, makes money from termination fees from incoming calls, from outside its network, to its network. It's not in FPL's interests to be blocking incoming calls.
The more incoming calls they receive, the more money they make.

Ideally I wouldn't mind just blocking the number but I don't believe it's possible with the service or my PAP2T.


I've mentioned to you how to block specific phone numbers before using your ATA: click viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19047&p=74748#p74746. This method drops incoming calls directly
to FPL's voicemail. That's the same method as what Jake just mentioned.

Obihai ATAs (found at Newegg.ca) offer more methods of dealing with telemarketers by allowing users to route their calls elsewhere (I also mentioned this to you before if you click the link). You can refer to pages 23 and 24 of the PDF guide located over here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18805&start=25#p74882. The calls are still answered on FPL's network, which satisfies what FPL/Fibernetics wants, but when scammers call me, their calls are not dropped to FPL's voicemail.

If I spoke with someone who could trace the call to identify the real device's number/IMEI or whatever, at least then I could contact their provider and try to get them to stop.


You can do carrier lookups here: https://www.twilio.com/lookup. Then you could complain to the carrier.
But if the incoming CallerID number is spoofed, which is common with telemarketers, then that's useless because you're checking a fake number.

Also, the following information comes from http://forums.redflagdeals.com/freephon ... #p26665251

"You could add yourself to the Do Not Call list: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/insnum-regnum-eng
And then you could file complaints to the CRTC when you receive telemarketing calls.

However, the do not call list is often considered a joke because it's a convenient location for foreign telemarketers to collect everyone's phone number. And they'll just spoof outgoing phone numbers and call you constantly. You can also reasonably ask yourself why this happened if the National DNCL list works and where people's phone numbers were obtained: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1039.htm.

If you do get scammers calling you, reporting them via http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/rep-sig-eng.htm is typically the better option instead of reporting stuff to the DNCL or the CRTC. Keep in the mind that reporting will not necessarily stop your phone from ringing either.
Also visit http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/index-eng.htm.
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
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Re: How to deal with constant prank calls?

Postby lobotiger » 09/08/2017

Thank you!!! I'd completed forgotten about that other link you posted since at the time I was mostly interested in blocking unknown numbers. I'll try this out tonight.

FTR, the number that keeps calling is one of my son's friends at school and unless he picks up the phone, they just hang up and continuously call back a number of times. This way I can at least block them from making the phone ring whenever I want. :)


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