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FidoStephane
Moderator
Moderator

900x300_Databytes_Girl.jpg

 

Hey Community, 

 

Received an unwanted nuisance call lately? Good news! Fido and most Canadian telephone service providers will implement Universal Call Blocking (UCB) as part of a new CRTC mandate to reduce them.

 

Malformed numbers can appear in many different forms, but caller IDs 000-000-0000 or 111-111-1111 are some of the usual suspects. Applied at the network level for all Fido’s customers, UCB will block any incoming call that does not comply with North American or international numbering plans. UCB will not block incoming calls with compliant caller IDs.

 

Check out this link to learn how to protect yourself against spam. If you want more info on how UCB may impact voice calls? Click here.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

-FidoStephane

10 Comments
Itunesbrian
I'm a visitor
I'm a visitor

This is a request for Fido management.  

 

My cellphone is BOMBARDED with robocallers on a daily basis.  These robocallers just change their phone numbers everyday and it's been going on for years.  What we need is a way to fight back against these harrassing phone calls.  

 

I have an Ooma home phone that offers quite a lot of call blocking features that no other phone company in Canada will implement.  Can Fido PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE offer better phone blocking services????  With Ooma I can block whole area codes and prefixes... which is extremely helpful in blocking most of these callers.  In fact with Ooma I can block out 97% of all these nuisance calls.

 

I've included a screen shot from my computer showing how I can edit my call blocking list.  If I label a caller as a Robocaller the number is blocked on ALL Ooma customer phone numbers too (another reason why they have a 97% success rate at blocking out this harrasement).  

 

Any phone company that offers services like this for cell phones in Canada, will quickly gain market share if they advertise this feature to future customers.  I would quickly switch to another phone company if they can give me the tools to fight back against telephone harrasement.

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider doing this.  Phone communication has become functionally useless in this day and age.  No one answers unknown callers anymore.  In fact I don't answer my cellphone for 95% of the calls made to my phone if I don't recognize the number.  It shouldn't be this way!

 

PLEASE HELP US FIGHT BACK!!!!!!!!!!

 

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Itunesbrian
I'm a visitor
I'm a visitor

This is how call blocking should be done on my Fido cell phone.

 

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Blocking calls by caller name... very powerful tool!

 

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Identifying the type of caller

 

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Blocking by numbers... again powerful tools

 

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Cawtau
Senior MVP Senior MVP
Senior MVP

Hello @Itunesbrian,

 

Welcome to the community!

 

 I think everyone is rather fed up about getting SPAM and SCAM calls from spoofed numbers. Unfortunately, there currently isn't much that any of the mobile providers can do to prevent them. Since the spammers/scammers use spoofed numbers, it is not possible to identify the true spammers' number. Mobile providers and landline providers simply cannot block a number without absolute proof that the owner of the number is engaged in nefarious activities. If the spammers chose to spoof your number. I think you would agree that if they blocked your number simply based on its apparent use to make SPAM calls or send SPAM SMS, you would not be impressed. I understand Ooma might offer that service.

 

 However, that blocking list only affects Ooma customers. Honest customers who might actually own those numbers can still use their services, just not to call Ooma customers. Looking at your list, you blocked a whole lot of Rogers customers (647-969-xxxx; see here: https://www.allareacodes.com/647) without any proof any of those customers actually made any SPAM calls. As someone who has a 647 phone number, I find their practice highly irresponsible.

 

 Unfortunately, until the technology to unmask the true number of spammers/scammers is readily available (not simply the number shown on the caller ID), the only solution currently is to block the numbers on your phone. That said, they are trying to implement measures to identify possible SPAM calls. However, those measures won't be in place until later this year (see https://mobilesyrup.com/2019/12/09/crtc-to-implement-stir-shaken-technology-to-reduce-voip-spam-call... )

 

Hope this helps Smiley

 

Cheers

Itunesbrian
I'm a visitor
I'm a visitor

Your reply... which is understandable, is not good enough.  These robocaller criminals are using every tool to dance around laws and regulations which are completely ineffective.  The common reply from most phone companies in this country is "sorry, you just have to put up with it".  

 

In the meantime hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are being targeted by criminals which enter our homes through our phones.  I'm smart enough to know how to deal with these types of callers.  I don't know how any phone executive with a conscience can sit back and let so many be taken advantage of (especially financially), by these criminal robocallers.  When my elderly mother was alive, I used to tell her not to answer unknown callers or if she didn't recognize the name or number.  Her memory wasn't that good and she would forget.  That's why I got an Ooma phone to protect her.

 

If using Ooma call blocking is considered unfair or illegal by phone companies, because maybe 1 or 2% of callers might not be able to get a call through because they were inadvertantly mass blocked, seems a small price to pay for protection.

 

I don't see why a blocked caller couldn't contact an operator, who would make contact with the phone customer to say "this individual or company, would like to communicate with your phone, can you please unblock them?"

 

If Ooma offered a cell phone in Canada I would switch to them in a heart beat.  To tell you the truth I think ALL phone customers would do it too.  If one of your competitors offered this service, your reply would change like the wind.  Money and profit speaks volumes.

 

Phone calls and robocalling has become a war in this world we live in now.  We need to have the tools to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

 

It's a sad statement of our times, but there it is!

 

Fight fire with fire... or lose.

Cawtau
Senior MVP Senior MVP
Senior MVP
Hello again, Firstly, I don't work for any telecommunications company. I'm a customer just like you. 'Money and profits' have nothing to do with this. Everyone agrees that SPAM calls and SMS are problematic. However, blocking the spoofed numbers is not feasible. Blocking innocent customers for no reason is NOT acceptable. In the Western world, people are deemed innocent until proven guilty. An honest customer should not have to prove their innocence by having to call an operator to connect a call because their number was used in a spoofing SCAM! That would be a presumption of guilt. Where did you come up with that 1 or 2%? The spammers/scammers can spoof any phone number. Yes, they can spoof your phone number as well. Even the RCMP's phone number has been spoofed. With the possibility of any phone number being blocked by simply being placed on a list WITHOUT proof of criminal activity, that number is closer to 100%. I doubt you would think it's a 'small price to pay' if it was your phone number which was blocked. No one is 'sitting back'. As mentioned previously, they're working on measures to identify SPAM calls. Those measures would hopefully only target calls made by spammers/scammers and not merely the phone numbers shown on caller-ID. Cheers
lordwindsor
I'm back
I'm back

How can I stop robo spoofing calls?  Im at the point that Im pushing 1 to speak to them to tell them what i think about them. I never actually receive real calls anymore which is the saddest part Sad

 

I can only imagine seniors  and young adults are getting scammed.

 

Why is canada allowing this to go on?

 

Fido can you make it stop?

 

 

FidoStephane
Moderator
Moderator

Hi there, 

 

There are many conversations about this on the Community. We suggest you browse to see what the others have to say. 

 

Also, you can always report these calls to the anti-fraud center: https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm 

ShoeLover1950
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Hi. I am relatively new to Fido. I am an iPhone user and have my settings set up to 'Silence Unknown Callers'.

 

Evenso, I receive various daily calls from '866' which I block. Has anyone one been able to successfully stop these calls? My landline has a function that makes the caller press a number. Does Fido have this service?

 

Secondly, I have been getting daily voice mails in Chinese. Has anyone been able to successfully permanently block such voicemails? Is there a feature in voicemail? If so, can you please share how?

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

RG

FidoAnthonyZ
Moderator
Moderator

Hello @ShoeLover1950,

 

We are releasing a feature called Spam Call Detect which will let you know when a call you're receiving is a potential scam. Though there isn't a feature that we offer that automatically blocks incoming spam calls.

ShoeLover1950
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Thank you.