Call Control

[rustynailer]

Hi All,

I was introduced to this great new free service from Telus called Call Control. Basically what it does is help block the robo-dialers that call with some message about reporting in to the Tax Agency of your country, reporting to the court system for being in violation of some BS misdemeanor, or someone yammering in a foreign language that you don't understand.

When I was calling family friends on Christmas, I was asked to press 2 on the phone to let my call go through. Robo-dialers can't do this so their calls can't come through.

I want Fido to adopt this service as well. I get far too many of these stupid horrible calls which are simply efforts to steal identity. Also, since Telus offers it for free, so should Fido to prevent people from jumping to different service providers as I don't really want to go to Telus, but I would to get these darn dialers to stop calling!

[khouya]

Hello FidoAnthonyZ!

Thats a good thing to know!

Have a nice one

[PaulBain]

Hi Julien, Fido needs to offer Call Control like Telus does.... way to many robo calls!!! I am planning to switch to Telus unless this feature is offered ASAP.

[NaliniR]

Hi, @rustynailer I totally understand and I think we are all tired of these types of calls. I understand as you said Telus implemented their own feature to combat these calls but this is just a bandaid while all the providers work on getting the STIR/SHAKEN technology up and running to put a stop to these calls.

It was supposed to be ready in September 2020 but has now been pushed to June 2021 you can get more info here.

[CB27]

Hi, I have Telus home phone service and use the Call Control feature. If it is a bandaid as you say, it certainly is an effective one. I've read this is also available on Telus cell phone service. This has eliminated these calls on our home phone.

Please confirm if this STIR/SHAKEN technology is like the Telus feature, as it was not clear to me exactly how it will work in the link you provided to the article.

Thanks!

[Manno]

STIR/SHAKEN has done nothing. It's just put more money in carriers pocket as now scammers need to actually have a legit phone number. A minor inconvienance as they're readily available for cheap.

[Cawtau]

Hello Manno,

  Welcome to the community!

  I think everybody is frustrated with receiving SCAM and/or SPAM calls. However, I don't think STIR/SHAKEN hasn't had any effect. Admittedly, the protocols have not met customers' lofty wishes of ending these types of calls. I think STIR/SHAKEN as reduced the amount of SCAM and SPAM calls reaching customers, however, it currently has limitations.

---

@Manno wrote:

...It's just put more money in carriers pocket as now scammers need to actually have a legit phone number. ...

---

  However, I'm not sure that statement is accurate. Number spoofing scams are still rather rampant (see here). One of the issues is that some voIP providers might have lax policies regarding caller-ID spoofing. Additionally many of the providers may be located outside of Canda or the US. As far as I am aware, I don't think STIR/SHAKEN has yet been implemented Worldwide.

  Since scammers/spammers can still operate number spoofing scams, they don't require a legitimate phone number. If they were required to obtain actual lines from local carriers, it would be rather easy to identify them and remove them from the networks.

  I understand people have requested a system like Call Control to be implemented. While the system might be beneficial to some customers, there are other customers who might rely on automated calls (ie libraries, hospitals, doctors' offices, etc).

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers

[KAPABLE-K]

Hi @CB27,

Welcome to the Fido community!

The link provided was just to reference the implementation/pushback of the technology.

For a detailed understanding of how the STIR/SHAKEN technology works see here. It's great that Telus is still trying to combat these calls and while it might be convenient for you it will be an inconvenience for the person calling to constantly having to press 2 this is why it's not the solution and just a bandaid to the problem.

[CB27]

Hi,

Thanks for the link to the article. I appreciate it.

For the Telus Call Control feature, you can define up to 25 phone numbers which will automatically go through without the interception. You can define more for a fee. So, the most frequent callers you define are not inconvenienced. Anyone not on the list will need to press a digit for the call to go through. The digit is randomly assigned by the system.

[NaliniR]

Hi @CB27,

It's great that you can add a list of numbers but what happens to the other callers? People might call and might not be sure what's happening and just hang up and for them to charge a fee for you to add more numbers is just a cash grab for something we should not have to worry about.

Also, these callers are spoofing numbers when calling what if they spoof a number that's on your allow list? That spam call will come through.

The government needs to do more and buckle down on all the carriers to get this technology implemented to help stop these fraudsters.

[hattricks]

How the call control feature with Telus works is that when someone call, they will receive this message saying this number has call control, enter thie number xxxx to go through.  So if it is some robo call, they would not be able to enter the said number, and then the call will not get through.  I have call control with Telus, and I have not received any of those annoying call about tax whatever.