Spam increasing

[os54656]

Hello. I switched from lucky mobile to public mobile with a 780-678-**** number on the 2nd of February. Ever since then, I've been getting more and more spam each day or two. These spams mostly include the Canada Revenue Agency. I was wondering if anyone else has been getting these spam calls after switching over or how to defeat these calls. The 20 second blank voicemails they leave are very annoying.

Thanks! 

[Korth]

@os54656 

If you're not particularly attached to your phone number (you say just activated it a couple weeks ago) then you can change it through Self-Serve.

Maybe your new semi-randomly-assigned number will be a live target for spam, too. Or maybe it'll be spam-free forever. If it's already bad then it can't get much worse.

Your only other (realistic) option is to keep blocking incoming spam numbers and try to wait them out - they will eventually run out of phone numbers or their interest in you will eventually drift away. And Public Mobile will basically give you the same advice - they aren't willing or aren't able to do anything about spam callers unless forced to action by legal imperatives.

CRTC doesn't allow consumers to access services like TrapCall anymore. And TrueCaller isn't (in my opinion) a good choice for those who want any kind of privacy or anonymity. The advice you'll get about dialing #67 is basically the best option available but it doesn't work reliably, I wouldn't want to depend on it.

Never respond to calls from unknown numbers, never click links or images in messages from unknown numbers. Maybe you'll miss out on something.

But if it's anything important then they'll always leave a message identifying themselves, why they're contacting you, and how to contact them. And of course you must ask why would Revenue Canada be operating from call center outsourced to somewhere in India or Nigeria?

[n8te]

Spam is pretty crummy, Happens no matter which carrier you are with unfortunately.

Government of ontario has a good website on how to handle!

https://www.ontario.ca/page/report-scam-or-fraud

[kselmak]

Those calls come in waves, after a week or so they slow down or even stop and they start again.

@os54656 this is what I do when I start getting them more than once per day: i go to my phone settings/calling accounts/sim/call forwarding.

I have a line day busy/declined (depends on the calling app) and set it up an American number. So when I get calls from my exchange or that looks suspicious i decline them and don't get any voicemails

[HALIMACS]

I love Lenny, @Nezgar 

It's so 'quacky' (only those who listened to a longer call will know what I mean) 🤣

[Nezgar]

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@os54656 wrote:

I was wondering if anyone else has been getting these spam calls after switching over or how to defeat these calls. The 20 second blank voicemails they leave are very annoying. 

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I found that blocked calls, and when you manually "decline" the calls fall under the "Busy" conditional call forward category, so you can indeed ensure "blocked" calls do not make it to your voicemail by programming it with a dead-end number, such as:

*67*0000000000# Caller will hear something to the effect of "Sorry you call did not go through" (voip.ms) or "Your call cannot be completed at this time" (SaskTel)

The idea here being the robodialers may blacklist your number due to the "not in service" response, and you get the added bonus of not having to go and delete their voicemails after! This also works for calls you manually "decline" when you can see it's an obvious junk call, such as a call from another 4-digits in your same AreaCode+Prefix as you observed.

Undo/reset this setting by dialling ##67#

If you want to have some fun, send them to Lenny:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Lenny-the-Telemarketers-worst-nigh...

[will13am]

I get CRA calls in spurts.  What I found to be somewhat effective was to answer the call so that they know that I know the call is a scam.  The calling would come back again months later.  Rinse and repeat.

[dabr]

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@os54656 wrote:

Hello. I switched from lucky mobile to public mobile with a 780-678-**** number on the 2nd of February. Ever since then, I've been getting more and more spam each day or two. These spams mostly include the Canada Revenue Agency. I was wondering if anyone else has been getting these spam calls after switching over or how to defeat these calls. The 20 second blank voicemails they leave are very annoying.

Thanks! 

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@os54656    These spam calls are fairly common these days, but I'll admit it felt like I was getting way more during the first few months after transferring my number to PM too over two years ago.

It's more likely that it was just my turn for those auto spam dialers and nothing to do with PM.  I never answer calls from unknown numbers and regularly add suspicious numbers to the spam list and block.  Still get them from time to time and usually they come in bunches for a few days at a time. 

Don't answer and block once you confirm they're spam.  You can opt to check your voicemail from another phone (landline) if you're on limited minutes plan to avoid using any of your outgoing mins.

[HALIMACS · Accepted solution]

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@os54656 wrote:

Hello. I switched from lucky mobile to public mobile with a 780-678-**** number on the 2nd of February. Ever since then, I've been getting more and more spam each day or two. These spams mostly include the Canada Revenue Agency. I was wondering if anyone else has been getting these spam calls after switching over or how to defeat these calls. The 20 second blank voicemails they leave are very annoying.

Thanks! 

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This is extremely frustrating, @os54656 

My recommendation is NEVER answer calls from numbers or people you don't recognize. Same goes for texts.

If you do, the call/text gets marked as a successful contact (in that the recipient answered) and you'll likely find the unwanted contact to increase.

My rule's simple:  if you're NOT on my contact list, i don't answer or respond.  EVER.

Good luck!!!

[TheGx]

@os54656 :I think these sorts of scam calls will happen no matter what provider you with, maybe these scammers are stealing numbers from porting sources, who knows?