direct to voice mail spam

[Collie]

Apparantly, mobile service providers can block direct to voice mail messages. Is this truly the case? It's a terrible waste of my time, and potentially harmful if important messages are buried in the spam. It's ridiculous that it's allowed.

[Collie]

Yes, that could be done. But the more ethical solution can only come the service provider to block this from happening.

[Nezgar]

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@Collie wrote:

thank you for your detailed answer, and it's a good way to deal with incoming phone spam, however ringless voice mail is a new form of marketing. Just google it. There are companies offering this service.  And the solution has to come from the company. They are letting this happen, according to what I've read, because they make money doing this.

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Ok, if they are literally not even dialing your phone number, that means they are dialing into the voicemail deposit number directly.

To do this, all you need to do is dial one of the dozen+ access numbers, ie 306-580-4001, press 1 for english, then the 10 digit number of the person for whom you wish to leave voicemail, and speak away. I guess not rocket science if spammers figured this out...

Those who have ported numbers into Telus/Koodo/Public Mobile from other carriers ie Rogers may be more immune, since it will not be expected for a non-telus prefix to have a mailbox on Telus's voicemail system.

I used to use this function to avoid toll charges to family back in the day, as you could call your local voicemail access # to leave a message for anyone with Telus line, even in a different city.

If you just don't care for voicemail, you can set an "extended absence greeting" and then prevent callers from leaving voicemail. For example, record an announcement such as "I'm sorry, I'm not available right now - please try calling me again later"

You could leave it like that permanently, and then still set your conditional call forwards to a 3rd party service such as a freephoneline.ca voicemail box to still have a usable voicemail deposit.

set all 3 conditional forwards to the new number using this code:

*004*newnum#

Reset all 3 conditional forwards with:

##004#

Cheers!

[Collie]

thank you for your detailed answer, and it's a good way to deal with incoming phone spam, however ringless voice mail is a new form of marketing. Just google it. There are companies offering this service.  And the solution has to come from the company. They are letting this happen, according to what I've read, because they make money doing this.

[Nezgar]

Here's my theory... Many phones now have software installed by default that detect 'spam' callers based on Internet databases, and will auto-decline the calls. This is great in theory as it doesn't bother you by ringing the phone.

However, this then triggers the "busy" conditonal call forward, which is one of the three that are set to your voicemail number by default, and that is where the calls will be immediately directed.

If this is what's happening, specifically setting the "busy" call forward to something OTHER than your voicemail, such an invalid number will direct the call to a dead-end instead.

Example settings:

*67*0000000000# - invalid number

*67*13# - invalid number

*67*3065458171# (Regina, SK payphone) "At the customers request, the number you have dialed is configured for outgoing calls only."
*67*4162996099# (Scarborough, ON payphone) "The number you are calling cannot receive incoming calls.

And to undo these:

##67# - reset "busy" call forward back to default (voicemail deposit)

##004# - reset all 3 conditional call forward types

[Collie]

I know, but the company does, or I've read that it does.

[Collie]

correct me if I'm wrong, but you're talking about spam phone calls that then leave a message. What I'm getting, and what is a growing problem, is that marketers are going directly to voice mail, without a phone call.  This is something new and apparently phone companies can stop this, but choose not to because they make money off it. this is something I've read, I dont' know for sure.

[iliusfaisal]

There is no option to block it from user side

[Collie]

You're correct. User's have no option. But the service providers apparently do have that option, but don't because they make money off this.  I don't know if this is truly the case, it's something I've read.

[Collie]

I'm not getting calls and that's the problem. The marketers are going directly to voice mail. Apparently mobile service providers can stop this, but users cannot. The mobile service providers supposedly are making money off this.

[ilikepm]

1. Try unblocking numbers, if any, on your phone so as not to miss any calls.

2. Add your number to the 'do not call' registry so you have less chance for spam calls to come through.

3. Try enabling/disabling LTE on your phone, and then hard reset your phone as well clear any cache. This is sometimes known to direct calls to voicemail.

Hope this helps!

[Nezgar]

My musings on the topic recently: 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwarding-and-...

[cavemantoronto]

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@Collie wrote:

Apparantly, mobile service providers can block direct to voice mail messages. Is this truly the case? It's a terrible waste of my time, and potentially harmful if important messages are buried in the spam. It's ridiculous that it's allowed.

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Public Mobile gives users no options to block anything.