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Comment by slater | Hacker News Reader

I wish (and I bet there's something on Android for this) that there was some kind of social app just for sharing scam numbers among trusted friends†. E.g., as your phone receives a call, it'd hash the number and compare it with you and your friends' reported "spam caller network". If you or your friends have marked something as a spam-originating number (number spoofing not withstanding, yesyes), it would either drop the call outright, or highlight it as potential spam call ("5 of your friends have marked this as spam!") before you need to pick up.

† Why just among your friends? Cos we all know that the minute you make it open to everyone, the marketing and MBA folks will get their fangs in it and monetize and data-mine.

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The numbers are random so why would sharing the numbers help reduce anything??

I never get calls from the same number. I've had the same scammer call me 3 times in one day from 3 different numbers.

This is the scammer that has called me 100s of times in the last 2 years: http://www.caribbeandiscountsinternational.com/about/

I tried to contact Tucows to complain, no way to do that. Then, I filed a report with ICANN that Tucows was violating their contract (because I can't report abuse), and that case was closed after two weeks.

The entire system is supporting the scammers.

You’d be surprised. Maybe YOU don’t get calls from the same number (though I do at times) but it seems like scammers will use one number to call 100,000 people then switch to a second number and call again. So as long as someone reports it lots of people will benefit. It’s not a random number per call, which would make this approach unfeasible.

This shared block list is basically how Nomorobo works and it’s quite effective for me.

It seems like you don't need to have a complicated hashing and sharing network for that. A braindead scoring algorithm would cut the scammers off at the ankles.

And when some scammer uses your number (since any number can be used by a scammer, it's just a number not a phone line), then under your scheme, you get cut off from all of your friends.

This. Given the quantity andlocality of the numbers to mine, if I block them, it's only a matter of time before I block a number that matters to me.

but it seems like scammers will use one number to call 100,000 people

I seriously doubt that, given the locality to my own number.

You sometimes even get calls from your own phone number. Caller ID reported numbers don’t tell you anything.

It's not just amongst your friends, but Google already offers this in the latest versions of Android. It says "Suspected spam call" below the number during the incoming call.

https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/3459196?hl=en

Most of the phone companies have similar apps.

AT&T's seemed to work OK for the first few months. Then calls started slipping through. Then AT&T started trying to sell me an "enhanced" version for $x/month.

So now the telcos have found another way to make money from phone spam.

> I wish (and I bet there's something on Android for this) that there was some kind of social app just for sharing scam numbers among trusted friend

The problem is scammers spoof numbers. So, even if you share the number and try to call it, the number will be dead.

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