Hey @Nickihaluka and @Filet123!
These types of calls are indeed very annoying and I can appreciate wanting to do as much as you can to ensure that they stop. We do apologize for the inconvenience and would clarify that telecom regulations do not allow Rogers to block calls that have a legitimate calling format. Under new telecom rules, Rogers will be allowed to block certain non-dialable and malformed incoming calls i.e. 00000, 111-111-111. These new rules came into effect early November I believe.
If you have not done so you can add your number to the national do not call list, though it's important to note that this would only impact incoming calls from Canada.
Thank you for your understanding and your patience.
@RogersAndy wrote:
We do apologize for the inconvenience and would clarify that telecom regulations do not allow Rogers to block calls that have a legitimate calling format. Under new telecom rules, Rogers will be allowed to block certain non-dialable and malformed incoming calls i.e. 00000, 111-111-111. These new rules came into effect early November I believe.
If you have not done so you can add your number to the national do not call list, though it's important to note that this would only impact incoming calls from Canada.
To the best of my knowledge, there's nothing that prevents blocking nuisance robocalls at the network level. In fact, https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2018/2018-484.htm lists various strategies that were discussed for blocking these calls. Regrettably, the carriers also expressed their underwhelming elthusiasm for any action that would be required of them to fix this problem.
Also, even though the CRTC has mandated blocking calls from invalid phone numbers, as soon as you block numbers that are obvious spoofs, the robocallers will counter this by using what looks like a valid number instead as a way of getting around the block.
As for the National Do Not Call List, I tried that a few years ago and the problem actually became much worse. Sure, legitimate companies will stop calling you. However, I also saw an increase in the number of calls soliciting newspaper subscriptions, and the number of illegal nuisance calls went through the roof. The DNCL was simply used as a vetted list of phone numbers by unscrupulous organizations. I also made the mistake of adding my cell phone, which never got spam calls until it got added to the DNCL. So... the number of calls went up and (even worse) the only people that called me are organizations that I would never want to do business with.
As documented in 2018-484 , what we really need are a number of technical solutions, and they need to be implemented by the carriers at the network level.
Part of the overall solution is widespread implementation of caller ID authentication (e.g. SHAKEN/STIR) and other technical measures to prevent caller ID spoofing.
Another technical measure is to detect robocall patterns at the network level and allow the end-customer to opt into having those calls blocked. Such a thing was hard to do with legacy TDM switches but is now totally feasible with today's technology.
Good day @garyphillips68,
Welcome to the Rogers Community! Thanks for raising awareness on social engineering schemes. Rogers has the safety of its subscriber as a main priority. However, vishing (short for “voice phishing”) still occurs. This happens when scammers attempt to obtain funds or gather your personal or financial information over the phone.
Do NOT provide personal information if the caller sounds suspicious. If possible, record the phone number that appeared on your call display, then report the incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre:
- Online: http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm
- By phone: 1 888 495-8501
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has a lot of information on known scams. Review their website to protect yourself from potential fraud. Thanks for remaining careful!
RogersMaude
Good evening @Yyzguy2,
Welcome to Rogers Community! Getting spam calls can be very annoying and we most definitely understand why you want to do as much as you can to stop them. To help you deal with this inconvenience, we’ll be more than glad to review your options to better handle these calls.
Did you know that with the Hiya app for Android and iOS, you can benefit from call management options like auto-blocking and reverse phone lookup capabilities?
If you have not yet done so, register with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). This will reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive. You can do so, here.
To understand the causes of the issue it might be best to identify where these call originate from. While blocking them is ideal, seeing that the same numbers keep calling can raise some concerns. Did you ever listen to the voicemail messages to help determine who the caller was?
Looking forward to your reply!
RogersRob
