I can't tell the difference between spam and identify theft

[Travis]

This telemarketer crap is officially out of hand.  We've all dealt with non-stop cold calls over the years which in part have been taken over by machines.  A couple years ago we started getting calls from faked phone numbers.  Now I'm getting calls from real people screaming at me because they think I'm a telemarketer.  I got a call from a "let's talk about your credit card" robo-dialer about an hour ago.  I missed the call and the machine left the first few seconds of its pitch on my voice mail.  It was from the same area code as my phone.  A couple minutes ago I got another "local" call and picked it up. It was a woman who was returning my call.  I haven't made an outgoing call on my cell phone in 3 days.  She insisted it was my number.  Last week I got a voicemail from someone from my area code literally screaming for me to stop calling them.  Robo dialers are now faking already-taken phone numbers.  The "do not call" registry doesn't work.  My cell phone and my work number are on it, and yet I still get called.  I played along one day to see if I could get a real person on the line.  It was a call center in China from a company that wouldn't identify itself, and the moment I deviated from their script they hung up.  Calling the number back either gets a "does not exist" or like what happened with me this morning gets the wrong person.  There is no recourse in this system.  I'm sure my phone number was picked at random to be spoofed, but that sounds about half a step away from someone deliberately trying to be me over the phone and nobody would know the difference.

[Johnez]

I've a billion dollar idea for some tech startup. No not another car service, something better, hear me out.

Create a phone answering service that intercepts all calls with a questionaire. Ask questions like "What is your name, who are you calling from, why are you calling?" Send a little message to the receiver with the option to take call or decline.
Caller name: Joanna
From: GEICO insurance
Subject: Saving 15% or more on car insurance
Answer or Decline

Paid version allows a "whitelist" of pre-approved phone numbers to bypass this (wife, Dad, boss, etc.)

Take the idea and run. Just give me the app for free and I'll call it a fair deal. :+P

[Travis]

You don't think AI in the robo-callers haven't already figured this out? Captchas and "are you a robot" checks don't work. People already have calls and text message conversations with bots without knowing it.

[NotJen]

I've a billion dollar idea for some tech startup. No not another car service, something better, hear me out.

Create a phone answering service that intercepts all calls with a questionaire. Ask questions like "What is your name, who are you calling from, why are you calling?" Send a little message to the receiver with the option to take call or decline.
Caller name: Joanna
From: GEICO insurance
Subject: Saving 15% or more on car insurance
Answer or Decline

Paid version allows a "whitelist" of pre-approved phone numbers to bypass this (wife, Dad, boss, etc.)

Take the idea and run. Just give me the app for free and I'll call it a fair deal. :+P

I believe Google beat you to it.  I had a friend demonstrate their call screening ability a few weeks ago.

[dang1]

I use Norton Mobile. If the phone number is in my contact list, Norton allows the call to go through just fine- my phone rings. If a number is not in my contact list or it doesn't have Caller ID, the call doesn't even show up on my phone, it gets sent directly to and screened by Google Voice mail- "push 1 to leave a message" - that weeds out alot of spammers. If a voicemail is left, I get a Gmail of the voicemail transcription. These days though, I do 99% of my voice and video calls with my contacts through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts and Telegram.

[Johnez]

I've a billion dollar idea for some tech startup. No not another car service, something better, hear me out.

Create a phone answering service that intercepts all calls with a questionaire. Ask questions like "What is your name, who are you calling from, why are you calling?" Send a little message to the receiver with the option to take call or decline.
Caller name: Joanna
From: GEICO insurance
Subject: Saving 15% or more on car insurance
Answer or Decline

Paid version allows a "whitelist" of pre-approved phone numbers to bypass this (wife, Dad, boss, etc.)

Take the idea and run. Just give me the app for free and I'll call it a fair deal. :+P

I believe Google beat you to it.  I had a friend demonstrate their call screening ability a few weeks ago.

Is this the text to voicemail thing, or is it an actual answering service? Sounds awesome if it actually helps screen calls.

I'd just like to be able to determine if I should answer a call or not by a reason other than "eh,this number doesn't look familiar."

 Being on the other side it'd be real nice for people to know why *I* am calling them. Really annoying having to call people multiple times who don't pick up their phone because "oh they can just leave a voicemail, ignore!" As a former delivery driver and technician, I didn't have time for that crap.

[NotJen]

I've a billion dollar idea for some tech startup. No not another car service, something better, hear me out.

Create a phone answering service that intercepts all calls with a questionaire. Ask questions like "What is your name, who are you calling from, why are you calling?" Send a little message to the receiver with the option to take call or decline.
Caller name: Joanna
From: GEICO insurance
Subject: Saving 15% or more on car insurance
Answer or Decline

Paid version allows a "whitelist" of pre-approved phone numbers to bypass this (wife, Dad, boss, etc.)

Take the idea and run. Just give me the app for free and I'll call it a fair deal. :+P

I believe Google beat you to it.  I had a friend demonstrate their call screening ability a few weeks ago.

Is this the text to voicemail thing, or is it an actual answering service? Sounds awesome if it actually helps screen calls.

It’s actual call screening.  Apparently only available on Google phones right now?

https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/9118387?hl=en

I’ve had a Google voice number for a long time, and I do love getting my voicemail as text, though.

[Travis]

There seems to be a few techniques for screening incoming calls, but what's the fix for my own phone number being hijacked?

[Johnez]

There seems to be a few techniques for screening incoming calls, but what's the fix for my own phone number being hijacked?

You're number isn't being hijacked. The spammers are spoofing your number.

[Travis]

There seems to be a few techniques for screening incoming calls, but what's the fix for my own phone number being hijacked?

You're number isn't being hijacked. The spammers are spoofing your number.

Same thing from my perspective. There are people out there who think I'm making the spam.

[LennStar]

wow you guys sound like you don't want to "leave it to the market".

Sorry, I could not resist. Here in socialist Germany such things are happening, but the authorities are doing their job.
After all, the spamers may spoof your number, but the telcos always know who is connected to whom.

Maybe you should start reporting every single incident to the police? If they can't do any other work because of this, something might happen.