Folks,

Some years ago, I had a friend [who is now departed] living in Bishopville, South Carolina. He had a feature added to his phone service that required the caller to enter a four digit PIN in order to get through to his phone after you dialed his phone number. I knew the PIN so I could call him when I needed to. But it shut down the telemarketers pretty quickly.

This was a great way to keep scammers from reaching you. Only people you gave the PIN to could actually reach you.

I now have an aunt who is getting pretty senile. Her son (a first cousin of mine) heard her almost give her Social Security number over the phone. Thankfully, he stopped her in mid-sentence.

He is looking for a way to keep her from receiving bad calls like
this so she can keep her telephone service. He needs to be able to reach her as do others who have a legitimate need to call her. This might be a solution if it is available to her.

I do not what the name of this service would be. So, I can't tell
my cousin what to ask for if he calls her phone company to se if it could be added to her service.

She lives near Atlanta, Georgia. She is on a POTS line.

Can any of you help me by providing me with the name of this
service?

Regards,




Fred

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On 8/14/2021 4:38 PM, Fred Atkinson wrote:

Folks,

Some years ago, I had a friend [who is now departed] living in Bishopville, South Carolina. He had a feature added to his phone service that
required the caller to enter a four digit PIN in order to get through to his phone after you dialed his phone number. I knew the PIN so I could call him when I needed to. But it shut down the telemarketers pretty quickly.

(Moderator snip)

I do not what the name of this service would be. So, I can't tell my cousin what to ask for if he calls her phone company to see if it could be added to her service.

She lives near Atlanta, Georgia. She is on a POTS line.

Can any of you help me by providing me with the name of this service?

Is AT&T the incumbent telco for Atlanta, GA? Have you tried calling
AT&T customer service? If they can't help you, call the "retention
team"; they are more experience in handling these matters.

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On Aug 18, 2021, at 1:29 PM, Michael Trew <[email protected]> wrote:

Is AT&T the incumbent telco for Atlanta, GA? Have you tried calling
AT&T customer service? If they can't help you, call the "retention
team"; they are more experience in handling these matters.

I believe it is.

My experience with telco business offices is that if you
don't know the specific name of the service, the more likely that they
won't know what you want.

I once had a Centurylink business office tell me they did
not sell ISDN service. Both the CSR and the supervisor told me the
same thing. This was despite the fact that we already had Centurylink
ISDN lines.

It would help if I knew the name of that service (the name
that AT&T calls it).

Regards,



Fred

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On 8/18/2021 1:17 PM, Michael Trew wrote:

On 8/14/2021 4:38 PM, Fred Atkinson wrote:

Folks,

Some years ago, I had a friend [who is now departed] living in
Bishopville, South Carolina. He had a feature added to his phone
service that required the caller to enter a four digit PIN in order
to get through to his phone after you dialed his phone number. I
knew the PIN so I could call him when I needed to. But it shut
down the telemarketers pretty quickly.

(Moderator snip)

I do not what the name of this service would be. So, I
can't tell my cousin what to ask for if he calls her phone company
to see if it could be added to her service.

She lives near Atlanta, Georgia. She is on a POTS line.

Can any of you help me by providing me with the name of
this service?

Is AT&T the incumbent telco for Atlanta, GA? Have you tried calling
AT&T customer service? If they can't help you, call the "retention
team"; they are more experience in handling these matters.

The name of this service is "Security Screen" and it is a proprietary CenturyLink "exclusive" feature as far as I know. I mapped out all of
their custom features some time ago and the description matches the
code and prompts that I have. If CenturyLink is not the RBOC/ILEC
(depending on where you live), it may not be an option. I have the
feature on my personal switch.


***** Moderator's Note *****

I have a friend who uses Google Voice to screen his calls: whenever I
call him, GV asks me to state my name and then promises to try and
find him. I don't know what's involved or what it costs.

I assume that if I knew his actual cell phone number, I could bypass
Google Voice, but it's better than nothing.

Of course, most AutoSleazers dial random numbers, so that might not be
a viable solution.

Bill Horne
Moderator

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On Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 10:05:33AM -0400, David wrote:

True. But GV can ring up to 6 numbers simultaneously plus VOIP apps.

Sorry, I didn't write very clearly.

The point I was trying to make is that Google Voice can't stop
robocalls which are randomly dialed: it only works to screen calls
made to numbers that Sleezeoids have purchased from database vendors.

Bill

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)

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***** Moderator's Note *****

I have a friend who uses Google Voice to screen his calls: whenever I
call him, GV asks me to state my name and then promises to try and
find him. I don't know what's involved or what it costs.

It's free, as is all GV domestic use.

You get prompted if you are not in his Contacts list.
If you are, he gets a robovoice with your name.

I assume that if I knew his actual cell phone number, I could bypass
Google Voice, but it's better than nothing.

True. But GV can ring up to 6 numbers simultaneously plus VOIP apps.

Also note Callcentric offers Telemarketer Block. The caller gets
prompted to "Dial 'n' to connect" when n is a random 0-9; 99.999% of the telesleeze do not. Again, a phonebook entry bypasses it. Users seem to
love it.

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It appears that Bill Horne <[email protected]> said:

On Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 10:05:33AM -0400, David wrote:

True. But GV can ring up to 6 numbers simultaneously plus VOIP apps.

Sorry, I didn't write very clearly.

The point I was trying to make is that Google Voice can't stop
robocalls which are randomly dialed: it only works to screen calls
made to numbers that Sleezeoids have purchased from database vendors.

The Callcentric "press N to complete your call" works really well. I
have it on all of my VoIP lines.

Callcentric is quite cheap and flexible. It can terminate calls on a
hardware or software VoIP phone or forward them to POTS numbers.

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On 8/18/2021 7:03 PM, Fred Atkinson wrote:

On Aug 18, 2021, at 1:29 PM, Michael Trew<[email protected]> wrote:

Is AT&T the incumbent telco for Atlanta, GA? Have you tried calling
AT&T customer service? If they can't help you, call the "retention
team"; they are more experience in handling these matters.

I believe it is.

(snip)

It would help if I knew the name of that service (the name
that AT&T calls it).

Regards,

Fred

Check the AT&T CPR website. All features should be listed there.

https://cpr.att.com/guidebook/index.html

I've never looked at the Georgia guidebook before, but I can't say that
I've seen it in the Ohio guide book. It might not be available through
AT&T. It might also be an option for digital phone customers only.
These guidebooks are for regular POTS service only.

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