Junk Faxes 2

[dblcrona]

I have been getting calls form several of our internal departments with complaints of receiving a large amount of junk faxes per day. All of our fax machines are connected to our Definity PBX. Is there anything that we can do internal or external to the PBX to block these faxes? I don't believe that the new do not call lists apply to fax machines so what is a person to do short of calling the phone numbers on these junk faxes to ask to be removed from their list?

Ken Johnson
ITT Industries, Engineered Process Solutions Group

 

[SF0751]

What you can do depends on the tools available to you. Here's what I have in place for a similar situtation:

1. Give the fax machine a non-DID internal extension. Change the actual fax number to a VDN.

2. Write a simple vector for your fax VDN. Mine goes something like this:
[tt]
01 wait 2 seconds hearing silence
02 goto step 4 if ani in table 1
03 route-to number 1234 with cov n if unconditionally
04 disconnect after announcement 6789
05 stop
[/tt]
3. As offending faxes come in, use CDR to capture the sending fax machine's ani and place that in your vector routing table (referenced in step 2 of your vector).


Susan
[sub]You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.[/sub]
[sup]Aristophanes, 424 B.C.[/sup]
[sup]Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.

 

[Toni269]

I call back the toll free number on the fax, I don't select the option to be removed I'm using the main number as if I'm interested in their product and I ask for a manager. When I get to the manager I ask them to remove our entire DID list from their database and the ones I've gotten a hold of have been happy to comply with my request and it has cut down on the number of junk faxes we receive.

Also I enter all of my numbers into the

http://www.donotcall.gov

website

And register our DID list with the Telephone Preference Service:

http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglistdave

1) Postcard Mail-in Option (Free):
There is no charge for registering by mail. However, registering by mail may delay for a month or so inclusion in the TPS file because this requires time to manually add this data to the service. Please send a postcard that includes your name, home address, home telephone number (with area code) and signature to us at:


Telephone Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
PO Box 1559
Carmel, NY 15012


2) Online Mail-in Option (Free):
Again, there is no charge for registering by mail. However, it is not as fast as the "Complete Online Option" (below). Please complete the form below. When you have finished entering your information select the "Register by Mail" button which will generate a unique tracking number to speed the processing of your request. Please print out the completed form and mail it to us at:

Telephone Preference Service
Attn: Dept 11813482
Direct Marketing Association
PO Box 282
Carmel, NY 10512

 

[dblcrona]

Susan,

I really like the sound of your idea. However I need some more clarification. I set this up as you described it and tested it by sending a fax from another one of our fax machines. The fax went through so I wonder if our system is not set up for caller ID. Any suggestions?

Ken Johnson
ITT Industries, Engineered Process Solutions Group

 

[dblcrona]

Susan,

I ran a little test. I added the 10 digit phone number of the fax I wanted to block to the VRT. I also added the 4 digit extension of the same fax machine. Both the sending and receiving fax machines are on our PBX. If I send the fax by getting an outside line and dialing the full number the fax goes through. If I just send it to the 4 digit extension it gets blocked. This tells me that our system somehow needs to be set up to recognize incoming numbers. Let me know what you think.

Ken Johnson
ITT Industries, Engineered Process Solutions Group

 

[SF0751]

Ken, I agree; it does sound as though the ANI information is not being passed on to your switch. Do you have ISDN trunks for your incoming calls? When you receive an outside call at your station, can you see the inbound caller ID, or do you just see the trunk name?

Susan
[sub]You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.[/sub]
[sup]Aristophanes, 424 B.C.[/sup]
[sup]Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.

 

[dblcrona]

Susan,

We have 2 T-1 trunks. One for local and local LD. The second for Long Distance. When I receive an outside call at my desk on my 6408D+ phone it reads "Incomming Call" and says then name of the trunk. We used to get CID info on our LD T-1 trunk when we were with MCI but when we recently switched to AT&T we no longer get CID info. Is there any way to get CID info over a T-1?

Ken Johnson
ITT Industries, Engineered Process Solutions Group

 

[SF0751]

Honestly, trunking is something that I'm still learning about. However, thread690-752005 goes into a lot of detail about how to set up inbound caller ID - that might help. Since you were receiving the info with MCI, you just may need to contact your AT&T rep to have it set up.

Susan
[sub]You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.[/sub]
[sup]Aristophanes, 424 B.C.[/sup]
[sup]Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.

 

[orypecos]

I thought that I read somewhere that it was illegal to send faxes without a business relationship already existing, but I can't remember where I saw that. I will look around on the net and see if I can find it in writing.