Obtain number for incoming, and block 1

[Moshimoshi]

We are receiving hundreds (upon hundreds) of solicitation calls from American Auto Warranty, I even get these calls at my personal home, not just here at work (there I can block them with an expensive active feature that doesn't work - because they show up as caller unknown or ID blocked, so they still ring into my phone there too).

Is there any way to use our PBX to force show the origination of the caller and their phone number or something, and block them, without making complex vector/vdn snake-paths to get it done?

I am shocked and astounded at the lack of native features to accomodate this! But people are getting madder and madder and saying I'm not 'doing enough' despite being unable to turn up numbers the calls are coming from, and qwest even saying they can't give me that info or can't help block them. What do I do?

 

[manfmmd]

Unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do. Solicitation calls from companies to commercial entities are not required by law to deliver CallerID information and businesses are not eligible for the National Do Not Call List, although I've registered business phone numbers..

(On you home number, I would file a complaint with the FCC here:

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/#howtocomplain

)

 

[SF0751]

I know that there are devices out there that can bring in the caller ID, even if it is hidden by the caller - emergency services (911) use them. Unfortunetly, I don't know what they're called or if private businesses can purchase them.

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[Moshimoshi]

That's more or less what I thought. Thanks

 

[simreal]

If you have ec500 licenses you can use them to block callers from specific ani as well.

 

[SF0751]

But in order to do that, you need to know the ANI. Not much good if the annoying caller has blocked their ANI.

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[phoneguy55]

Find out who these people are and start calling them back. I did this to a firm. They called my company a 100 times or more a day. I returned it 2 for 1. It took time, but they stopped calling.

Here's a fun thing to do. Find out their fax number. Then get 3 pieces of paper. One white with FU written on it. The other 2 black. Now tape the 3 pages together. You'll end up with a long page. Fax that to them, but after page one goes through, tape page 1 to page 3. You create a loop. Enjoy...

 

[wilroy]

If you decide to use VDN's & Vectoring to route the calls you can do this pretty easy & it will block the non-ani delivery calls.

Set up the vector like this:

1. goto step 10 if ani = none
2. goto vector X if Unconditionally
3. Busy

You could use various commands on line 3.
Otherwise - I think you have a major challenge on your hands.

 

[wilroy]

Sorry Typo above > it should read go to step 3

Check this one out - we have 458 toll-free numbers & use DNIS ID - VDN - vectoring to route our calls. Along this path we have Vector routing tables set up to block idiot or nuisance callers based off ani-delivery.

We started getting multiple & simultaneous calls from area code 817. These calls normally come in groups of 10. Hit the PBX all at the exact same time and hang up as soon as the agents pick up. The kicker is I was able to block these out when there was no caller id - now they use random number display to push with the calls. So 10 calls = 10 different caller ID's from the same area & prefix.

Problem is I can't block the area out because we market there. If you call any of the phone numbers that we receive from area 817 you get a busy signal. Reverse lookup shows no record. Any ideas on how to find the culprits.

 

[Moshimoshi]

Can't get their ANI's

The Company is called American Auto Warranty Service or something along those lines, it appears to be a pretty common scam in Colorado, they recommended filing a complaint with the FCC and State Attourney General.

Qwest was unable to give me any additional information (They're in charge of our DID)

 

[allen049]

We had a guy call us last month of 900 times but we were able to get his cell number. Please we found out what 800 numnbers he was calling on. We made a change on the VRT table and change the statement in the Vector. Now if he calls it will look at the ani and route to the NY PD.. I bet he stops calling them..

 

[1a22ip]

This is harassment. Call the police. Open a complaint of harassment. The police will then contact the telco's involved. The telcos can get the ANI and police will force them to stop.

Thanks
ED

1a2 to ip I seen it all

 

[cellrebral]

Kevin Mitnick demonstrated how to unmask caller Id at the Last Hope convention using Asterisk and Flowroute.com Check out the demonstration on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWqYiUjLw4&feature=related

 

[Moshimoshi]

Hmm, well thank you all for the input and comments - I'll keep some of this in mind, I can't do anything directly legal as I think I have to rely on our legal department for this.

We have put our whole range of DID on the do not call list as leverage for litigation if it comes to that.

Frankly I don't see why companies like Qwest, or the government, let people like this operate to begin with. Bah.

Thanks again everyone