Blocking robo calls on a business line

[Tak Nakamoto]

My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.

We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.

While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.

Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.

Tak Nakamoto


------------

Please note our new email address!

***@sonic.net

[Roy]

You might look at OOMA. They have a pretty effective robocall blocker
with the Premier service (about $10/month)

According to one article: Ooma offers an Expanded Blacklist "powered by
Nomorobo." This means that your phone will not ring for blocked callers.
Also, Ooma provides you with the option of sending those callers to
voice mail, along with other options.

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.
We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.
While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.
Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.
Tak Nakamoto
------------
Please note our new email address!

[David Kaye]

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service
is shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business
account from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because
she has to answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block
robocalls has become very urgent.

Having done a lot of advertising I get 5 to 10 robocalls a day. What works
for me may work for others, depending on caller ID. I use Verizon cell
service with a LG flip phone. I store all robocall phone numbers in my
addressbook, label them as "Junk 0515" (meaning month and year) and change
the ring to "no ring". I've found that most of the robocallers send out the
same caller IDs consistently, so it's easy to ignore them.

Some time back a cafe I consult with got tired of junk calls and put in a
little blocker. What it does is announce the cafe's hours and invites them
to "press 4" to speak with someone in the cafe. The unit then rings the
phone that's attached to it. This has eliminated the junk calls entirely --
ENTIRELY. I'm not sure the name of the company; I'll see if I can find info
about it. I'm not even sure what you'd call the device.




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Post by David Kaye
Some time back a cafe I consult with got tired of junk calls and put in a
little blocker. What it does is announce the cafe's hours and invites them

That's cool, but wouldn't the outgoing message sound like an answering
machine, and cause the robocaller to launch into its spiel?

I used a "CallZapper" or something like that, a long time ago. It emitted
one tone of the "disconnected number" cadence when you first went off hook.
That was supposed to cause robocallers to disconnect.
I believe it worked, and very few people commented on the strange tone.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.
We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.
While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.
Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.
Tak Nakamoto
------------
Please note our new email address!

Nomorobo is snake oil; a feel-good solution promoted by the FTC to avoid
having to do any real work.

Nomorobo uses Caller ID, which has absolutely no truth or value in
screening calls. My Sonic.net phone line has become so useless that the
phone ringer must be turned off. The phone's history shows calls from
random local numbers coming in all day long.

There's nothing you can do to opt-out from telemarketers either. From
what I've read on Glassdoor, do-not-call numbers are intentionally
placed in the queue to prevent phone operators from meeting their
commission quota.

[Tak Nakamoto]

I'm sorry to hear that Nomorobo isn't having the hoped for result on your
Sonic phone line. We've only had Fusion for 2 months now and it has worked
very well for our home phone. We will find out whether this is sustained or
whether the robocallers have work arounds that adjust.

My understanding of how Nomorobo works is that it uses the simultaneous ring
feature to "ring" and temporarily divert the call to a server to check the
apparent calling # against a list. So, that should mean that your own phone
line's received call list would still list the numbers that were diverted by
Nomorobo even though the call may have rung barely once. The test for me
would be how many robo calls got beyond the first ring. We could live with
knowing not to pick up until the second ring.

The available official information about Comcast and Nomorobo is
conflicting.

Comcast says that Nomorobo is unavailable to its business line customers.
http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/phone/nomorobo

However when I go to Nomorobo.com and enter the office's Comcast email
address, it says that it is available.

I don't want to make a commitment to switch phone accounts unless there is
clarity on the issue.

Tak Nakamoto




"Kevin McMurtrie" wrote
Nomorobo is snake oil; a feel-good solution promoted by the FTC to avoid
having to do any real work.

Nomorobo uses Caller ID, which has absolutely no truth or value in
screening calls. My Sonic.net phone line has become so useless that the
phone ringer must be turned off. The phone's history shows calls from
random local numbers coming in all day long.

There's nothing you can do to opt-out from telemarketers either. From
what I've read on Glassdoor, do-not-call numbers are intentionally
placed in the queue to prevent phone operators from meeting their
commission quota.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

It's not a glitch in Sonic's Nomorobo setup. Modern scammers use
rotating random local numbers for Caller ID so that Nomorobo does not
work. If the number was blocked, it would be blocking an innocent
person or business who had their phone number displayed in the scam.

Post by Tak Nakamoto
I'm sorry to hear that Nomorobo isn't having the hoped for result on your
Sonic phone line. We've only had Fusion for 2 months now and it has worked
very well for our home phone. We will find out whether this is sustained or
whether the robocallers have work arounds that adjust.
My understanding of how Nomorobo works is that it uses the simultaneous ring
feature to "ring" and temporarily divert the call to a server to check the
apparent calling # against a list. So, that should mean that your own phone
line's received call list would still list the numbers that were diverted by
Nomorobo even though the call may have rung barely once. The test for me
would be how many robo calls got beyond the first ring. We could live with
knowing not to pick up until the second ring.
The available official information about Comcast and Nomorobo is
conflicting.
Comcast says that Nomorobo is unavailable to its business line customers.
http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/phone/nomorobo
However when I go to Nomorobo.com and enter the office's Comcast email
address, it says that it is available.
I don't want to make a commitment to switch phone accounts unless there is
clarity on the issue.
Tak Nakamoto
Nomorobo is snake oil; a feel-good solution promoted by the FTC to avoid
having to do any real work.
Nomorobo uses Caller ID, which has absolutely no truth or value in
screening calls. My Sonic.net phone line has become so useless that the
phone ringer must be turned off. The phone's history shows calls from
random local numbers coming in all day long.
There's nothing you can do to opt-out from telemarketers either. From
what I've read on Glassdoor, do-not-call numbers are intentionally
placed in the queue to prevent phone operators from meeting their
commission quota.

[Tak Nakamoto]

"Kevin McMurtrie" wrote

It's not a glitch in Sonic's Nomorobo setup. Modern scammers use
rotating random local numbers for Caller ID so that Nomorobo does not
work. If the number was blocked, it would be blocking an innocent
person or business who had their phone number displayed in the scam.


-----------

I just checked a month worth of calls to our Sonic Fusion home phone with
Nomorobo turned on. I found many blocked calls in our records. None were
false positives. There were a couple of false negatives, which meant that my
phone rang more than once. (More than 8 seconds on the record.) Granted, we
are not very active users of the home phone, but we were fully listed in the
white pages of the phone book when there was such a thing. We were getting a
lot of robocalls.

I don't worry too much about false positives. Most of our friends, family
and associates have multiple phone numbers for us, plus they have our
multiple email addresses. So if the home phone doesn't work, they've always
tried alternatives. Even my late father, who would be 90 now, preferred to
use email to contact us. Of course he had been using computers since the
1950's.

I'm very satisfied with Nomorobo based on our two months worth of
experience.

Tak Nakamoto

[David Kaye]

Post by Kevin McMurtrie
It's not a glitch in Sonic's Nomorobo setup. Modern scammers use
rotating random local numbers for Caller ID so that Nomorobo does not
work. If the number was blocked, it would be blocking an innocent
person or business who had their phone number displayed in the scam.

My experience has been the opposite. I have added about 25 phone numbers to
my junk list and turned off the ring tone for them. Now I'm seldom
bothereed by junk calls, but I still manage to get about 5 or 6 a day. I
just don't hear them. Also, on those occasions when I've suspect they were
junk calls but didn't have them in my list, I've called back the numbers and
have been offered the "Press 7 to be removed from this list" option, meaning
that the Caller ID is actually correct.

Of course the kinds of calls I get may be different from what other folks
are getting. I don't get real estate scams, "IRS" calls, or that kind of
stuff. Nearly all my calls are "Get your website seen by more people,"
"We're updating your Google listing," and the like.




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On 5/15/2015 8:13 PM, Tak Nakamoto wrote:

<snip>

Post by Tak Nakamoto
I'm very satisfied with Nomorobo based on our two months worth of
experience.

I am using RingTo with an Obi 202 and they must have their own robo call
blocker. A lot of robo calls ring only once. A few ring twice. Now I
only answer calls on the third ring. I don't know how many are caught
before the first ring.

[n***@sbcglobal.net]

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.
We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.
While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.
Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.
Tak Nakamoto
------------
Please note our new email address!

I get robocalls but I also get calls with an ID "Name Not Found" which I promply answer as "Name Finders International. We're here to help you find your name. Have you looked under your desk? Have you looked in the waste basket? With our premium service...." usually by then they have hung up. (-;

[David Arnstein]

This thread has motivated me to finally try nomorobo. I just signed up,
but I won't be able to complete the set up until tonight.

I will be using nomorobo with my home phone number, which is provided
by a VoIP service named voip.ms.

I am wary. Nomorobo is a good idea, but I am unable to determine how
this thing is funded. The current state of affairs is certainly not
sustainable: no user fees, no advertising, no nothing.

[Tak Nakamoto]

I don't know that it is completely unfunded. The manner in which Sonic
presents Nomorobo as an integral part of its phone service suggests that at
least Sonic has made an arrangement with Nomorobo.

I do agree that it is opaque and mysterious. Of course I don't know enough
to tell how expensive Nomo is to run.

Tak Nakamoto



------------

Please note our new email address!

***@sonic.net
"David Arnstein" wrote in message news:migmnr$roh$***@reader1.panix.com...

This thread has motivated me to finally try nomorobo. I just signed up,
but I won't be able to complete the set up until tonight.

I will be using nomorobo with my home phone number, which is provided
by a VoIP service named voip.ms.

I am wary. Nomorobo is a good idea, but I am unable to determine how
this thing is funded. The current state of affairs is certainly not
sustainable: no user fees, no advertising, no nothing.

[Peter Lawrence]

Post by David Arnstein
I am wary. Nomorobo is a good idea, but I am unable to determine how
this thing is funded. The current state of affairs is certainly not
sustainable: no user fees, no advertising, no nothing.

And educated guess how they're funded: by the telephone service providers
that support them.

Xfinity (Comcast) advertises that Nomorobo is available to their Xfinity
Voice customers and provides instructions how to enable it. So it wouldn't
surprise me that Comcast pays a small fee to Nomorobo for every Xfinity
subscriber that signs up for the service.

The fee might also be based on how many calls are made to each Xfinity phone
number, hence why it's not supported for Comcast Business phone numbers (too
many phone calls).


- Peter

[Roy]

Post by Peter Lawrence

Post by David Arnstein
I am wary. Nomorobo is a good idea, but I am unable to determine how
this thing is funded. The current state of affairs is certainly not
sustainable: no user fees, no advertising, no nothing.

And educated guess how they're funded: by the telephone service
providers that support them.
Xfinity (Comcast) advertises that Nomorobo is available to their Xfinity
Voice customers and provides instructions how to enable it. So it
wouldn't surprise me that Comcast pays a small fee to Nomorobo for every
Xfinity subscriber that signs up for the service.
The fee might also be based on how many calls are made to each Xfinity
phone number, hence why it's not supported for Comcast Business phone
numbers (too many phone calls).
- Peter

I think that Nomorobo is funded by its customers including carriers like
Sonic, OOMA, and Comcast who then offer the service to their customers.

See

https://www.nomorobo.com/signup

for a list of carriers.

[Tak Nakamoto]

I wrote:

(snipped)

Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.

------------
After a few weeks of waiting, Nomorobo responded to my email asking whether
they currently offer their services on Comcast's business phone lines.
they do NOT. I wish that Nomorobo would change their website to indicate
such.

Tak Nakamoto

[Tak Nakamoto]

FCC Chairman on robocalls.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2015/05/28/hold-the-phone-fcc-has-a-new-robocall-ruling-and-it-doesnt-look-pretty-for-business/

I wonder, if this is approved by the whole commission, how long it will take
for AT&T to implement blocking? We know that Comcast and other cable based
companies can implement this immediately since Comcast already allows
Nomorobo on their residential phone lines.

Tak Nakamoto



------------

Please note our new email address!

***@sonic.net
"Tak Nakamoto" wrote in message news:554aab4a$0$36530$***@news.sonic.net...


My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.

We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.

While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.

Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.

Tak Nakamoto


------------

Please note our new email address!

***@sonic.net

[x***@gmail.com]

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.
We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.
While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.
Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.
Tak Nakamoto
------------
Please note our new email address!

You know what sucks? This thread. No one answered Tak's original question -- the same one I have. Does Nomorobo work with Comcast Business? Feel free NOT to reply if you don't know the answer.

[n***@sbcglobal.net]

Post by x***@gmail.com

Post by Tak Nakamoto
My SO sublets an office in El Cerrito. While the Comcast internet service is
shared by the whole office, she has a separate landline business account
from AT&T. And she is becoming inundated with rob calls. Because she has to
answer the phone (it is a business), finding a way to block robocalls has
become very urgent.
We shifted to Sonic Fusion for our home landline phone & dsl internet
service and have been very pleased that Sonic uses Nomorobo. We rarely get
unsolicited calls any more. We can answer the phone again with no
trepidation.
While we like Sonic, we can't shift over to Fusion for the office and we're
satisfied with Comcast for internet service. We could shift to Comcast for
the phone services keeping the same number.
Does anyone know whether Nomorobo works on Comcast business lines? When I
search the web, I don't find clear answers. I'm under the impression from
various comments that it works well with Comcast home phones (as versus
business lines) though I don't know from personal experience.
Tak Nakamoto
------------
Please note our new email address!

You know what sucks? This thread. No one answered Tak's original question -- the same one I have. Does Nomorobo work with Comcast Business? Feel free NOT to reply if you don't know the answer.

All Tak had to do was to go to NoMoRobo's site, select questions, select show all questions and he would find this. Sheesh, why do people still expect others to do their searches for them these days!
https://nomorobo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206784133-Does-Nomorobo-Work-On-Business-Lines-

[David Kaye]

Post by x***@gmail.com
You know what sucks? This thread. No one answered Tak's original
question -- the same one I have.

Oh, okay, I'll post a solution: The Sentry 3.1 Screener, priced at $80
usually. Yeah, it has the whitelists and blacklists, but what's best is the
outgoing message which instructs the caller do dial 0 to reach a person.
Robocall software obviously doesn't hear this, so it won't dial 0, but a
real human does and will dial 0, thus eliminating the need for either
whitelisting or blacklisting.

[David Kaye]

Post by David Kaye
Oh, okay, I'll post a solution: The Sentry 3.1 Screener, priced at $80
usually. Yeah, it has the whitelists and blacklists, but what's best is
the outgoing message which instructs the caller do dial 0 to reach a
person. Robocall software obviously doesn't hear this, so it won't dial 0,
but a real human does and will dial 0, thus eliminating the need for
either whitelisting or blacklisting.

I should add to this that the 3.1 version allows you to record a custom
outgoing message, so you can say, "Thank you for calling the XYZ Company.
To speak with our office, please press 0"

[David Kaye]

Interesting. Nobody has thanked me for steering them to a workable call
blocking solution. You griped about how others didn't solve your problem,
and here I did and...nothing. Way to go.

[n***@sbcglobal.net]

Post by David Kaye
Interesting. Nobody has thanked me for steering them to a workable call
blocking solution. You griped about how others didn't solve your problem,
and here I did and...nothing. Way to go.

Not only that the second message in the thread provided a business solution. Go figure.