Stir Shaken not working on home FIOS line, multiple robo calls a day

[sprkvz137]

Have a 80+ year old relative on a walker with a Verizon FIOS home line who yet receives several to over a dozen robocalls a day, even though Stir/Shaken was implemented by the US major carriers including Verizon July 1. Link with further tech details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN . Most of these calls Caller IDs are from area codes in the state which live including some with the same first six of her 10 digit home phone number. The only thing that has changed with Stir/Shaken are none of the robocalls calls are marked spam. Years ago tried Nomorobo, but it blocked automated appointment reminders from some of her doctors and automated calls from the pharmacy (that online account have lost the login credentials). Being on the Do Not Call list does not work, as many of these calls come from overseas per news reports. She rarely answers these calls, unless it is the day a home repair person is showing up. She has caller ID, which also appears on the TV screen, but only when she has the TV turned on. Like me, both of us have mobile phones on the Verizon network, and if they get spam calls, it is most 1 or 2 per day, but she is not techie at her age, so she does not have voicemail on her cell phone, and prefers the simpleness of a one button operation answering machine connected on the home phone line. The house is over 50 feet long with only two phone outlets. Besides these calls being annoying, it is a much greater fall risk for her getting to the phone for all of these unnecessary calls, and some of the messages left can be more threatening for the elderly i.e. Social Security benefits being terminated, gunshots, get arrested if not act on an illegal package crossing the border, etc. What is the tech solution to fix this? Again she is not techie at her age, and signing up for an online account with Verizon to change settings will not work if it will force her to use paperless billing as she needs to continue to get a paper bill in the US Mail. Spam calls make up more than three fourths of the calls on her FIOS phone line, so the line is much more a bother than a help Do we need to call the FBI? Or do we need wait for some technology or implementation development to happen?

[dexman]

Verizon Digital Voice offers the ability to add incoming call screening service. If her telephone number is on that product consider activating the option.

If her telephone service is still being supplied by a legacy DMS or 5E Central Office switch, other options would need to be explored.

Is she comfortable using a cordless telephone? If so, telephones sold under the AT&T brand (and others) offer models that can support multiple handsets. All that is needed is an AC outlet.

Is she comfortable with using an answering machine? Most consumer oriented telephones come with one built in. Consider allowing the answering machine to screen incoming calls. If a caller is legit, they can hang up and redial in short order. Telemarketers using predictive dialers won't.

It shouldn't be overly difficult to add more telephone jacks so more corded phones can be distributed around the house.

[sprkvz137]

Hi dexman, please provide a web link for the incoming call screening service for FIOS landline. When I Googled that, I came up with https://www.verizon.com/solutions-and-services/call-filter/ , but that appears to be for wireless phones. Here is the switch details serving her home telephone exchange https://www.telcodata.us/view-switch-detail-by-clli?clli=CNVIVACTDS0 , but it is not clear whether telephone service is still being supplied by a legacy DMS or 5E Central Office switch you refer to. Please let me know. She has a cordless phone. Sometimes she carries it in to the room she is working in or doing something, but sometimes not. Outside of bathrooms and utility spaces, the house has 7 rooms. She is definitely comfortable using an answering machine, which use to screen calls, but it is hooked up to the phone in the master bedroom at one end of the house.

[dexman]

The Verizon telephone bill would indicate which voice service is in effect. My bill shows "Fios Home Phone" which is the Fios Digital Voice platform (aka packet switch). Prior to upgrading, it used to say "Freedom Essentials" which is telephone service provided by a legacy telephone switch (DMS or 5E).

How about Nomorerobo:?

Stop Unwanted & Annoying Home Phone Calls | Verizon Support

Verizon Digital Voice User Guide:

user-guide-digital-voice.pdf (verizon.com)

[sprkvz137]

Her phone bill says FIOS Digital Voice Unlimited.  Reading the user guide link you provided, only find Incoming Call Block for call filtering, which with it blocking by each 10 digit phone number, which does not work with most telemarketers, even the same one who changes their caller ID with each call.  Tried Nomorobo for several months a few years ago, but found it blocked legitimate automated medical Rx reminder calls.  With this added info, what else to try troubleshoot?

[dexman]

Nomorerobo is one of the better blockers out there.

As a workaround, would it be possible to have the automated Rx reminder calls go to her mobile phone?

The weakest link of blocking incoming calls is that telemarketers, besides spoofing non-working telephone numbers also spoof working telephone numbers. Imagine if a telemarketer spoofed your mom's landline. The telephone number would be flagged and that would cause problems.

Theoretically it is possible to block bogus calls, but the ability to implement the steps is onerous.

For example, if a call to her line shows another telephone number in the same town/city. The switch that provides service to your mom would need to do a lookup to see which service provider has control of the originating telephone number. The switch would then have to see how the call came into the switch and compare that to how it is supposed to arrive. Any discrepancy results in the call being blocked from being sent to the called party.

So, if the call shows a disconnected telephone number, the switch could block the call right there. If the call came in from a VoIP provider, that would be a discrepancy and the call gets blocked. 

In the least, LECS should update the national databases to mark unassigned telephone numbers in such a way that call blockers would be able to stop the calls cold.

[sprkvz137]

Her cell phone she has does not have voicemail or even texting, as at her 80+ year old age she is niot techie, so the Nomorobo mobile phone workaround you suggest would not work if she could not answer those calls when they rang.  Trying to figure out why Stir Shaken does not work on her home FIOS line.  From what you seem to indicate, her phone exchange is on a newer central office switch.  Is that correct?  Also another thought, her FIOS was installed circa 2005-2006 in the first wave of installs. Does her house FIOS box or ONT needs to be updated in some way for Stir Shaken?

In addition, she has only received one phone call with caller ID of her,own phone number, but that was over two years ago.

[dexman]

Her telephone line was migrated to a packet switch. Stir Shaken isn't really dependent upon the type of Central Office switch as it is supposed to block calls from suspect callers from reaching her phone. Could the Rx notifications be sent to you and you could call your mom to remind her?

Full disclosure, I worked as a Central Office technician for an IXC/CLEC for 23 years.

What I've done to keep telemarketers at bay at home is to install an Avaya Partner ACS business telephone system with an auto attendant module. There are the mentioned work arounds, but not much else.

Stir/Shaken is implemented within the networks of the various service providers. Outside of the tools made available to customers, there isn't anything we can do to force implementation.

[dexman]

I noticed a similar question posted over on Tek-Tips.

STIR/SHAKEN - -General Telephony discussion - Tek-Tips

[sprkvz137]

dexman, so Stir Shaken should work on her home phone line even though it was migrated to a packet switch, but for some weird reason it does not work.  Right?  I very much doubt she is willing to try Nomorobo again with it being problematic before, and I know she is not willing to have her private medical calls go to my phone. Is there any chance by phone calling into Vs tech support to see if there is an anomoly on her account or,line causing the blockage of Stir Shaken? I appreciate your technical advice, but reality is, if cannot resolve this issue, will need to research alternative IP phone providers.  For now, failing fixing the Stir Shaken problem is to turn the ringers off her FIOS landline phones in the house and let all calls go to the answering machine. As originally posted above. this is a greater safety issue for her going to check the phone most times being unwelcome robots calls.

P.S. I will check out the tech tips link you just posted.