Robo-dialer filtering

I don't get a lot of phone calls.  I don't call a lot of people, and lots of people don't call me.   What can I say, I'm not the socializing type, and oh, I work A LOT.  Most of my outside contact comes from email, private lists, snail mail, UPS, and general meatspace - managers and coworkers in office meetings, store clerks and customers, bartenders, waiters, bank tellers, mechanics, the rare gas station panhandler, the odd freeway gesture.  No cops lately...

Well, that's not exactly true.  I get lots of calls from robots.

The vast majority of my phone calls come from robo-dialers are trying to "lower my mortgage".  They seem to follow a pattern, calling mostly between the middle to the end of the month. I believe they acquired my number back when Countrywide whored its supposely private, confidential data. They've been sued for this of course, but cat's out of the bag, barn door's wide open, information wants to be free, yada yada yada.

Since then my phone number has probably been resold dozens of times in the context of a mortgage, and none of them check to see if I still have a mortgage at all.  At this point, I'm inclined to believe they're now ripping off EACH OTHER selling invalid data. Ha!

One is actually very slick.  They dial and hang up, likely triggering a "missed call" notification with a CallerID return number. When YOU call back to find out whose call you missed, they start their recorded pitch. Because YOU called THEM, they're free to do as they like, and it's not a crime to dial a "wrong" number and hang up.  It's a technical dodge that keeps them legal, barely, and still incredibly annoying.

The rest of these are completely ILLEGAL.  My number is listed on the Do Not Call List, but they don't honor it.  I suspect the DNC list is yet another way for illegal bastards to harrass more people.  After all, here's a group of people that don't get called much now.  You KNOW they're going to answer their phones.  None of these junk callers have any legitimate business with me.  I don't have that mortgage anymore.

My current dodge is to save the numbers to my iPhone under the name "Do Not Answer".  I assign a special ringtone to that address - a long loop of silence.  I composed it myself just for this - all those years of piano lessons were not wasted, Mom...  Maybe I need to sell it on iTunes.  $:^D

Below are all the useless robo-caller numbers that have harassed me.  The (406) numbers seem to be extremely active nowadays.  Checking my phone at the end of the day I've seem some that called up to 5 times a day, starting at 8AM and stopping at 9PM.

I would be interested in an app that could aggregate them from shared locations and add them to my contact list under the junk call label so that when they call I wouldn't hear the ring even the very first time.  Only one of us should take the hit.

While I'm fantasizing, I would also like on the iPhone to be able to remove the vibrate-mode from specific individual contacts as well, so that when these bastards robo-call me while I'm in a meeting and have shut off the ringer, my phone doesn't still buzz.  That's something that a silent ringtone can't address.

Here's my list of junk callers; I have sorted them to remove duplicates. I'd like to see a wikipedia page that folks can add to.  Though I like the apps that perform blacklisting, they don't necessarily publish their blacklists openly.


Phone-spam filter list:

• 205 572-4899 (added 3/21/2011)
• 206 309-3538
• 206 397-1557
• 206 426-6486
• 207 493-2648 (added 6/8/2011) 
• 216 282-0010 (added 7/14/2011)
• 253 382-9031 (added 12/26/2011)
• 253 561-7906
• 253 753-9030 (added 12/26/2011)
• 360 722-5901
• 402 587-2105
• 402 982-0779
• 405 236-4568 (added 3/15/2011)
• 406 351-4006
• 406 530-5360
• 406 623-3003
• 406 640-8788 (added 3/7/2011)
• 406 852-8353
• 406 852-8377 (added 5/2/2011)
• 408 392-0703
• 414 877-0060 (added 12/28/2011)
• 425 291-8405
• 425 320-5044 (Added 4/11/2012)
• 425 587-1004
• 443 769-1784
• 559 467-1015
• 603 214-3315
• 603 214-3583
• 603 214-3679
• 618 741-1356 (added 3/21/2011)
• 630 721-6290
• 701 625-5003
• 701 625-5007
• 701 920-9361 (added 10/4/2011)
• 702 520-1418
• 703 291-9031 (added 7/19/2011 - an actual conversation with an American-English speaking telemarketer taking a "survey" on cell phone usage!  I told him that this is a cell phone, I am on the Do Not Call List, and to please remove my number.)
• 703 330-0318
• 800 266-2278
• 800 919-2233
• 804 932-1405
• 901 654-5689 (added 3/15/2011 - simultaneous to the other 3/15 addition, with the identical recording!)
• 904 562-6659
• 956 250-6161 - This was a TEXT MESSAGE spam.  Really rude.
• 978 570-2241
• 978 570-2318 (added 7/12/2011

I don't want junk callers to stop using numbers I've banned, of course, but I also want people to be able to ban numbers as they appear.  So it's a race I guess.

And if someone "accidently" makes my phone-spam filter, guess what.  They are always free to leave a message.  I delete their recordings all the time - and that's another feature I'd want to add - don't let them leave messages if they're on this list.  If they want to reach me, they can pay for a stamp and write me a letter.   The post office can use the business, and the paper usually gets recycled. A neighbor's bird always needs something to crap on.