kenlotterman
asked on
Require callers to press a number to "get through"
I'm absolutely fed up with robocalls. I want to figure out a way to make callers enter a number in order to get through - presumably, robots won't know they have to press a number. Perhaps, when the robot doesn't pass the test, the robocall would go to voicemail or something just so i can review it to make sure i didn't miss a truly important robocall like a dentist appointment reminder. And I still need the call to ring on my cell phone so that if it's a customer (or the wife), I can see the caller ID and answer it.
And all of this without changing my cell phone number. Busy/no answer call forwarding may be a place to start - if I don't answer, it goes to a different number. But then it has to come BACK if the caller passes the human test.
Verizon doesn't offer such a service. I think it'll have to be something creative involving some kind of call forwarding or something...
And all of this without changing my cell phone number. Busy/no answer call forwarding may be a place to start - if I don't answer, it goes to a different number. But then it has to come BACK if the caller passes the human test.
Verizon doesn't offer such a service. I think it'll have to be something creative involving some kind of call forwarding or something...
On my android phone I have an app that checks the incoming number against my contacts list and a separate whitelist/blacklist - unless the number is recognized it just gets sent to answerphone, if it's blacklisted it just gets dropped. Unrecognized numbers then get displayed so I can add them to whichever list is appropriate, takes about a week to "train" it.
My voicemail includes a message that if my phone doesn't recognize your number you're getting redirected & I'll check your message and call back as needed. I've had no problems with that from legitimate callers and some have even asked me if they can have details about what I use(!).
MrNumber
My voicemail includes a message that if my phone doesn't recognize your number you're getting redirected & I'll check your message and call back as needed. I've had no problems with that from legitimate callers and some have even asked me if they can have details about what I use(!).
MrNumber
ASKER
jmcg - I'm not using a landline, but this gets me thinking - I wonder if the phone system I use might be able to forward calls based on "For Ken, press 1". Of course, that means I'd have to forward calls that are intended for my cell phone back to my office phone and then back to my cell phone, which unfortunately ends up in an infinite loop.....
MASQ - I'm using an old-style flip phone. A Motorola E815 - best cell phone ever made. But yeah, I've thought of doing the exact same thing with my greeting. The downside is I paid a "voice model" to record my greeting about 5 years ago and I don't really want to change it.... Which is why I'd like ot have an intervening greeting before it even gets to my cell phone at all.
MASQ - I'm using an old-style flip phone. A Motorola E815 - best cell phone ever made. But yeah, I've thought of doing the exact same thing with my greeting. The downside is I paid a "voice model" to record my greeting about 5 years ago and I don't really want to change it.... Which is why I'd like ot have an intervening greeting before it even gets to my cell phone at all.
Then there's no easy fix short of the equivalent of two cell phones - the one with your main number SIM which diverts to a landline with the "Press a key now ..." message which then in turn relays the call to your alternate SIM which is the phone you have with you which calls out with an unlisted number. The E815 remains a great phone - it's just not quite "smart" enough to solve this on its own.
So, I had to solve this issue for someone recently and the only resolution I found was a two fold process.. An even then the user had t be VERY careful not to make calls to people they wanted screened.
What we did was port the original number to a VoIP provider and bring it in to a cloud based Asterisk server. That server allowed for a number of capabilities including call screening.
Then we got the end user a new second number for the cell phone. When a screened caller got through, the Asterisk box would forward the call to the new phone, otherwise the call either went to Voicemail, or if on the Blacklist got a not in service message.
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What we did was port the original number to a VoIP provider and bring it in to a cloud based Asterisk server. That server allowed for a number of capabilities including call screening.
Then we got the end user a new second number for the cell phone. When a screened caller got through, the Asterisk box would forward the call to the new phone, otherwise the call either went to Voicemail, or if on the Blacklist got a not in service message.
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ASKER
Phonebuff: When the user calls OUT, does it show the callerID of the new number? This would work, but only if we could also come up with a way to manipulate callerID, too.
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ASKER
It sounds like what exactly I want to do isn't possible. Oh well.
No such intervention point exists for your cell phone, so you're going to be relying on the carrier for such a service. I don't know of a carrier that provides one like this.