Expanded blacklist

[lbmofo]

Maybe I missed it, but is this a service you have to be a premier member to use? If so, seems kinda crappy to have to pay for a service just to stop telemarketers from calling you.

You can try signing up directly with NoMoRobo as I and others have done. Costs nothing to do that. See my post on p5 above yours.

Don't you still have to multi-ring/forward your call to NoMoRobo to have it work? Forward is a premier feature. I don't see how providing services of value for a reasonable price is considered "crappy" unless one expects things for free unreasonably.

[oomamaniacal]

seems kinda crappy to have to pay for a service just to stop telemarketers from calling you.

It's the price we pay for living in a capitalist system. It probably wouldn't be needed in a country like North Korea.

[lbmofo]

Are our calls being forwarded through nomorobo, or is Ooma just using nomorobo's blacklist?

How it works is transparent to the user, so experience will be the same as using the community blacklist.

Since treatment options are same as Ooma community/personal blacklist, one would assume Ooma uses NoMoRobo's blacklist somehow and then invokes user specified treatment option.

[oomamaniacal]

Does anyone know if expanded blacklist will block legitimate robocalls like police notifications and the like? Nomorobo says they don't, but how would they know?

Since activating Nomorobo, I did have a legitimate pharmacy robocall blocked. I suggest setting how blocked calls are handled to the voice mail setting instead of disconnected or continuous ring. I would rather check for new voice mails occasionally than receive a lot of unexpected calls.

Overall, it has been working well. I have not needed to make additional entries to to the personal list.

[Iraisok]

I agree that since the integration of Nomorobo into Ooma plus the use of the Ooma Community Blacklist, I doubt that I will ever need to add another number into my Personal Ooma Blacklist. However, I'm not deleting the numbers I determined/inserted prior to Nomorobo integration.

That said, here is where we differ - I have never experienced anyone saying they received "Number Disconnected" msg (used for each Blacklist type). With all the telemarketer crap that used to arrive - pre-Ooma days, I will risk that someone I needed to speak with could not get through. So, anyone who needed to speak with me would also know at least one of the cell numbers in the house. I love that those sneaky telemarketers hardly ever get through these days.

If even ONE telemarketer crap call does make it, in the evening (when I analyze the Call Log) I redial unknown numbers. Most of the time, the telemarketer crap either does not connect or reveals itself. I then log into Nomorobo directly and enter those numbers that (as I was told) gets into the Nomorobo database w/i 24 hrs. As long as Ooma do their job and refresh the Nomorobo database NIGHTLY, we are "home free!"

Finally, if you encounter a number that should not be blocked by your listening to your VM or if caller contacts you some other way, you can log into Nomorobo (no need to give your phone number) and submit the number to be unblocked. Lets hope Ooma in fact refreshes the Nomorobo database nightly. They do not share everything with us. We just know the result of good support.

Ira

[jf2go]

@Ira

How did you signup for Nomorobo to log telemarketer numbers? Nomorobo still doesn't recognize Ooma as a valid carrier for signup. The Expanded Blacklist has been working very well for me. I actually deleted my entire Personal Blacklist prior to checking the Expanded Blacklist box. I have only had to add a couple of numbers to my Personal Blacklist in 3 weeks or so. I would have added MANY more entries to my Personal Blacklist over that time period using the old methods. I would like to add telemarketer numbers that I come across to Nomorobo's database, but I have no way to do that now. Perhaps Ooma will come up with a means of pushing our Personal Blacklist numbers into their database.

[oomamaniacal]

jf2go & Ira,

I chose Time Warner as the carrier instead of Ooma. That allowed me to create a Nomorobo account and then I was able to report a number as being legit. I did not go through with the rest of the set-up process.

However, I have both the Community Blacklist and Enhanced Blacklist set for voice mail. I have no way of knowing which blacklist the blocked number is on.

[Iraisok]

@Ira

I would like to add telemarketer numbers that I come across to Nomorobo's database, but I have no way to do that now.

The way to add numbers to the Nomorobo Blacklist is to create a login at https://www.nomorobo.com/ (no need to include your phone number) then click Report a Number then just copy from your Ooma Call list then paste each number and into into Nomorobo. Might as well enter all numbers in your Blacklist. No worries if he already has it. You do NOT need to complete ANYTHING else. Just click "Send The Report". At present you can only enter one number at a time but it goes quickly and we all are doing our part to stop these crap telemarketers. I opted not to clear out the 25 or so entries I already had in my Personal Blacklist but I do NOT enter anymore.

Also, I've been in contact with Nomorobo. I suggested there be a way to paste multiple numbers. He liked the suggestion. Still it is easy and if we each do our part it will help us all. I hardly get telemarketer crap calls now.

As long as Ooma takes Nomorobo's database often, weekly would be reasonable, daily would be better then we would feel the benefit. So, even if you enter a number there, you might still receive a call from it until Ooma gets the latest.

Ira

[VoIP]

After one month of using the expanded blacklist, I can now share some of my observations. What a difference!
In roughly six years of using Ooma, I rarely had more than 20 numbers on my managed personal blacklist in any year. It seemed that the community blacklist was effective enough to keep my personal blacklist rather small. That changed in September 2014, when I began to add about 15 numbers per month to my personal blacklist through the end of the year. At the end of 2014 I had over 60 numbers on that list.
Not long after using the expanded blacklist I started removing some of the numbers I most suspected were robocalls. Since enabling the new feature I only had to re-add one of the numbers I removed and have added only other new entry since then.

I suspect that others around the country will observe that a larger number of the calls not stopped by nomorobo are local/regional calls targeting and 'originating' locally. Although I live in a major metropolitan area with several area codes, calls targetting these area codes will affect a smaller number of people than robocalls that dial nationally and thus less nomorobo users.

Ooma provides no means to supplement the nomorobo blacklist, so short of my creating a separate account at nomorobo to add these localized offenders that appears to be a limitation. The majority of numbers remaining on my blacklist are from the area or spoofed to appear that way, which is a notable change from the past when they were more distributed.
However, with only one net new addition to my personal blacklist is a welcome change from the 15 or so I was adding in late 2014.

[Iraisok]

After one month of using the expanded blacklist, I can now share some of my observations. What a difference!

Ooma provides no means to supplement the nomorobo blacklist, so short of my creating a separate account at nomorobo to add these localized offenders that appears to be a limitation.

Hi VOIP,

I know my last post (just prior to yours) mentioned this and you probably read it but allow me to restate the finer points:

1. No hassle to create login at Nomorobo and you do not need to provide your phone number. Your phone number is not needed there since our Expanded Blacklist provides the blocking offered by Nomorobo.
2. When I receive a crap [aka telemarketer] call, I simply login to Nomorobo add it to his list that updates his database that eventually is D/L'd by Ooma. Ooma MUST D/L the Nomorobo database often, though.
3. I just don't understand why you want / need to purge your existing Personal Blacklist? If things are working, don't change it!

Back in November, I joined Ooma and after a month signed up to Premier. I left AT&T after 40 yrs 1st because I only had 10 Blacklist slots and they were not offering Simultaneous Ring that is needed to benefit from Nomorobo. I would analyze telemarketer calls in a spreadsheet, shuffling w/i the 10 slots. There were not enough parking spots. 2nd reason, tired of spending $38/month + $6 to my Long Distance company.

I noticed a big drop in Telemarketer calls with Ooma. I first populated my Blacklist with my top 10 from AT&T days. Prior to Ooma joining up with Nomorobo, I had added 15 more numbers to my Blacklist. Since Nomorobo Expanded Blacklist, I do NOT add anymore to my Blacklist. And, I hardly get any CRAP CALLS. When I do, I follow steps 1 and 2, above. Please do the same. We are helping each other.

Ira