Can't block certain spam calls

[cacophony]

I occasionally get spam calls that can't be blocked because apparently Ooma doesn't know the originating number.

For example, tonight I got a call from "AmitkrB_127" according to the Ooma Call Logs (both the phone number and name are listed as "AmitkrB_127"). When I try to add it to the blacklist because it gives me the following error: "Please enter a valid blacklist number".

I've gotten similar calls from "001696" and "96", both of which behave similarly.

Why is Ooma letting calls through that don't have an actual phone number? And why are they also preventing me from blocking them based on the fake phone number?

BTW, this issue occurs with both versions of the website, though the old one puts up a different error: "Service temporarily unavailable. Please try again."

[Tom]

It's against FCC rules to automatically block them but FCC is being lobbied to allow that. Stay tuned for when a user selectable option becomes available.

[cacophony]

A user option would be excellent!
Thanks for the response. I hope it gets implemented soon.

[holmes4]

I know that some carriers claimed that FCC rules prevented them from automatically blocking spam calls, but the FCC recently asserted that this was NOT the case and that carriers were in fact encouraged to do so, Falsifying caller ID information is already illegal and Ooma is complicit in this by making it impossible to block obviously falsified caller IDs.

[Tom]

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-fcc-compan ... calls.html

key phrase here is "if a consumer doesn't want them", in other words the customer has to opt in

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attac ... -910A1.pdf

[holmes4]

My wife's line has received three calls over the past two days from "125690" (the first one showed up without the 1). I am trying blacklisting the 125690 and will see if it works, but there's a big difference between automatically blocking numbers known to be spam and blocking those with fraudulent CID info. At the very least, Ooma should treat these as anonymous.

[cacophony]

Another call from AmitkrB_127 tonight that I can't block. Sigh.

[Zute]

Have you folks added NoMoRoBo to your spam filtering for Ooma? I stopped getting faked phone numbers once I signed up for that.

[cacophony]

And another call today from the phone number "amitsiliguri". Any word on a user selectable way to block these fake numbers?

For me I don't think NoMoRoBo would really provide a satisfactory solution to this because my phone would still ring once, which is almost as much of a disturbance (especially if I feel compelled to check who called).

[holmes4]

Ooma uses Nomorobo differently than using the service directly. Ooma gets (weekly?) updates of the database from Nomorobo and does its own filtering - your phone doesn't ring. You do need Premier service for this.

I get very few spam calls using Ooma and Nomorobo. It's not zero, but it's manageable - maybe 1-2 a week.