Blocking SPAM calls at home and on the go

[C_Fun]

 

TELUS is leading the pack when it comes to call filtering, a service that is significantly more effective at blocking spam/robocalls than universal call blocking. TELUS launched our popular and free Call control feature available for home phone and wireless postpaid customers nationally. Helping block the majority of auto-dialed calls from reaching customers.

How does Call Control work?

The new calling feature requires unknown callers to listen to a brief message and manually respond with a one-digit code. For example, a first-time dialer trying to connect to a customer with the Call Control feature will be greeted with a brief message stating “this number has Call Control – to get through, please press 9.” The number is randomly generated. Once the digit is pressed, the call will connect.

What if a legitimate call is trying to get through?

Family and friends don’t need to respond to the Call Control every time, because the system remembers the numbers that recently passed the test. In addition, you can maintain lists of numbers that should always be allowed or always blocked through your myTELUS account. Adding legitimate auto-dial callers (like your doctor’s office for appointment reminders, or your child’s school) to your allowed list will be important – as these calls would otherwise never get through.

Call Control allows customers to list up to 25 phone numbers on their accepted callers' list, and up to 25 on their blocked callers' list. Numbers on the accepted callers' list will not hear the message or have to insert the one-digit code.

To learn more about Call Control, visit telus.com/callcontrol.

[Pintoguy]

I've been getting scam phone calls several times a week from scammers spoofing Telus Customer Service numbers.

1-866-362-9826

1-888-811-2323

I've activated Telus Call Control and added these numbers to my 'Blocked Calls' list. Will this actually block these spoofed numbers? How many others here are getting these types of scam phone calls???

[SeanFordyce]

This is not leading and the service does not work for many people.

If you have a limited number of people calling you then this might work.

If you are dealing with the public or if you are looking for work or any other situation where you cannot put callers through an extra hassle then this is not for you.

What would be for you is stir / shaken. This was supposed to be implemented yesterday as a requirement by the CRTC. Companies like Telus have known about this since 2018. They have asked for several extensions. Earlier this year they were told November 30th was the final deadline and there would be no more extensions. 

This service traces calls showing up with Canadian numbers back to verify the source. If the call is spoofed it will fail verification and the person answering can ignore the call. While it cannot trace international calls, it will catch international calls spoofing as Canadian as those will fail verification.

As of today, after the deadline, I learned the Pixel phone for Telus is the only device that has this feature. Telus tech support and customer service have not been told about it. The person I spoke to googled and read about it for the first time while I waited. Telus has nothing on their website. Most phones have missed the deadline.

This is an intolerable level of service.

So it is pretty brazen for any messaging for Telus suggesting that Telus is leading anything with respect to what is an old feature that requires callers to submit to a recording or that this is a solution.

It is time for Telus to stop pretending this does not exist and answer VERY ANGRY customers letting them know about this feature that the media has been telling people to expect this week including how it works, when it will be available.

[BoaGuy]

As of November 30, 2021, TELUS implemented the Secure Telephony Identify Revisited / Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (STIR/SHAKEN) network protocol to comply with CRTC mandate 2021-123 and provide our customers with an added assurance that “verified” calls are truly originating from the telephone number appearing on their handset display.

What is STIR/SHAKEN?

Is a set of tools implemented within the TELUS network to verify the original calling number by validating the legitimacy of the calling number and displaying a verified status on the receiver’s handset. 

Conditions

• VoLTE must be provisioned on customer’s account
• VoLTE enabled on device
• For a call to be verified, it must follow a full IP network path - i.e. originating as VoLTE or NGHP and terminating as VoLTE.
• At launch only Google Pixel 6 devices are able to support STIR/SHAKEN
  • More devices will be added post launch

  • Timing of other devices supporting STIR/SHAKEN is dependent on the device manufacturer and not TELUS.

    Other devices will follow once the device manufacturer has updated the device’s software to support enhanced display for IP to IP calls.

 

[SeanFordyce]

Lol. Your staff did not know about it on December 2. After some research on my insistence they told me only the Google Pixel has it. Then they called me days later to blame that on the manufacturers which is a lie. Meanwhile the US carriers have cover iPhone, galaxy phones at least back to the S9.

So no, you did not meet the deadline in any meaningful way. Nobody posting here on behalf of Telus should be ignorant of these facts. 

Also Telus does not have any comment about this on their website, trying to blow through the deadline as quietly as possible. We know it is winter but try not to snow us any more than we have been already.

Also this was to have been done in 2019 but the carriers have been asking for extensions ever since. Not okay now to pretend it was implemented, try to be quiet about it, when your customers can see for themselves that this is baloney.

[dsnillo]

We used to be able to block specific numbers. I know, not useful for spoofed numbers, but those should be filtered out by STIRRED/SHAKEN. Making callers wait through another recording is not the best solution.

[Michadot]

Call Control is very limited in usefulness by the 25 number limit. Why not use all the numbers in the device’s contact list?
Also, other carriers have a conditional call forwarding option that will forward all calls not in the device’s contacts. This allows the device to work better with 3rd party services like RoboShield.