Suspicious robocall campaign warning people to 'stay home' spooks voters nationwide

[BlueWavePsych]

Source: Washington Post

The call -- along with new robotexts surfaced Tuesday in Michigan -- have fueled fresh fears that misinformation might spread on Election Day over Americans’ smartphones.

An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to “stay safe and stay home,” spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day.

The barrage of calls all feature the same short, recorded message: A computerized female voice says the message is a “test call” before twice encouraging people to remain inside. The robocalls, which have come from a slew of fake or unknown numbers, began over the summer and intensified in October, and now appear to have affected nearly every Zip code in the United States.

*snip*

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/03/robocall-election-day/

---

Effing voter suppression ... vote 'em all out

[ancianita]

1. Over 100,000,000 laugh and carry on.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Why can't they trace and block these things?

And more to the point, why aren't the perpetrators of these republican crimes being arrested and prosecuted?

[CloudWatcher]

5. Caller ID is easily faked

I got a similar call. They had faked the number in caller id to match my area code and prefix. Only the last four digits were different from the phone number they had called.

I believe they can't trace the call when that's done ... at least not easily.

Fyi, the phone companies are very slowly deploying a caller-id verification system called STIR/SHAKEN (RIP Sean Connery!) .. here's an old article on it:

https://www.howtogeek.com/402141/how-phone-companies-are-finally-verifying-caller-id-numbers

If we had a functioning government, this would have been required of all carriers years ago.

[C_U_L8R]

7. There's no excuse for fake calls, spam bots, fake accounts, etc

except for the massive money being made by some - including big social.
FB and Twitter would be very different places if they'd just verify.
Same with the Phone Cos and ISPs.
Technologically, there's no excuse. There are just to
many incentive$ to keep it broken.

[IronLionZion]

10. I hope a Biden administration can make progress on STIR/SHAKEN

https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication

Caller IDs need to be officially signed like web addresses. It's long past time to identify and end spoofing. It's completely out of control in many countries but the US is a popular target for foreign scammers.

[CloudWatcher]

24. +1000000

We will need lots of pressure on the Biden admin to fix this before we all die of Covid or old age. If I have any complaints about him, it's that he seems to really believe in bi-partisan efforts. But that can only work when both sides are actually trying to solve a problem. And we are not anywhere close to that

[IronLionZion]

25. If we have a Dem Senate and House, we can pass real legislation

and Biden will sign it into law. The conservative courts probably won't fight everything, but will prioritize what they try to block and it will take time.

[LiberalFighter]

14. It needs to be mandatory.

Phone companies should be able to id the source.

[SergeStorms]

17. Phone companies could easily id the source.

They just don't want to. These robo-callers are the only people buying land-lines anymore. As always, it's about the $$$$$$$.

[IronLionZion]

26. FCC already mandated it, but it needs to be a law with some teeth to enforce it.

a Dem senate and president should be able to get it done.

[jimmil]

29. Every call made...

Creates what is called a "Call Detail Record," which has the number from which the call is made and the called number along with tons of other information (time stamp, off hook, on hook, features, etc.). You can't fake this information as much of it is in the actual database of the telco used in call setup.

[CloudWatcher]

30. Yes ... but!

I asked an expert friend who knows much more than I about this, his response:

The problem is that the call detail basically stops at the VoIP portals. Technically there are usually records somewhere of the POTS segment but most of these calls originate outside of that, often in foreign countries via shady telecoms.

So I expect that tracing beyond the Voice-over-IP gateway is hit-or-miss depending on the VoIP provider and actual source of the calls.

Right now I'd be tempted to block every VoIP system until a robust fix is implemented!

[FakeNoose]

18. Some of the spam calls are spoofing other *real* phone numbers

I have Nomorobo which is really good at identifying spam and fake robo-dialed calls. But even my software gets fooled once in a while, and it looks like the call is coming from a friend or a neighbor, you don't always know.

Once I have identified the spam callers I can block their numbers. But these spoofers call repeatedly, using a different number ID each time. It's very annoying.

I've gotten to the point where I let every call go to voicemail unless I recognize the name of the caller. I agree that the phone companies should take more responsibility in stopping these thieves. A lot of them are out of the country, so I don't know if they will ever be prosecuted. But they can be stopped.

[CloudWatcher]

22. I've had spam go out from my number

More than once I've gotten calls from irate people that have been called from my phone number. I have to explain to them that they've been lied to, that caller-id cannot be trusted, and that no, I did not call them.

I'm not sure they always believe me

[FarPoint]

3. I'd say...

Most people screen their calls and let it go to voicemail...

[oswaldactedalone]

4. I have a pretty good idea who the unidentified caller is

and he goes by the moniker of: "Individual 1."

[CloudWatcher]

6. I believe you meant "Индивидуальный 1" n/t

[oswaldactedalone]

11. Well-played

[boilinmad]

8. Sounds like...

...little Jacob Wohl is making one last splash before he goes to prison where he belongs.

[VA_Jill]

15. My first thought

Wohl and Burkman. Or that little shit-ass O'Keefe.

[csziggy]

9. Did Wohl and his buddy set up a sleeper computer to make these calls?

They sound about like what the two were doing before they got caught.

[SnowCritter]

12. My wife said she got this call yesterday

but the joke's on them - we turned in our ballots a couple of weeks ago.

[EllieBC]

13. I got one of those on Friday and I'm in Canada.

But am registered to vote in California. That’s the exact cal I got. Creepy computerized female voice saying to stay home.

[LiberalLovinLug]

16. Yes, the AntiFa and BLM "terrorists" will be out roaming the streets looking for red hats!

So if you are planning on heading out to vote for the Orange Emperor, better think twice.

[truthisfreedom]

19. I received several of these calls.

They’re still on my answering machine.

[FakeNoose]

31. Can you get the number where the call originated from?

I ask because it's a good thing to complain to the phone company about. However if you can't tell them when you got the calls or who they came from, they can't/won't do much.

We need to make the phone companies responsible for stopping this illegal and annoying activity. I pay my phone bill so I can use my phone. Not for assholes to annoy me with useless messages.

[Initech]

20. If you don't know who it is, don't answer it!

I get so many robodialers, telemarketers, and scam callers that I am almost immediately suspicious of anyone who's phone numbers I don't know.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. Stay home? In Michigan? Not today!

Today in Michigan (S.E. area), the weather is perfect for standing in a line waiting to vote. A phone loaded with music, some earbuds, and the time will flow while you wait to fill in the circle for the Democratic slate.

I just drove past a high school that holds a couple of voting precincts. There were a number of cars, but no lines that extended out the doors. If I hadn't voted absentee, I think I'd be in and out in about ten minutes.

Did I mention that the weather is absolutely perfect? Cool, sunny, a nice fall day. Get out and vote.

[NoRoadUntravelled]

23. Hmm.....I can't imagine who would be behind such a thing.

[sandensea]

27. What a conundrum, right?

"Can you believe it, Vlad? We electronically switch their votes, and they'd rather pretend it never happened than actually do anything!"

"What a country!"

[NoRoadUntravelled]

32. Exactly!

nt

[royable]

28. I predict that at some point in the future, an investigation will turn up that the robocalls were...

...funded either by Russia, the RNC or the drumpf campaign (but I'm repeating myself).

[jayfish]

33. So, I had an Interesting Thing Happen Tonight.

I went to pick up dinner tonight and the two employees working the counter were way younger than me. While I was waiting I asked them if they were old enough to vote. They said "yes" then I asked "did you vote yet?" One of them said "yes" the other said... "no I haven't yet, I have to work tonight." I thought to myself "he doesn't have much time". ...as in, he wasn't going to make it. That's when he said "I'm just going to go tomorrow". I was flabbergasted. I just didn't know what to say. I chalked it up to pure ignorance and left in shock. I should have put two and two together and asked him what on Earth lead him to believe he could vote the day after the election.