I've been ignoring the spam calls I get. I get my share to my landline. They usually hang up after 3-4 rings. On my Caller ID display, they mostly show OUT OF AREA or UNAVAILABLE whether the area code is local or not. Many do show a personal name or name of a business. Toll-free numbers as well. Sometimes they arrive before 9am, sometimes after 9pm. Everybody knows all of this, right? But now a few of them are ringing the full 8 rings it takes to reach my voicemail. More frequently this have been happening. Always a man with a foreign accent, something about me owing them 99 bucks, boiler room chatter in the background. It was when I had three of those voicemails within a 5 minute period is when I blew a head gasket. I had had enough.
I dug out my info packet that Qwest sent me back in 2005 when I first got their Qwest Home Choice Plus (product grandfathered as of June 18, 2010; today CenturyLink offers Home Phone Unlimited which has a non-identical assortment of Custom Calling features) and I found out that all along I have had this feature available to me called Security Screen. Two levels Standard and Advanced. I read up on it and four days ago I activated the Advanced Setting.
In four days I have had NOT ONE spam phone call. Well, except one Caller ID entry from ST OF TN, a government number in Tennessee, I checked. I wonder if govt numbers will get though. But, other than that, no more spam calls like described above. My house is quiet! This is great!
It would be perfect except for one thing. The Caller ID. When Security Screen is turned off, like it has been all of these years, if a call came in from a landline, I would see the callers name and number (Smith John 206-nnn-nnnn). That was great. If they called from a cell phone, I would see their city and state and the number (Seattle WA 206-nnn-nnnn). That was only okay.
With Security Screen set on Advanced, each caller hears this message:
"The party you are calling does not accept unidentified calls. If you are a solicitor, please hang up now. Otherwise, please enter your 10-digit telephone number."
They would enter their number and the call would arrive to me.
However, I have found that Caller ID displays differently when Security Screen is turned on (SS=ON). I have called up several intra-lata friends and had them call me from their landlines and their cell phones. Here's what I can say with Security Screen ON:
1) From every landline, Caller ID displays "SECURITY SCREEN 206-nnn-nnnn".
2) From every cell phone except one, it displays the same as when SS=OFF: city and state plus their number (for example, EVERETT WA 425-nnn-nnnn). As if they "bypassed" the Security Screen.
3) My cellphone callers who bypassed the Security Screen were using AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. They each geographically reside within the same area code as their cellphone numbers (The AT&T, TMOB and VZN live in 206. One TMOB lives in 425.) My phone number is 206.
4) The one cell phone caller who encountered the Security Screen was also Verizon but geographically resided in a different area code (425) than his cell number (206). If that made for the difference than the other Verizon 206 caller, I do not know.
Anyway, now NOBODY's names show up. Crap, I don't want to memorize whose landline phone numbers are whose! I mean, that's why I have caller ID! I found online a CL info flyer for Security Screen:
https://www.centurylink.com/asset/home/help/user-guides/SecurityScreenAdv_en.pdf
You will note it pictorially shows the Caller ID would display either the words (*SECURITY SCREEN) or will display the caller's name with as asterisk next to it to signify it was a screened call (*John Sample). You will also notice which one you get is explained there as follows:
"If the Caller ID system can identify a coordinating name for the number the caller entered, the display will show it with an asterisk (*); otherwise, you will see “Security Screen” on the display."
Well, as far as I'm concerned, the Caller ID system with SS=OFF had no problem identifying a coordinating name, so why can't it do the same with SS=ON?
I note they did not word it as an identification performed by Security Screen but as a identification performed by the Caller ID system.
Today, I called CenturyLink Repair and asked them WHY can't I have the name show up? What is the reason that I can't have this? I explained that this Security Screen would be an awesome solution to spam calls except now I would have to memorize numbers or else seek a different solution, and I have this spam problem to resolve. He asked his nearby Upper Tier who said that it is standard to see SECURITY SCREEN. I replied ok, but my question is WHY can't I have the asterisked name when your flyer shows that I can have it? I asked as well, who therefore are the customers who get the asterisked name and why can't I be one of them when we already know that I do get the name when SS=OFF? I chose to nicely apologize if I was somehow annoying him by pressing for this but can he go back to his Upper Tier as I think that person doesn't know what I know. He checked with his Upper Tier again, came back and said my Security Screen is functioning normally, etc. and gave me the same type of words as before, pretty much a go-away-and-don't-make-us-have-to-spend-time-on-this response.
I asked him if he can refer me to a Marketing person? He didn't have any contacts (I knew he wouldn't, I know the drill.) Again I apologetically asked if there is anyone who can help me because I have this spam problem. He offered to open a ticket which he did. I asked him what was typical turn around time and he said 24 hours. I didn't make him read to me what he typed on the ticket but I have a fear that I may get a call to my voicemail from someone who again completely misses my question but closes the ticket. Pessimistically, I know the drill.
I found this comment elsewhere on this forum and it supports my position, that my local company has the caller's name to give to me whether SS is On or Off:
"Caller ID (CID) has two components, a phone number and a name (referred to as CNAM). What most people don't know is that both pieces of this information are not sent together from the originating carrier. The originating carrier only sends the CID phone number to the receiving carrier. They do not send the CNAM info. It's up to the receiving carrier to add the CNAM info to the CID data stream just before it's delivered to your phone. Most of the larger telcos (carriers) maintain their own CNAM database servers which are routinely updated. Some smaller carriers contract with another party to provide the CNAM database service for them."
So, I'm waiting on CenturyLink's ticketed response.
By the way, I tested with my friends the 4-digit Privileged Caller Code mentioned in that flyer. Once they encounter the Security Screen message and enter the code, they hear "Thank you" and it rings through to me but, no matter who places the call to me, for all such calls my Caller ID shows the same message, "PRIVILEGED CALL 000-000-0000". Yes, all zeroes. So, if you give out this PCC to more than one person, you will never know which person is using it! Makes it even less valuable than if they did not use the PCC. Oh sure, you save your caller from pressing 6 more digits but look what you lose as the called party!
Now, let's think about that. Since the calling party does NOT provide their 10-digit number, the receiving carrier cannot match it to a CNAM so of course they could not display a name and of course their Security Screen program had no 10-digit number to fowrd to my Caller ID display. That would explain the resulting "PRIVILEGED CALL 000-000-0000".
This also suggests to me that it is somewhere within the actual program of the Security Screen feature, and in spite of their wording of their flyer it is not within the actual program of the Caller ID feature, where an opportunity to take the caller-entered 10-digit number then retrieve its CNAM could have been performed but was not programmed to do so. Hence, I get "SECURITY SCREEN" every time with landline callers. That could explain what is happening but I do don't really know and don't want to excuse CL from providing me an answer.
More detail on Security Screen is found here:
https://www.centurylink.com/wholesale/clecs/features/security_screen.html
If anyone reading this has the facts of why I cannot have the CNAM with SS=ON, I appreciate your input. But, I will hope you also can explain what are the circumstances where customers DO receive the asterisked name as pictorially shown in that CL flyer. My Local Serving Office is 5ES.
Maybe someone can separately explain why cell phone callers bypass the Security Screen except for my one friend.
Yeah, I know, I need a life. But, once I got mad at the spam, I got tenacious.
Thank you.
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