I presume they are purchasing these numbers from spark or whoever right? If I report a number they know who bought it, they know what other numbers they bought and they can disable all of them. Seems like a simple solution to me

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Nah, that's not how it works. Caller ID is surprisingly insecure. Basically, the phone number of the calling party is sent along with the phone call. All you need is special software in your call centre, and anyone you call will see whatever number you type in. So they set up software to automatically generate a phone number that appears to have a similar location to the one they are calling. They call you, it looks like it comes from NZ (or often Australia), but actually they are sitting in a call centre in pretty much any country in the world.

If someone is calling from overseas, there's very little that anyone in NZ can do. Call blocking only works on the caller ID; since you can generate infinite new phone numbers to send along the caller ID channel without needing to actually use that phone, it doesn't do a lot.

[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

How do they not generate already existing phone numbers?

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 years ago

They do, but the possible numbers compared to the ones saved on your phone mean it's unlikely to be one in your contacts. It probably happens occasionally though.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 years ago

I've seen comments from people who've gotten calls from themselves, as in they've spoofed the number they're calling.