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6 Messages
Desperate to stop scam calls to my 90+ year old parents
I just went through a huge effort to close all my parents financial accounts and get them set up with new ones after they gave away all their account information to a phone scammer.
Have spent hours going around in circles talking to not very knowledgeable offshore representatives about 'Call Protect'. My parents have the "AT&T Phone Unlimited North America" service which is an internet / VOIP phone. The don't have mobile/cell phones and would have no clue how to operate a smartphone. I've tried dozens of times to turn on the 'Call Protect' Phone Feature and get an error message. I called agents three different time about this and could not get a straight answer. I was told after the third call that the 'Call Protect' was being phased out and being replaced by the 'Active Armor' app starting in February.
How can an app like 'Active Armor' that runs on an iPad connected to wifi have ability to block calls coming in on my parents VOIP line? My parents also have ATT internet. Has anyone had success using Call Protect on a VOIP line? The ATT web browser site presents Call Protect as an option so shouldn't that mean it's enabled and should work? Was Call Protect ever available to VOIP lines?
Call Protect is found by navigating from 'Manage home phone' from the main screen (after logging in) and clicking 'Call Protect' on the left. I've been an error message in the upper left corner of this screen so I guess it's chronically broken? Hope someone can give a knowledgeable answer. Offshore ATT agents have proven themselves to be useless for helping with problem so I'm on my own I guess.
Sorry for whining and complaining so much. Thank you.
ATTHelp
Community Support
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215.6K Messages
4 months ago
Hi there, JoeT1. We understand that your parents are getting scam calls. Let's look at that together.
First, ActiveArmor only protects the internet service, not the VOIP line. According to the information that we have, Call Protect is the correct course of action.
According to the screenshots it looks like you are attempting to activate it via the portal. That is the way to do it. In order to help you, we do need to ask what browser are you using? The reason why we need to know that is there is a quick tip located in the article, that if you are using IE, make sure that you upgrade to IE 11.
To start troubleshooting browser concerns, let's start with clearing the cache and cookies and browsing data. Once thing we would like to add is, after clearing the cache and cookies, close the browser down and wait 30 seconds and then reopen the browser and try again.
If after trying the browser troubleshooting, you are still unable to activate the Call Protect calling feature, then there is much more that we can do to help.
Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Matthew, AT&T Community Specialist
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JoeT1
New Member
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6 Messages
4 months ago
Hi Matthew,
I tried clearing the cache from both Edge and Chrome and same results. I'm not able to run IE is not able to run on my W10 machine. If I try it gets automatically shut down and Edge launches. I also tried shutting down my antivirus and add blocker and still the same results.
A 500 typically means a server error. When same problem happens with two different mainstream browsers then I'm not sure what else to try and do on my side.
Thanks.
Joe
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JoeT1
New Member
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6 Messages
4 months ago
Update #1
Tried again this morning and am see the same....
JSP Processing Error
HTTP Error Code: 500
'JSP' is JavaServer Pages and is server side software so am not inclined to call this a browser based scripting errror.
Saw a few other things worth noting below.
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sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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63.9K Messages
4 months ago
Just FYI, if you are ever successful in getting Call Protect activated, it won’t block any spam calls. All call protect on a digital landline will do is flag calls as “telemarketer” or “suspected spam” on the caller id. What you really need to do is get your parents to quit answering calls from numbers they don’t recognize. Since you have access to the portal, perhaps you can build their address book to build a list of numbers they should answer and convince them to not answer any others.
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JoeT1
New Member
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6 Messages
4 months ago
Thanks! After way to many hours of trying to deal directly with ATT I get a straight answer and from someone outside of ATT. I guess Call Protect is less than I was hoping for but it's still sounds like it will be helpful. I sure hope I can get it turned on.
I think to some extent he considers taking calls from scammers a form of entertainment but engaging with these people is like playing with fire. I'll have to take a deeper look at setting up a list of allowed numbers only but that also means it's likely some legitimate calls will be blocked.
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ATTHelp
Community Support
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215.6K Messages
4 months ago
Hi there, JoeT1. Thank you for coming back with the errors that we have requested. That helps alot.
In order to better assist you with the VOIP Portal, we would like to invite you to the AT&T Direct Message space.
You will see a chat icon, next to a bell icon, in the upper right of this thread, and next to your forums profile icon.
If you do not see the next message right away, please log out of your forums account and back in.
Looking forward to working with you soon.
Matthew, AT&T Community Specialist
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JoeT1
New Member
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6 Messages
4 months ago
Finally got an answer after some back and forth over several days on the Direct Messaging chat. Bottom line is Call Protect no longer available for VOIP. That is why I was getting the error. The only option is to use the manual call blocking feature which as I understand it will allow up to 100 numbers to be blocked.
The user interface is showing a feature that is not available and does not work. I've spent quite a few hours over the past two weeks trying to get to the bottom of what is happening here... I don't have to tell you want I think about all this. This is really messed up.
The problem with the scammers and rob callers is they are hijacking legitimate local numbers and are constantly changing numbers. I've been watching the Received Calls on call history and see about 10 of these types of calls coming in a day. They appear as 'WIRELESS CALLER' , 'Unavailable' or some local appearing number. Of the 60 or so incoming calls over the past 6 days it looks like about 50 of these number are unique and non-repeating numbers. I'm going to assume most of these are robo calls and or scammers. It's not really possible to effectively add these to the blocked caller list because they will never repeat. I sure wish there was an effective way to stop these calls.
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OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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20.7K Messages
4 months ago
@JoeT1 As a side note, Microsoft has just retired Internet Explorer and now links you to Edge.
If they in fact did give out their personal information to a scammer, then their phone number is a "hot" one and they can expect further calls unless you can do what @sandblaster suggested and maybe ATTHelp.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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25K Messages
4 months ago
Have you tried explaining to your parents (in the simplest terms) how and why these scam calls are happening? Do they have a phone with Caller ID? Do they have an answering machine?
Bottom line: THEY SHOULD NOT ANSWER "UNKNOWN NUMBERS" OR "WIRELESS NUMBERS" OR ANY OTHER NUMBER THEY DO NOT RECOGNIZE. Yes, the numbers are being 'spoofed' over and over and over again.
The world has changed since we (seniors) were navigating things. I'm sorry....but there are LOTS of nefarious individuals that are just looking for a trusting senior to scam out of their (our) hard earned money.
If they don't answer these unknown calls, the scammers will move on and if it's a legit call, they'll leave a message. I can't tell you how many times I see a number on my CID and say "I don't know anyone in that area code!" and just let my answering machine pick up. Most of the time, they hang up.
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JoeT1
New Member
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6 Messages
4 months ago
Gosh thanks for the quick replies. I didn't realize how active this forum really was. Dad knows from now on he is not supposed to pick up any calls unless they show up as ones he recognizes on caller ID. I'm having to place my faith in his 94 year old mind continuing to remember this rule. I sure would be lot more at ease if the calls just stopped coming in. Period. I am glad that I can at least monitor this calls received to see what the trend is and hopefully over time they will go down.
At this point I'm willing to have him switch to another phone company if they had a feature like 'Call Protect' that actually worked. I'm astounded that this was removed. Am feeling like I have to call my congressman or representative to ask that something be done through legislation.
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