At some point I had this idea that this could be stopped by simply charging for phone calls. This concept isn't fully worked out in my mind; in rough strokes, it goes something like this:
Everyone charges $1 to receive a call. You can setup a system whereby anyone in your address book isn't charged or receives a credit immediately.
For those not in your address book, receiving a call-back balances out the transaction. In other words, if your plumber leaves you a message and you call them back, nobody incurs a cost. It is my guess that, on average, for legitimate players, this per-call charge would be minimal. For others it might end-up being a reasonable cost of doing business.
Another method: On a smart phone it would be very easy to display a screen once you hang up with the question "Charge for this call?" and two buttons "Yes" and "No". Simple.
The idea is that garbage calls from marketing operations or scammers who today can make millions of calls for virtually nothing, would now incur real and significant costs.
Like I said, not fully hashed-out. I just think that without a non-trivial cost associated with making millions of calls, they will continue to happen.
Everyone charges $1 to receive a call. You can setup a system whereby anyone in your address book isn't charged or receives a credit immediately.
For those not in your address book, receiving a call-back balances out the transaction. In other words, if your plumber leaves you a message and you call them back, nobody incurs a cost. It is my guess that, on average, for legitimate players, this per-call charge would be minimal. For others it might end-up being a reasonable cost of doing business.
Another method: On a smart phone it would be very easy to display a screen once you hang up with the question "Charge for this call?" and two buttons "Yes" and "No". Simple.
The idea is that garbage calls from marketing operations or scammers who today can make millions of calls for virtually nothing, would now incur real and significant costs.
Like I said, not fully hashed-out. I just think that without a non-trivial cost associated with making millions of calls, they will continue to happen.