Allow only calls to Google Voice to be accepted at CallCentric?

[Ember1205]

I have everything configured and running with my old home number being ported in to Google Voice and I am using CallCentric as a forwarding phone so that I can use the anti-SPAM controls and Call Screening of Google Voice.

Once thing that I want to be able to do is to allow my CC number to ONLY accept calls that are forwarded from GV. Is this sort of thing possible?

Basically, NO ONE should have or be using my CC number. Period.

[drgeoff]

I think the only way to do that will result in you not receiving the original caller's CID.  All calls will show as from your GV number.

1.  At google.com/voice go to Settings, then the 'Calls' tab and under 'Caller ID (Incoming)' select the 'Display my Google Voice number'

2.  At the Callcentric Dashboard, set up two Call Treatments.  Make the first act on calls with CID matching your GV number to send them to your OBi.  Make the second to send all calls to 'Error message: number disconnected'.  Ensure the first one is listed above the second.

[Ember1205]

Thanks... I know that I could change as you've described but specifically do NOT want that.

I've been doing some additional reading here, and I see that the Telemarketer Block on CC uses Early Media (like GV does with the Call Screening). Since GV will ignore Early Media use from any forwarded-to number (like CC), the Telemarketer Block is essentially useless for calls forwarded from GV. However, it would still work with calls direct to the CC DID.

Assuming that is true, I wonder if I could create a Call Treatment that would work just like the Telemarketer Block and forward to a non-ringing extension or similar.

[SteveInWA]

I have been using Callcentric with Google Voice for years.  In all that time, I have received less than 10 calls that someone either mistakenly or intentionally placed directly to the CC number.

It really isn't worth worrying about.  If you see an inbound caller ID that you don't recognize or that looks flaky, then just don't answer it.

[Ember1205]

I have been using Callcentric with Google Voice for years.  In all that time, I have received less than 10 calls that someone either mistakenly or intentionally placed directly to the CC number.

It really isn't worth worrying about.  If you see an inbound caller ID that you don't recognize or that looks flaky, then just don't answer it.

Sometimes, you get a phone number that's recycled from someone that was on a lot of lists you don't want to be on. Just looking for options in case that turns out to be the case with this number.

[Taoman]

Assuming that is true, I wonder if I could create a Call Treatment that would work just like the Telemarketer Block and forward to a non-ringing extension or similar.

You could but how is the call treatment going to differentiate between a call forwarded from your GV number or a call made directly to your Callcentric DID? That was the issue that drgeoff's post was addressing.

As Steve said, this is rarely an issue with CC free DIDs. This is how I deal with it. I made a Call Treatment that acts on group membership and redirects the call to "Error message: Number disconnected." If I ever get a telespammer (I never do) to my CC DID I go to the CC Call Records and add that number to my Phone Book from there. I then go into my Phone Book and add that record to my spam group which the Call Treatment acts on. Not an elegant solution but it does take care of that particular number with a few mouse clicks.

[SteveInWA]

Assuming that is true, I wonder if I could create a Call Treatment that would work just like the Telemarketer Block and forward to a non-ringing extension or similar.

You could but how is the call treatment going to differentiate between a call forwarded from your GV number or a call made directly to your Callcentric DID? That was the issue that drgeoff's post was addressing.

As Steve said, this is rarely an issue with CC free DIDs. This is how I deal with it. I made a Call Treatment that acts on group membership and redirects the call to "Error message: Number disconnected." If I ever get a telespammer (I never do) to my CC DID I go to the CC Call Records and add that number to my Phone Book from there. I then go into my Phone Book and add that record to my spam group which the Call Treatment acts on. Not an elegant solution but it does take care of that particular number with a few mouse clicks.

+1 -- exactly what I do.

While I very rarely get unwanted calls to my CC free NY DID, I also have two former local POTS lines ported to Callcentric, and I do get spammed occasionally on those lines.  I simply add those callers' numbers to my CC phone book as members of a "spam" group.

[Ember1205]

Again - I was looking for ways to deal with being SPAMMED. An occasional call or misdial is easy to deal with like you've described and how I deal with it on my cell phone.

I was interested in knowing if there was "more" that I could have at my disposal, and the answer is no.

There is identifying information when the call first comes in to know that it has been forwarded. Those with Android cell phones that use Google Voice are aware as they see calls to their GV number indicate on initial ring that it is a forwarded call. CallCentric does not expose this information for consumption, so it's a non-starter.

Appreciate the responses.

[Ember1205]

Let the SPAMMING begin.

I am now getting quite a few calls to my CC number (completely bypassing the rules that I have built into GV, and which are working very well).

I need a solution that doesn't require a ton of maintenance to add processing rules at CC that will keep the robodialers, scammers, telemarketers, and SPAMMERS away. Anyone have an idea?

[SteveInWA]

Go to https://www.nomorobo.com/

Sign up. Tell nomorobo that you use Vonage (nomorobo doesn't know that Callcentric supports simultaneous ring but they know that Vonage does; that's all that matters to them).  Enter your Callcentric DID number.  Write down the nomorobo number it assigns to you.

Edit your Callcentric call treatment for calls that you are forwarding from Google Voice to Callcentric.  You should have this as your last call treatment in the list, and it should now be forwarding calls to the CC DID extension that is set up on your OBi.

Add a rule to simultaneously ring the nomorobo number.

[Ember1205]

Thanks for the response, SteveInWa.

I've had NMR before, and it sort of worked but I hated the fact that it always rang my phone once. Is there a way to get the Obi or even CC to ignore the first ring for those calls that are being forwarded to NMR?

I think I'm going to get to work on writing a script to sync my GV Contacts to the CC Phone Book... This is frustrating.

[SteveInWA]

Thanks for the response, SteveInWa.

I've had NMR before, and it sort of worked but I hated the fact that it always rang my phone once. Is there a way to get the Obi or even CC to ignore the first ring for those calls that are being forwarded to NMR?

I think I'm going to get to work on writing a script to sync my GV Contacts to the CC Phone Book... This is frustrating.

We've given you several solutions to minimize the inconvenience of robocallers.  It's never going to be perfect.  Think of the single ring as if you are playing the video game DOOM, and the ring sound you hear is the sound of your blasting the caller with your BFG.  Embrace it.  There are so many more important things to worry about in life.

[Taoman]

I've had NMR before, and it sort of worked but I hated the fact that it always rang my phone once. Is there a way to get the Obi or even CC to ignore the first ring for those calls that are being forwarded to NMR?

Use the Spam Probability ratings from TrueCNAM that Callcentric provides.
Make a call treatment that says any call with a Spam call probability rating of Medium or High gets routed to "Error message: Number disconnected." Place this call treatment above any Nomorobo call treatment you might make.

Note: My experience has been that TrueCNAM catches about 75% of the calls that Nomorobo catches. So you still need the simulring Nomorobo call treatment as your last call treatment. But when TrueCNAM blocks a call the phone won't ring at all.

Also, routing to "Error message: Number disconnected" only works with calls directly to your CC DID number. It uses early media so the message won't be heard for calls forwarded from Google Voice. For that I route to Calling Card which is actually quite effective.

[Ember1205]

Thanks, Taoman.

I have created an address book called "Blocked" that I have been manually adding numbers into. These -happen- to only be numbers that have called the CC number directly and didn't dial through GV. There's a reasonable chance that the rules I have in GV would have discouraged if not prevented the call. I didn't realize that it wouldn't work with GV calls that were forwarded, but that's ok because I directly block those numbers in GV anyhow AND add them to the CC phone book.

The TrueCNAM SPAM ratings for all of these numbers is "Low". Is there someplace we can click a link or submit a report to get the probability rating raised? Because all of my issues are with numbers that are being classified as "Low", I hadn't yet put in the SPAM rating based treatment, but I guess I should. 

CC allows me to have the phone book, and I can import phone books instead of manually typing things in. I've even found a script to auto-download my GV Contacts to a CSV file, but am finding absolutely nothing in the way of a similar script to auto-upload the resulting CSV file.

My hope would be to ultimately achieve an ideal with being able to ONLY route calls through CC if the users is in my Allowed phone book, directly blocking numbers that I've pointedly shut down, and everyone else just sort of sits in limbo and then goes to voicemail. By adding a number in GV to the Allowed list, and it syncing over to CC, updates would be reasonably quick and very easy. It's this last piece that I haven't found any sort of solution for as of yet.

Maybe we could all hit CC up with a feature request to allow the CC system to read our contacts directly out of our Google accounts. 

[SteveInWA]

I've had NMR before, and it sort of worked but I hated the fact that it always rang my phone once. Is there a way to get the Obi or even CC to ignore the first ring for those calls that are being forwarded to NMR?

Also, routing to "Error message: Number disconnected" only works with calls directly to your CC DID number. It uses early media so the message won't be heard for calls forwarded from Google Voice. For that I route to Calling Card which is actually quite effective.

Good point, and btw, I only use Google's own "Global Spam Filter" feature for my GV calls.  I don't do any additional processing on those calls when forwarded to CC, and I haven't found it to be a significant issue.  As always, YMMV.

A bit OT, but another great tool for blocking calls to smartphones is the "Hiya" app (it was formerly known as "Whitepages", but I guess millennials have never seen a paper phone book, so they had to change the name).  It uses a combination of third party data broker information and the FCC and FTC spam caller lists.  It's extremely effective.

[Taoman]

A bit OT, but another great tool for blocking calls to smartphones is the "Hiya" app (it was formerly known as "Whitepages", but I guess millennials have never seen a paper phone book, so they had to change the name).  It uses a combination of third party data broker information and the FCC and FTC spam caller lists.  It's extremely effective.

Agreed. That app keeps getting better and better. The cynic in me wonders when it will start being ad driven and you'll have to pay to remove the ads.

[SteveInWA]

CC allows me to have the phone book, and I can import phone books instead of manually typing things in. I've even found a script to auto-download my GV Contacts to a CSV file, but am finding absolutely nothing in the way of a similar script to auto-upload the resulting CSV file.

My hope would be to ultimately achieve an ideal with being able to ONLY route calls through CC if the users is in my Allowed phone book, directly blocking numbers that I've pointedly shut down, and everyone else just sort of sits in limbo and then goes to voicemail. By adding a number in GV to the Allowed list, and it syncing over to CC, updates would be reasonably quick and very easy. It's this last piece that I haven't found any sort of solution for as of yet.

Maybe we could all hit CC up with a feature request to allow the CC system to read our contacts directly out of our Google accounts. 

You don't need a script to export the contacts used by Google Voice.  Google Voice uses the same overall Google Contacts system as Gmail and Calendar.  You can simply go to Gmail, click the word "Gmail" under "Google" on the left, select "Contacts", which takes you to this page:  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#contacts and then click the "More" button and select "Export".  The main difficulty with this is that it creates a messy CSV file, that you would then have to manipulate with some Excel smarts to turn it into the format that Callcentric's phone book import function expects.

Google does have an API that allows third parties to access your Google Contacts and sync them to some other destination.  That's what Obihai uses to import Google Contacts directly to the OBi IP phones' address books.

[Taoman]

The TrueCNAM SPAM ratings for all of these numbers is "Low". Is there someplace we can click a link or submit a report to get the probability rating raised? Because all of my issues are with numbers that are being classified as "Low", I hadn't yet put in the SPAM rating based treatment, but I guess I should. 

Well that sucks. Really makes me wonder of Nomorobo would have blocked them. You really should try using NMR. I'd rather put up with a single ring than being bugged by telespammers.

Yes, place your mouse cursor over "Low" and it magically turns into Report. You can then report that it's spam and also leave a comment.

[SteveInWA]

A bit OT, but another great tool for blocking calls to smartphones is the "Hiya" app (it was formerly known as "Whitepages", but I guess millennials have never seen a paper phone book, so they had to change the name).  It uses a combination of third party data broker information and the FCC and FTC spam caller lists.  It's extremely effective.

Agreed. That app keeps getting better and better. The cynic in me wonders when it will start being ad driven and you'll have to pay to remove the ads.

I wondered about their business model, too.  I suspect that they use your calling history to help scrub their databases.  Just a guess, though.

[Ember1205]

The script to auto-download would be one half of the final "solution" with the second half being the upload to CC. My ideal would be to have someone new call, add their number via the GV app on my phone to my "Allowed Callers" group, and within 15 minutes that change would be synced to CC. The next time they call, they'd be put through directly instead of any Call Treatments or other things manipulating the call.