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A contest to combat robocalls

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Zapping Rachel from Cardholder Services“Rachel from Cardholder Services” is one of the most notorious — and most annoying — robocallers ever. Advances in technology have made it cheap and easy for Rachel and her buddies to send out thousands of calls every minute — and to spoof caller ID information, hiding their true location and identity. It’s the perfect environment for telephone spam.

Because technology is the crux of the problem, the FTC is tapping one of the world’s largest hacking conferences for some high-caliber technical support. The FTC is sponsoring a contest at DEF CON 22 in Las Vegas, Aug. 7-10, to inspire innovative tech solutions in the fight against illegal robocalls.

Zapping Rachel challenges the tech community to develop robust, cutting-edge robocall honeypots (information systems designed to attract robocallers) that can help researchers and investigators understand and minimize illegal calls. The contest is divided into three phases:

  1. Create: Build a robocall honeypot by Friday, 8/8, at noon PDT
  2. Attack:  Identify a honeypot’s security vulnerabilities by Saturday, 8/9, at noon PDT
  3. Detect: Analyze data from an existing robocall honeypot by Saturday, 8/9, at 7 pm PDT

For more details about the contest — and to review contest FAQs — visit


Could not happen to a better honeypot!!!

Get Rid of them Robocalls!!!

please find a solution. They now even use my own phone ID for incoming calls -- or another local number that is no longer in service. This is very annoying, multiple times a day.

I have the same thing... plus I have credit card companies calling searching for people.. some with my last name.. others just evidently random searches.. Very annoying... And yes, something should be done about spoofing... Why say spoofing is against the law if nothing is going to be done about it....

Yes, I just got a Rachel call with my phone number as the ID, and I have gotten at least 3 calls per week from this with various numbers including local land lines that are no longer in service and the old user's name is still on the id!! We are a small town of 3500 people and you think it's someone local and pick up!

Just received a call from my own number - how??? what??? I answered & it was Rachel of cardholder services!!! These imbeciles never give up!!! I always block their numbers but I can't block my own phone number!!! urgh!!! This is an extremely infuriating invasion of our privacy so when is something going to be done about it??? Why should these scum bags be allowed to get away with it????

I'm with you. I've been harassed on all my phone numbers. DoNotCall does not work. FCC is a weak piece of government. May be we should defund the FCC if they can't even stop Rachael from Cardholder Services.

Why are we funding this branch of government if they can't do their job?

You do realize this is the FTC not the FCC, don't you? Check this website for the actions the FTC is taking to stop these calls. They aren't relying on Do Not Call which is for the small offenders.

I got a call from "me" to "me" too! Now they call my cell phone # with numbers like: +999999999 & +6607336585. I can't put call reject on a different # every day!!!!

Yes I have the same exact probly at least 3 times a week! I hate it and am sick of it too

Just got a call from Rachel using my home phone on the caller ID. How do they do that? Sick of it. Multiple times a day. Where is the NSA?

One of the easiest things -- and it would seem to be common sense -- is to force the phone companies to disable Caller ID spoofing. That's one of the major problems, and getting rid of spoofing would solve a lot of the issues.

I get robocalls all tne time. I wonder if having an answering machine encourages robocalls - because upon reaching my answering machine identifies my number as a legitimate number. That seems to me to be a "honeypot" - the answering machine "attracts" the robocalls.

Fantastic! I am so sick of this call! The number they use is a fax number! Cannot even call them back.

Robo calls from entities who don't have a business relationship to the person or number called, are an invasion of privacy and should be treated as such. Consumers shouldn't have to screen calls made to a phone number that WE pay to use.

Thank you from the community of telephone users!
Rachael and all of the others who support and implement these calls are the biggest contributors to telephone rage. I cannot tell you how distressing it is to get home and have 7 messages and ALL of them be from those illegally calling me. I have been on the DoNotCall list for several years, but the problem has become worse with each passing year!

What is even more distressing is that some of these calls now come from Healthcare related organizations. This says to me that they are not as interested in the customer as they are in getting ANYONE to buy their product!

Have at it, This will be the greatest public service you have ever done!


Great! need help fast

SCAMMSS stated in Chico 5 years ago when MENTAL DISABLED IN wheelchair started to have MEETINGS in a Senior complex till I became a VICTIM since I notice sort of GANG activities' , noises from those mental and one by one they got in this WALKER COMMON started collecting cans and walked till Safeway parking lot as early as 5 am. then MY PG &E went up to $50 plus /month I noticed if I dial Chico police apt 45 coupled argued and everyone heard the are having problems pretending doing in the garden so I UNPLUGGED the phone and I noticed WEN(man) walking in and out and towards my apt, pretending helping the acting manager ALL of us does not like these manager. SO THESE WHEELCHAIRS ARE GROUPOING MEETING FROM 5PM TILL 10PM and they are now grouping in apartment 38 every afternoon like a GANG related. and the master KEY got to have a copy to these people and HUD won't believed on us
So from internet to ph. line these apartment 54 $ 45 has all the master key and they OPRN the main switch in break room.
These are CRIMINAL act and we loose all Business in US and jobs.

I'm not sure what this means.

Suuuure you don't. Or is it you're GANG RELATED your own self? Where were you from 5PM to 10PM anyway? Maybe PG&E? Hmmm?

I have already registered 72 hours ago and keep getting the calls. How do I stop the calls?

It says that it takes 31 days to be removed from telemarketer lists.

No it does not. They electronically check against the data base and doesn't even take 72 hours but that is the time they give you

These people should be hunted down, tried as the criminals that they are and let us who have been so bothered by the calls, serve on the jury.-

This problem should be attacked at the source, not the end station. The phone carriers know the originating phone numbers. No matter what spoofed Caller ID number is attached to the robocall by the telemarketer, the phone carriers accept these calls onto the public switched telephone network from the phone numbers leased from the phone carriers by the telemarketers or their agents.

i agree!! i believe the telecommunications providers (of phone service) are capable of fixing their spoofable laughable broken "caller i.d." service, but as long as we the gullible consumers keep paying for it as is, they'll never fix it........i mean, really, why do we pay them to provide info like "1-626-123-4567" for the caller's number, it is obviously an invalid number

My sentiments exactly. This needs to be stopped at the source. Telecommunications companies who allow these spoofed number calls to come through to millions of phone numbers who are on the "do not call" registry. I can't imagine that the long arm of the federal government is incapable of tracking down "Racheal," et. al and taking care of this problem in short order. Between my home and cell phones, I get at least 6-10 calls every single day, and it's making me crazy.

The phone companies are making money off of the robocalls, they aren't interested in doing anything about them!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I know we don't have an answer yet, but thanks for being proactive and helping find a solution! I don't want to give in and change my number. Let's find a solution and end this nonsense.

Latest dirty trick. When you ask them to stop calling, they give you a phone number they say you can call to be removed from their calling list. It turns out the number belongs to a guy who has nothing to do with this outfit and they are just harassing him.

Ouch. That is dirty. I just got rachel from card holder services a few minutes ago... a robocall. I don't have any credit cards.

I just added my home land-line to the Do Not Call list over a week ago.

I have been harassed for approx. 1 & 1/2 years. I have just hung up many times, pressed #1 & asked them not to call and they hang up in my face every time before I could say but a couple of words. They know people are irritated. After that the calls become deliberate harassment.These calls invade our privacy and make us feel violated especially after they go on sooo long for some of us.
PLEASE help us. This is so wrong and criminal especially for those of us that are elderly or sickly.

i complain that the numbers that appear in my caller id when i get one of these robocalls or other obvious scam calls lead to disconnected numbers,,,,,it could be worse, what if one of these fraudsters decide that they're going to send out MY phone number as the number they're calling from......oh the horror!

While reading all of the other comments,they repeat how I feel over and over. I, too, have been harassed for 1&1/2 to 2 years. IT IS NOT JUST RAChel,there is Carmen, bridgette,& sometimes no name, just card service.
Someone mentioned that maybe the calls bother those of us who have message machines??
I have also thought of changing my number but have had it for so many years,plus,my phone co.said after some people have changed their number the calls continue -what a joke on us. IT HAS BECOME PURE HARASSMENT AFTER YOU ASK THEM NOT TO CALL.

HELP US PLEASE. it has been going on for almost 2 years.
I was told if you change your number they still call.


I tracked down a couple of these calls by pressing *69
And cost $1.50 every time. Two of these calls came from a local elderly lady's home#. They spoofed her# of course. Another one they spoofed came from my health care provider.
We have such brillant humans in this country surely they can outwit these criminals. Get someone like Bill Gates involved,please.
We need help out here especially for those of us
up in age and have health issues.

Please update us on the contest results. Do you have a phone number or physical location for us?

We'll provide an update with the contest results very soon -- in a new blog post. If you want to get all the lastest news and tips from the FTC, be sure to sign up for our email updates.

Thank God someone is really starting to fight back against these "low-life bottom feeders". I'm so sick of their calls I'm forced to disconnect my phones to get a good nights sleep ( I work nights). Pushing "3" is no help, pushing "1" and asking to be put on their "Do not call list" is no help either. Although I have no credit problems, they just keep calling. Please.. Make them stop.

They're still calling three times a day. Why hasn't the FBI deployed SWAT teams to shoot them?

Do these people really make any money doing this? They are like religious groups coming to the door to convert you. Certainly, nobody says to themselves "these people have annoyed the crap out of me, I think I will sign up and ask for more"

They make the money. If you ever did telemarketing, you'd understand why. In West Virginia, there's this town called Triadelphia. Your elementary school had more people in it than this town does but it does have one of the largest call centers (DialAmerica or something) for credit cards and phone services in the country. Hundereds of people drive in from all over the county several times a day to work a five hour shift there. All you do during your shift is wait for a person to get on the line and try to lead them through a credit application or get them to buy phone services (like caller ID!) A couple times in every shift, there's somebody who's old or doesn't speak the english or whatever who thinks they're supposed to do what you're telling them to do.

The Cardholder Services/now spoofers have been calling me since 2008. When I'm in the mood, I like to press #3, and when a rep gets on the phone I scream as loud as I can into the phone. It makes me feel much better! An air horn might be effective as well.

I do the same thing. The problem is when you do that they know they have a good number and the calls keep coming. I got rid of my home phone. Also got a new cell phone. Suddenly I'm getting these calls on my cell phone. You think maybe the cell phone provider has given out my number? Hummmmm!

There is a way to stop them!! And, it's so EASY!! I have called my senators and representatives. We need a law that requires telecom companies to display an actual business name and phone number for commercial accounts. This should be on the telecom server and businesses should not be allowed to change the caller ID displayed by their numbers.
This would allow us to report abusers to the FCC. A few big fines and criminal prosecutions would get rid of these slime molds.
Please call your senators!!!!

Spoofing is against the law... the law simply isn't enforced. The police departments have the equipment to trace the real phone numbers ... but they won't bother with it.... It's too much work and not enough rewards... it's easier to just set up speed traps to make money....


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