VoIP Gatekeeper

[Pamblam]

Project description

I get too many spam calls. I've got dozens of telemarketers numbers blocked but new ones keep coming in. I want to build a phone and SMS relay with a web interface where I can login and whitelist or blacklist numbers. Some calls and texts would get forwarded to my cell phone and some would be marked as spam and ignored... or maybe the system could be configured to call them hundreds of times per day and waste their time with robocalls. Would be easy to make it play a message like "Press one to affirm you're not a robocaller or a solicitor" for calls from unknown numbers. I could then share the phone number for the application and keep my cell number private.

I've been meaning to make this myself for months but haven't gotten around to it. I will eventually do it myself if no one is interested in collaborating..

Relevant Technology

If I was going to do it I would use Twilio with either a Node or PHP server and a web front-end.

Who is this for

The tech required is all really simple.. I'd say, novice to intermediate.

Complexity and required time

Complexity

• [ ] Beginner - This project requires no or little prior knowledge of the technolog(y|ies) specified to contribute to the project
• [x] Intermediate - The user should have some prior knowledge of the technolog(y|ies) to the point where they know how to use it, but not necessarily all the nooks and crannies of the technology
• [ ] Advanced - The project requires the user to have a good understanding of all components of the project to contribute

Required time (ETA)

• [ ] Little work - A couple of days
• [x] Medium work - A week or two
• [ ] Much work - The project will take more than a couple of weeks and serious planning is required

[KOLANICH]

I had another idea on detering spam calls several days ago, unfortunately the editor crashed with several pages of text unsaved.

About your idea: If I remember right, the basebands plays sound directly to speakers without giving its digitized form to apps. This may be a conspiracy or a requirement of FCC, I don't know. Even if this may be fixable (just a guess) by modifying baseband firmware, doing this is a hard work and the results are usable only for that baseband. So we can't get sound, including DTMF one.

Usage of a third-party service is IMHO a solution which is worse than the problem it solves.

[Pamblam]

I am not trying to get into hardware here. what's wrong with using a third party service?

[ghoshabhi]

This can be done very easily using Twilio: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223180548-How-Can-I-Stop-Receiving-or-Block-Incoming-Phone-Calls-

[KOLANICH]

what's wrong with using a third party service?

privacy impact is

[Pamblam]

@KOLANICH I've used Twilio for both personal and professional applications for years. Their privacy policy is very reasonable (see here and here).

@ghoshabhi What I had in mind was a system that uses Twilio to forward calls and texts to my phone if they meet certain conditions. That said, we wouldn't really need to block any numbers on the Twilio side, we would just not forward them. I'd still want to keep a log of them though.