LinkNYC on Truecaller: 29 Spam Reports and Counting

I don’t remember exactly why I installed the Truecaller app, which functions as a sort of CallerID on steroids. With the app installed you can get an immediate snapshot of who might be calling, how many other users of Truecaller have reported a number for spam, and other details. The app also lets anyone edit the identity of the incoming caller, I guess as an attempt to further shame spam callers. Truecaller users have identified calls from LinkNYC machines as coming from “LinkNYC Spy Kiosk”. At present 29 users have flagged calls from LinkNYC as spam. I don’t know if 29 spam reports is particularly high compared to others but the number has increased since early March, when it was at 27.

A couple of months ago I pointed out that my cell phone could not be reached using LinkNYC’s free phone call feature. Obviously that changed, or I wouldn’t be able to report this. Calls to my phone and countless others did not work from mid-November through at least January, after LinkNYC switched VOIP carrier from Vonage to RingCentral. Since at least early March most calls I’ve attempted from LinkNYC to my phone have worked.

I would think that a lot of spam calls appearing to come from LinkNYC machines actually originate from spoofed CallerID robocalls, not from the machines themselves. In the early days of LinkNYC each machine had a unique phone number in the 646 area code. After I pointed it out on this website the CallerID on LinkNYC machines changed to 212-477-3063. Today calls from LinkNYC look like they originated in Ithaca, New York, at 607-216-9781.

I always questioned why they shrouded the whole network behind fake CallerID, or what value comes from making it impossible for normal people to identify the physical locations of these kiosks. Putting all the LinkNYC machines under the same CallerID, as opposed to assigning unique numbers to each machine, greatly increases the chance of all calls from the entire network being flagged as spam.

In May of last year Patch.com listed LinkNYC’s old CallerID among the most reported source of robocalls and spam. If Truecaller and other sources are any indication it looks like 607-216-9781 will reach a similar milestone.

I don’t remember exactly why I installed the Truecaller app. I don’t seem to get as many robocalls as other people, though once in a while I receive a call from someone claiming I had just called them. I try to explain I did no such thing, and that somebody must have spoofed my CallerID. I’ve only had this conversation a few times but still find it telling that none of those people who called believed a word I said. These people insisted I had called them, at best allowing that I must have dialed a wrong number. It is hard to get through to strangers like this but I try.

Awareness of CallerID spoofing has obviously not reached these folks, who sound not just annoyed but incredulous of my explanation. They should know that they increase the chances of being pestered by calling back random unknown numbers that show up on their phone.

Some people take their incoming phone calls pretty seriously. It’s like every single call represents a sort of validation that someone needs to contact them.