Hi all--
I was speaking with some people yesterday, who were trying to find out how to block telemarketers easily. I thought I would share the method that I personally use to block telemarketers in most cases, just incase anyone else would like to use it.
Here's the logic of how it works.
===
if (incoming caller ID is unknown) {
play a hangup tone (will make telemarketer programs think your line is dead and they will hangup);
}
continue with normal routing;
===
The reason I chose not to play the hangup tone at the beginning of every call, is because most of the time, telemarketers have private numbers. Also--it is rather annoying to hear the hangup tone if a real person calls in. Of course, if a real person IS calling in with a blocked number, they will hear the hangup tone, but will most likely stay on the line and then hear your normal incoming prompts/ringing/etc.
To implement the program, open up your /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf file, and add the following lines:
[from-pstn-custom] exten => _X.,1,NoOp(blocking telemarketers) exten => _X.,n,Zapateller(answer|nocallerid) exten => _X.,n,NoOp(done blocking)
Then save the file, and reload asterisk:
asterisk -rx 'reload'
You should also check your trunk settings, if your context= field does NOT have from-pstn, then you will need to modify that value appropriately.
If you have any questions/comments, feel free to post.
Cheers.
Member Since:
2009-03-03