New Sky Talk Shield says no to nuisance callers

In reference to corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2017/new-sky-talk-shield-s...:

Sky Talk Shield will either block robot callers automatically before the phone rings, or let users listen to who�s on the line before they accept the call.

If it�s a person calling, the phone will ring and users will hear a recorded message with the screened caller�s name, so they know who it is. They then have the option to:

�accept the call for one time only,
�accept the call and add the caller to their personal Star List,
�reject the call and add the number to a Block List,
�send the call to their Sky voicemail (if they have it).

Thanks for the information. I signed up to it, and it seems to work exactly like the trueCall built into my phone (which is currently disabled), except it operates at a network level, so is beneficial for people with extension sockets. A nice service to have for free.

That said, the last tech support scammer who rang me changed their phone number for every call, so the block list would be ineffective for them. They may not bother with the "speak your name and press *" procedure though.

Yes, I signed up for it and very happy. Works well and I am now not disturbed unnecessarily.

It's a pity it's not "yet" been rolled out to NOW TV (who are part of SKY)...

Once can only hope.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

That said, the last tech support scammer who rang me changed their phone number for every call, so the block list would be ineffective for them. They may not bother with the "speak your name and press *" procedure though.

Sky's Talk Shield operates on the actual number rather than the presentation number so if the scammer is just changing their presentation number on the same line it will still be blocked.

I am aware of the difference between a Presentation Number and the Actual Line Number.

Where does the Actual Line Number show up in such circumstances?

Thanks

The actual line number is also sometimes referred to as a billing number.

Say a company purchases 100 lines and they are allocated the range 0161-123-0000 to 0161-123-0099, those can be pooled together by the company for use. That grouping is allocated a "billing number" which is normally the first number in the range, but could be any of them.

When a call is made from any of these it would then normally carry the billing number as the presented number so the different networks involved know where any carrier charges need to be made to, but there is also an option for a different number to be presented, something starting 0800 or 0844 for example. When the call is made both numbers are visible to the carrier with message saying "bill call to 0161xx but present CLI as 0800xx".

Really depends on how the company is set up, smaller ones won't be very complex, but larger companies could have say 20,000 individual lines grouped into multiple bundles, in theory each of those bundles would have a different billing number, but all 20,000 present the same 0800 or 0844 number.

Interestingly though some mobile carriers completely ignore the request to present a different number, and will always present the actual/billing number. Also some customers of companies are now having issues with the network blocking due to the billing/actual number being restricted, as it means even if they have requested a callback for say a service related issue the call is being restricted in the network and never reaching Call Protect/Talk Shield system for the customer to make the decision.

Edited by deleted (Sat 25-Nov-17 11:34:22)

Thanks Dippy - even more complicated than I had imagined!

In reply to a post by CJT:

It's a pity it's not "yet" been rolled out to NOW TV (who are part of SKY)...

Once can only hope.

they claim to be separate and have nothing to do with each other so they have another excuse for not offering this.

In reply to a post by mortmaru:

they claim to be separate and have nothing to do with each other so they have another excuse for not offering this.

I wasn't aware they did... they state they are part of Sky in their T's&C's quite openly.

I have asked Now TV via their forum to see what is said..