Blog

Ever get those annoying unwanted calls on your phone? There’s a new system called SnorCall that’s here to help stop them!

Why We Need This Tool

Many times, phone companies and officials can see basic details about these spam calls but don’t know what’s being said in them. They want to understand these calls without invading our privacy. That’s why Professor Brad Reaves and his team created SnorCall—to listen and understand these robocalls.

How Does SnorCall Work?

Working with a phone company called Bandwidth, the team set up more than 60,000 special phone numbers just to catch these spam calls. When these numbers get a spam call, SnorCall records it. It then groups similar calls together and uses a system named Snorkel to figure out what the call is about.

Finding Out More About These Calls

The team tested SnorCall and found out many interesting things from 232,723 spam calls. One big discovery was that many spam calls leave a ‘call-back number’. While the original call number can be hidden, the ‘call-back number’ can’t be, which can help the police catch these scammers.

Also, the team found out that some scams, like those pretending to be from Social Security, decreased during the pandemic and then increased again. This might mean these scams come from specific places that were closed during lockdowns.

Changing with The Times

What’s cool about SnorCall is that it can be updated easily. So, if scammers try new tricks, SnorCall can learn about them quickly. This is super useful, especially since scams change based on what’s happening in the world.

In the end, as technology gets better, so do the tricks of scammers. But with tools like SnorCall, we have a good chance to fight back and stop these annoying calls.