ALERT FCC Blacklist database - no more updates as of 5/23/2016

[tracer5]

As of 5/23/16, the FCC will no longer make unwanted call data available through this link: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/...051444/Telemarketing_RoboCall_Weekly_Data.csv. This is the link in Ward Mundy's blacklist script.

The FCC has launched an improved data center platform that allows the public to download this and other data in numerous formats. The platform also allows the public to pull data via an application program interface (API). The data center can be accessed via: https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-help-center-data.

A new link seems to work for the current FCC telemarketer data download. It is:
https://opendata.fcc.gov/api/views/vakf-fz8e/rows.csv?accessType=DOWNLOAD

BUT the columns are different so a new script is appropriate to capture just the phone numbers and to eliminate duplicates. I have not re-written Ward's script, but encourage him to do so.

 

[dicko]

Already covered

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/fcc-robocall-consumer-complaints-list.19363/

 

[tracer5]

Already covered

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/fcc-robocall-consumer-complaints-list.19363/

Thanks for the info. I just didn't find it on my own.
Clearly the 'old' script needs to vanish and be replaced in a way that it is clearly avaliable. I am sure that the FCC will change their ways in the future again. Some sort of history change log would be appropriate.

Again Thanks!!

 

[dicko]

The only planned FCC change is to make the list real-time, otherwise my minimal filter (https://opendata.fcc.gov/api/views/t3tq-usu8/rows.csv) should continue to work until I decide to re-write it ;-), there is only one field so it should not be hard to work with.

 

[wardmundy]

 

[mainenotarynet]

The new Blacklist destroyed my blacklist module see fields to add number and description but the list is now GONE and so is the FPBX layout.

Using FPBX11.12 I wanted to delete the FCC Entries as it was taking WAY TOO LONG to load the page to add numbers.

I googled the heck out of it to find where blacklist numbers are stored and it showed MySQL->asterisk->blacklist unfortunately this table is not there.

I then found the NV article and did the FCC blacklist script and my layout broke and all numbers are gone. Evidently the blacklist table is somewhere else where I cannot access it through phpmyadmin to clear things out and now the module itself is hosed.

I guess as long as it work I should not care but I do add numbers from time to time and now I don't know how to either get the old list back or get this to behave.

Oh well.

 

[dicko]

It is the asterisk sqlite3 database, you can manipulate it from with asterisk with

database {del deltree get put query show} args[n]

 

[mainenotarynet]

that does not explain my my GUI is hosed.

and since I am not familiat with SQLite3 and there is no gui like PHPMyAdmin built in for maniputation, I am not gooing to make things worse.

 

[dicko]

that does not explain my my GUI is hosed.

and since I am not familiar with SQLite3 and there is no gui like PHPMyAdmin built in for maniputation, I am not gooing to make things worse.

Your GUI is hosed because you likely have 1000000 entries in your blacklist, to check from bash:-

rasterisk -x "database show"
(watch the bit on the left")
rasterisk -x "database show" |wc -l
(why your FreePBX is having palpitations)

I have posted here on a suitable work-around that doesn't impinge on the "blacklist" family used by FreePBX

You don't have to "be familiar with sqlite3" Asterisk already is, as stated at the asterisk CLI, type database then the tab key, then chose one, then see what it says, if none of this makes sense than I suggest you go back to the "Asterisk Book" or even Google.

You will eventually discover where the huge tree is is and execute

database deltree . . .

If you are GUI bound then you can install

http://sqlitebrowser.org/

stop asterisk, (or you really might "make things worse" as the asterisk code is not multiuser friendly)

and explore/manipulate /var/lib/asterisk/astdb.sqlite3

 

[mainenotarynet]

you are still not getting it.

1 - I had the original way to see the Blacklist entries, both ones from the FCC and ones I add manually. Problem here was it took about 3 minutes to load the list BEFORE I could add a new one
2 - I wanted to delete the FCC ones to make the list smaller and therby load faster. Problem here No blacklist table in Asterisk MySQL - GOOGLE search everywhere says that is where they are.
3 - found the NV article and did that to the letter -- Now Blacklist entry page is all whit - No Show Nuffin, can't add more if I need to.
4 - I do not WANT to play in SSH just to add an entry and SqLIte3 commands are NOT the same as MySQL commands (and MySQL can be manipulated with PHPMyAdmin to make deleteing easy - so thereby I need to learn new sets of instructions, play around in SSH to do something that could make thins worse.

As I said as long as it works then I guess that I just cannot add my own anymore. I AM NOT going to make it worse by not knowing what I am doing. Period.

 

[dicko]

Actually I believe it is you that is "not getting" it, The blacklist is in the asteriskdb sqlite3 database as I just said, You probably have 100000+ entries in that database as I also just said, and the php code that loads that blacklist page will timeout/memoryout if you used the FreePBX blacklist table, (my above recipe notices that shortcoming and bypasses it) so you won't see anything in FreePBX.

So like it or not, you will need to remove those entries, either inside asterisk (no GUI) or outside Asterisk with a GUI when it is stopped for reasons I mentioned above. Perhaps the easiest way for YOU to go is from Asterisk CLI:-

database query "delete from astdb where key like '‰blacklist%' "

which would run a 'standard' sql statement against the correct table. Both Mysql and sqlite3 are sql services and generally use the same SQL syntax , the liter one allowing less complex queries

 

[briankelly63]

Maybe this isn't the best place to jump in and give an opinion but whether it be the FCC database, Google Voice or making your PBX run on the smallest device possible there is always a trade off. I hate manual processes, solutions with exceptions or things that take too much support time. IMO this is not the way to go in terms of blocking calls you probably don't want.

If you have very limited callers then you could do a customer-friend whitelist, Nomorobo and its competitors are an excellent and free solution that maintains a dynamic and constantly updated database based on a huge honeypot system and it's easy to implement, virtually any IVR that requires a caller to do something will stop these calls and if you want it even tighter then that you can require a passcode that you give out. No passcode....then they get sent to VM.

Once put in place these are set and forget solutions.

 

[wardmundy]

We live in Frugal Times (starts with an F anyway) in the U.S. of A. The FCC is getting hit with "improvements" just like other federal agencies. Continuing to use the FCC database when better tools like Nomorobo are available is probably not a good idea at this juncture. In addition, the Asterisk database and/or FreePBX probably weren't designed to handle a database of this size even though SQLite3 on its own would probably do just fine.

 

[briankelly63]

A different kind of "Phone Company"......

http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/

 

[dicko]

I would generally have to agree that the FCC entries (last seen at 120000+ entries) are un-curated, and I have no desire to do that curation, so I stopped using my script (which worked and didn't affect FreePBX's Blacklist) a couple months ago after It denied to me a legitimate personal Accident claim call from Esurance and even a call from the US Social Security Admin, which was fu*^ing bad as I just got "retired" ;-)

So absolutely use a curated list, as I do now, but for the OP, he STILL needs to delete his badly formed blacklist.