FaceTime users recently said that they are receiving random group calls from some people that they do not know. The latest problem with the app has been revealed as some people took the opportunity to spam calls the past few days, disturbing many others.
Many people found this disturbing, and although FaceTime video calls can include more than one person, facing a group of strangers is another story.
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Creepy Calls Become a Nuisance for the Users
In a report by Ars Technica, the problem was reportedly affecting group calls specifically, and this is where the feature became too buggy for the users.
FaceTime users were all over social media sharing their stories. Some of them even reached out to Apple support forums, catching the attention of others.
Last year, one user shared what happened to him upon receiving a group call. The mixed contact of people that he knew and those that he did not recognize appeared at the same time.
“Starting around 2 am this morning I began receiving group FaceTime calls from a mix of numbers in my contacts and random numbers I didn’t have saved. Since then I’ve received about 7 more calls throughout the day,” the user posted in one of the Apple discussion forums.
“The calls only ring once or twice before ending. What’s even more interesting is that, after going back through the numbers involved in the calls in the ‘recents’ tab of the FaceTime app, there were more than the 32 total people involved with the highest being 59. The reason I think this happened is that every number was repeated once or twice.”
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It turns out that the specific feature called the callback system was being exploited by spammers, allowing them to prank others by calling 31 contacts simultaneously.
The spammers could also choose to hang them up so they could call another number for the group call. This could be a mere prank to test people’s patience. However, this could also be an issue of privacy invasion when someone accidentally answers the calls.
FaceTime Should Have a Tighter Privacy Feature
Apple appears to be unprepared for this kind of problem, and FaceTime might undergo an update soon to clear this bug. While other voice call apps could only accept calls from contacts saved in your phone book, FaceTime does not have this capability yet.
Besides, it does not support mass blocking of unknown numbers in a group call. If you want to get rid of creepy contacts, you can do it one by one.
At the moment, the only thing that users can do is to stop using FaceTime during a particular time period, so there will be no random numbers that will appear in the interface. What’s worse is the only solution that users can rely on will also affect other FaceTime users.
For FaceTime to regain its trust from its users, Apple should create a more secure method to safeguard the users’ privacy without disturbing them in the middle of the night through creepy group calls.
Related Article: Major FaceTime Bug Lets You Listen To Audio Before The Person Accepts Your Call
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Written by Joen Coronel
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