New Features for Pirate Voicemail!

Need some background:   What is Pirate Voicemail?

Summary

We just turned on our new Pirate Voicemail.   Here are the highlights of the changes:

  • For Mobile Phones:
    • Want to automatically blacklist callers the FIRST TIME they fail a challenge?  Now you can do it!
    • Want to send email notifications to a different email than the one on your account?  Now you can do this too!
  • For Landlines/VoIP Phones:
    • NEW!  Introducing Pirate Voicemail for VoIP phones.    Now you can use Jolly Roger like an answering machine….only better because we will screen out the scammers and take messages from your friends and family.
    • Are you a caregiver?   This new service helps you protect the phones of those you are responsible for (like aging parents).

Details: Mobile Phones

Send email notifications to a different email address

In the past if you turned on email notifications for Pirate Voicemail, we sent them to the email address in your “Customer Profile”.    Now you can specify a different email address for each phone.   As you can see in the screen shot below, there is a new field called “Use a different email for this phone”.   By default this field will be empty, and we will use the email address from your “Customer Profile” for email notifications.   But if you put a valid email address in this field, we will use it instead of the one in your Customer Profile.

 

Automatically Blacklist the First Time!

WARNING: some legitimate callers may fail to press 1 in time to avoid being transferred to a pirate.  DO NOT TURN THIS ON if you have any concerns about your friends, family, or business acquaintances, getting confused or angry about being deceived by a pirate.   

If a caller is not on your white or blacklist, they are asked to press 1 to prove they are human (we call that “the challenge”).   In the past, we gave unrecognized callers THREE chances at the challenge.    This was when most telemarketers used the same number every time they called someone.   But nowadays many scammers change their phone numbers very often, so giving a particular callerID three chances at the challenge question is not as effective.   So now you can automatically blacklist unrecognized callers the first time they fail the challenge.   Just login to your account and go to your “My Numbers” page, then click on the phone number of the phone you want to work with.   A box will open up and there is now a new setting called “Pirate on 1st Failed Challenge”  (see below).

You can interpret this new field as follows: should we give them three chances to call you before going to a pirate (unchecked)? Or should we send them to a pirate the first time they call, if they fail the challenge (checked)?

Details: Landlines

First You’ve Got to Turn it On!

Want Jolly Roger to be your answering machine for your home phone?  Now you can use Pirate Voicemail with your landline!   (Of course you will still need simultaneous ring capabilities on that phone.)    Here’s how:   just login to your account and go to your “My Numbers” page, then click on the phone number of the phone you want to work with.   A box will open up and there is now a new setting called “Use Pirate Voicemail”  (see below).

If you click on “Use Pirate Voicemail”, then a box with additional properties will open up.

Now you can set the properties for your new landline Pirate Voicemail!

 

No Need to Let Calls Ring

If the caller is not on your white or blacklist, you may want to have a chance to answer the phone yourself, or you may want the calls to go straight to the challenge message (the one that asks them to press 1 to prove they are human). To give yourself a chance to answer, do not select this (leave it unchecked).   Or to have such calls picked up immediately and sent to the challenge greeting, do select this option (put a checkmark in the box).

Automatically Blacklist the First Time! (the “Pirate on 1st Failed Challenge” property)

WARNING: some legitimate callers may fail to press 1 in time to avoid being transferred to a pirate.  DO NOT TURN THIS ON if you have any concerns about your friends, family, or business acquaintances, getting confused or angry about being deceived by a pirate.   

If a caller is not on your white or blacklist, they are asked to press 1 to prove they are human (we call that “the challenge”).   In the past, we gave unrecognized callers THREE chances at the challenge.    This was when most telemarketers used the same number every time they called someone.   But nowadays many scammers change their phone numbers very often, so giving a particular callerID three chances at the challenge question is not as effective.   So now you can automatically blacklist unrecognized callers the first time they fail the challenge by clicking on “Pirate on 1st Failed Challenge”.  You can interpret this new field as follows: should we give them three chances to call you before going to a pirate (unchecked)? Or should we send them to a pirate the first time they call, if they fail the challenge (checked)?

Notify Via Text

Would you like to get a text message when someone leaves a voicemail for you on this landline?   Just enter the phone number you want us to send the text message to, in this field.

 

Send email notifications to a different email address

In the past if you turned on email notifications for Pirate Voicemail, we sent them to the email address in your “Customer Profile”.    Now you can specify a different email address for each phone.   As you can see in the screen shot below, there is a new field called “Use a different email for this phone”.   By default this field will be empty, and we will use the email address from your “Customer Profile” for email notifications.   But if you put a valid email address in this field, we will use it instead of the one in your Customer Profile.