I don't pick up unless I recognize the number. But robocalls are going to decimate the phone as a useful form of communications if we don't expand the right to privacy to preclude companies bombarding people with calls.
83
"Navient did not immediately comment." What could they say, that they're usurers doing what all usurers do?
38
The biggest problem is that these robocalls are even spoof the number they are calling from so you could conceivably get a robocall from the number of a friend or colleague which is not really from their number - which means you cannot block the call at all without blocking your friend or colleague from contacting you in the future. Similarly, someone who does need to reach you may not be able to because your umber has been blocked.
17
I suspect many Americans would support public caning of robocallers and their owners.
70
Hey Whitehouse - how about a little MAGA action on robocalls, huh? Can't wait to see your plan.
48
So what exactly has the Senate decided to do to curb this nuisance of modern life? Telephone service is something I PAY for, not the pests so I should have more rights as to what gets through than big business does. I get calls that have no one on the line at all when I answer; what is the purpose of that except to annoy the crap out of me? I could be doing something important and expect an important call only to hear the phone ring with some ridiculous area code number and no caller idea with no one responding if I say hello? This is totally out of hand. I like the convenience of my land line an my cell phone but I cannot for the life of me imagine Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone with the idea that strangers, scammers and people itching to make a buck on the gullible invented it with that in mind. The idea of freedom of speech (ie, freedom to sell) has gotten out of hand here. If there was a way to avoid the phone I would take advantage of it. Right now I need it for my doctors' appointments as well as to keep in touch with people I know and love. Because I am a senior I have people calling to tell me that "I asked for information" about their "help I'm down and can't get up" gadget when it never happened? They lie, they annoy and they sell nothing but junk or try to get oldsters with money to give it to them for something useless. If the government cannot/will not fix this, it's obvious it cannot fix anything. There is more to life than big business to me.
44
The hospital needs a beeper for the doctor.
23
Other scam calls I frequently get are: 1. "I am calling from Microsoft and were are getting error messages coming from your computer. Can you log on with us so we can fix it?" or 2. "I am calling from the Medicare pain relief center." And then they ask for my dead father. or 3. "Are you the homeowner?" and then they go into a sales pitch about solar panels.
My response is to play along or annoy them with my uncooperative responses. I let the Microsoft virus peoples go on and then tell them I don't own a computer or I tell them that my computer is owned by the FBI. One guy asked me for the FBI's phone number so he could contact them. I tell the Medicare pain relief people that no one here has any pain except for them calling. And I tell the solar panel guys that I am not the owner and don't know who is.
23
NoMoRobo.com
If you're getting endless robocalls, this may be the answer to your prayers. There is a version for landlines and one for cell phones, and here are certain requirements - your phone line or cell service may not be compatible with the program - but it's worth investigating. Our landline will ring once, but if it doesn't ring again we ignore it. It's a much pleasanter world this way.
22
Why is it legal to spoof a number for Caller ID?
Why *isn't* it prohibitively expensive to spoof a number?
Note to any incumbent Member of Congress: PLEASE sponsor legislation that imposes a $2-per-call Federal Tax on spoofing Caller ID numbers. I guarantee you'll win your next election, hands down.
In 2016, the "capitalist tools" will be OUT, and the reps who represent US will be IN.
32
Many commenters are saying people should just turn off their phones or screen all calls. I've done that in the past. One night, I turned off my phone and missed a slew of calls from the police about my elderly mother. Other times, I missed urgent calls from clients. I still screen my calls as best I can, but the experience with my mother was particularly sobering. I do encourage clients to text me rather than call, but I get so many junk text messages lately, it's getting easier and easier to miss text messages.
24
This problem will eventually resolve. Over the past few years, I have set blocks on nearly 500 spamming phone numbers, many local. I imagine many others have done the same. Eventually, all numbers will be blocked except those in contact lists.
10
Insidious is the word. I have had all these types of robocalls. I rarely received them in the past, but now, it's a regular thing. I've had so many people try to sell me timeshares. I want to scream!
8
Autodialers are not robocalls. It is deeply ironic that borrower advocates claim that student loan servicers do not provide adequate counseling to borrowers, yet borrower advocates also don't want student loan servicers to call borrowers who have mobile phones. Landlines are disappearing rapidly. These laws from the early 1990s need revision. Marketing robocalls and scam robocalls ("we are calling from Microsoft support") are very bad. However, what is the point of pushing student loan borrowers into default due to a legal inability to call their cell phones to explain their repayment options?
5
Last week I got a call from “Apple, Inc.”. It was a robocall saying that someone in NM has been trying to hack my iCloud account, and to call this number. They left me 3 messages, every hour on the hour. Being that the caller ID AND the phone number was legit, I checked it, and it belongs to a nearby Apple store. They called again, and I answered, only to be connected to an Indian speaking male. He explained the situation, and “I can help you fix this so they can’t hack in.” After him saying we can’t do this with me on the IPad, only on a desktop or laptop, I said I wasn’t comfortable doing this on the phone. He said I should take my laptop to an Apple store to fix this problem. Sounds legit, until I googled the problem, asked a few people, and found out it was a scam, where they are even resorting to using legit caller ID and “stealing” the numbers from Apple stores. If I panicked or was unaware of scammers, my identity could’ve been stolen within a couple of minutes, and it would be too late to turn back. So, be aware of how easy it is to be scammed.
68
The "Do Not Call List" is in fact, a handy resource used by telemarketers to look up actual, working numbers.
16
This article did not address one of the most annoying types of phone spam: "sly-dial" calls, in which the caller leaves a message directly on your voicemail without your phone ever ringing. I seem to recall that the FCC under Ajit Pai voted last year to allow this type of telemarketing, which in my opinion is one of the most Insidious.
34
To make matters worse, with a robocall, you cannot even asked them to remove you from their calling list. If you care speaking to a human, you can asked them to remove your number and they are legally required to comply. (Not that they always do but …)
20
this seems like a lot of fuss over next to nothing, ie a major first-world problem.
[1] if you don't already have one, get a phone with caller id.
[2] if you don't recognize the number, either don't answer it or immediately hang up once it's clear you're not interested in it.
this is not rocket science. it's a minor nuisance, but that's all. what's all the hub-bub about?
5
It's not a fuss over nothing. If you are expecting a call, even with caller id, you might still pick up because you're anxious. What if there's an emergency? These scams are dangerous because they are forcing people to debate whether or not to pick up the phone at all. What if your parents are in an accident and the police call you? Caller id is going to tell you it's not a local number if they are out of town. Think of the vital information you might miss. What if you're an elderly person hurrying to answer that scam call and you fall and hurt yourself?
That's what the fuss is about. And on a cellphone, you are charged for the incoming call and the message takes up space in your voice mail. That's another reason to make a fuss.
23
Lenore's husband:
This *is* a serious problem. Last week I got a call designated "Private Caller," indicating the caller had blocked caller ID. I picked up & immediately hung up without speaking, assuming it was a scam call. A family member then informed me it had been a police officer calling about the family member's stolen ATM card. Fortunately, he called back.
Apparently you've been able to arrange for your life to be so perfectly ordered & predictable that *all* your legitimate incoming calls are from numbers with which you're familiar, but not everyone lives that way, or wants to.
21
Why should you HAVE to edit your calls? It's still an interruption of your life if you have to stop to look to see if it is a caller you want to talk to or not. You are too kind, Shirley, or you have more time on your hands than most of us.
18
Why block calls? All phones should, by default, ship with all inbound calls blocked. The user can then add known numbers to the allowed list. Only open the holes you want opened. Exactly lile a firewall.
11
The worst part of having to block calls, is just about every plan allows a certain amount of numbers to block. If one is blocked the scammers have back up numbers. They “buy” a block of numbers, and proceed to go to the next number. You’ll notice on the caller id that there’s one or two digits at the end that are slightly different, usually one number up or down. My company allows 35 numbers to block. So what do we do when we reach that limit? Start deleting the older ones, and start adding new ones.
9
Lenore's husband:
...and if a family member is in an emergency, their phone is out of power, broken, or missing, & they call from someone else's phone, or the call comes from police or a hospital? I suppose the odds of that are maybe one in a thousand or more, but those odds aren't good enough for me to bet my family's lives on.
6
Con men in the WH, State, EPA, Education, Energy, homeland security, Interior....The House Intelligence committee. What could go wrong?
28
I am reposting for newer readers an excerpt of Erik L.'s spot on comment:
"...where do the robocalls originate? Not from telephones, but computers. “The real culprits here” are those who freely abuse the free and open Internet, yet collectively we are dead set against any regulation which might curb that abuse. The prevailing opinion, very carefully cultivated over the past 20+ years, is that it’s ‘the price we have to pay to keep the Internet free and open.’
Exactly who pays that price? Not the tech giants, not the scammers, not those feeding their vices via Tor, not the trolls and cyber-bullies, and not foreign agents freely wreaking havoc. Nope, it’s always ‘us’ who need to pay the price. Who are the loudest voices among those claiming we need to continue paying this price? Yup, the very same ones who never have to. They are the champions of keeping regulation out of the Internet, and why should we expect any different? They directly benefit, while all the rest of us have been sold a bill of goods, that it’s all for the betterment of humanity. Remember when the Internet was going to end debate over ‘truth,’ because the facts would be freely available? Remember when social media was going to bring us all together in fully transparent, global harmony? Yeah.
Every other industry has fiercely dedicated watchdogs, perhaps even over-zealous in their skepticism. Yet not the Internet, not big tech – societally we are still mesmerized by their propaganda, bamboozled...."
29
Back when phone calls cost money -- and long distance was a dollar or two a minute -- junk calls were not a problem. We need to find a way to start charging for calls from persons outside our approved lists of callers.
33
“This is your last opportunity to reduce your credit card rate” 75 calls later, it’s still my last opportunity! I would love to strangle the individual who 4 times a day offers to reduce my electric bill. The do not call list is a joke and verzion is worthless in helping to block these calls.
20
I hear you George and I agree. Try calling Verizon and see what their own big business responses are "they can't do anything about it but YOU can create a blocked call list, etc. Right now the number of blocked calls is growing and creating a monster--why should we have to do that administrative task when Verizon has the equipment to nip it in the bud, they just don't want to lose any business themselves. Technology has to destroy itself I guess.
7
Make Spoofing the dialing phone number and Caller ID a jailable crime - Charge the phone companies with indentifying spoofing (i.e. fix SS7).
19
Lenore's husband:
Many of these calls originate outside the US.
8
We reduced our robocalls dramatically by literally disconnecting our phones when we are not using them (that is, when not calling out or not checking voicemail -- this includes overnight and when we are out of the house). It's not a perfect solution, but over time, robocalls diminish dramatically possibly because the robocallers think our phone line is dead. We love the peace and quiet so much, we seldom leave our phones connected unless we must. We have one line with a light that blinks when there is voice mail, which is in a high traffic area and we can check often (this is the number people we want to hear from know about) and use voicemail on other phones and email. Like most people, we have multiple phones and lines.
I think this is too much trouble for most people who have been sold on the idea that they must always be instantly available (and don't hate robocalls enough). But our quality of life has improved tremendously. I also rudely hangup immediately as soon as I realize I have picked up a robocall by mistake.
7
AT&T makes a great Smart Call Blocker phone-for about $60. It blocks almost all of them.
Why should consumers be forced to pay AT&T for that? Considering AT&T will facilitate a criminal act unless you pay them protection, this is extortion, plain and simple.
29
I sometimes engage the human scammers in conversation, hoping to prevent them from calling someone else while we 'chat.'
For example, I often hear that due to my loyalty to some hotel chain, I have won a free vacation. I wait to be connected to a human, and say that I am so happy to have won. When the caller begins their spiel and asks for my credit card number, I reply that the court made me cut up my credit cards when I filed for bankruptcy. The caller then hangs up on me.
When I am contacted by a scam 'charity' asking for donations to their cause, I listen for a minute about how much my help (money) will mean to their clientele. Then I tell them that I can't afford to donate, and ask how I can apply to receive their donations. Funny thing, but they also hang up on me.
I hate to have my time wasted by these pests, so I figure it's only fair that I waste their time in return.
15
What you are doing is very helpful to spammers. By answering the call, you are verifying your number so it can be added to more lists.
DON'T ANSWER THE CALLS.
9
Anyone who makes a telemarketer purchase should be given 30 days to cancel/ get refund from their cc company. That would shut them off. There are no legitimate telemarketers. Why not just make it it illegal?
2
Lenore's husband:
It *is* illegal. Many of these calls originate in 3rd world countries or Russia, where our laws aren't respected & can't be enforced.
3
What's a Robocall?
I'm lucky if I can get my Roomba to do a decent job cleaning my room, are you saying in America you have Robots making your calls...like when I ask Siri to ring "George" for example or I just speak into my mobile and say " Call George"
Is that what a Robocall is?
Next you'll be saying that my mobile will be inundated with unrestricted automated calls on subjects that have nothing to do with me causing me inconvenience, stress and invading my privacy no matter the time of day!
Lol! I guess such unfettered activity affecting people 24/7 without recourse or means to restrict or curtail such Orwellian activity would make a good premise for a Sci-Fi TV program set in a bleak Dystopian Future where people are denied all peace privacy and personal space in a world out of control where consumers are consumed by unstoppable potential opportunity to be exploited for profit no matter what the consequences.
That's the thing about science fiction...you get to see/experience things that no rationale government or people would ever allow to exist! Lol!
4
I subscribe to Nomorobo and religiously use it to report and block robocalls on my iPhone. I also use the iPhone’s caller blocking feature.
I do answer the initial call because I often get out of area business calls and if a number isn’t in my iPhone’s contacts, only the number and not the caller ID will show up. If it is a live person on a robocall, particularly bogus IRS, Microsoft, cancer charity and police protection scams, I sometimes say, “your mother would be ashamed of you doing such a dishonest job” and hang up.
My internet provider Cox (landline) has a system where I can block up to 30 numbers and my Panasonic handset model has call blocking up to 30 numbers. When the systems are both full, I unblock earlier numbers and keep adding the new ones. With another feature, I can also automatically block unidentified numbers.
With the call blocking systems used consistently, the phones rarely ring with robocalls.
3
Please be patient while I try to understand: The U. S. government records the metadata for all telephone connections under the guise of national security -- to identify and locate criminal threats -- but the U. S. government is incapable of locating persons who place unusually large numbers of telephone calls for, ostensibly, criminal acts. Hmmm...I'm missing something.
18
Every time I make a doctor appointment with a group of doctors I get tons of scam calls for insurance. I know they are responsible for giving my number out but how do you call them out on this and stop it?
One call kept saying they were the IRS. How can a scam company keep getting away with calling themselves the IRS. Theyve been reported online hundreds of times.
4
If you are sure of that, why didn't you mention the name of the group that sold your personal info? And if you are sure of that, why don't you file a HIPPA complaint?
2
Cell phone calls now come through in Florida as Unknown Caller which is the Caller ID of many robocalls...in the past, the cell phone caller used to be identified...wouldn't it be so simple to simply demand that all callers be identified? This would make the decision of whether or not to pick up or block, SIMPLER? Hello????
5
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has offered cash prizes to anyone who could come up with a technological solution to robocalls. It hasn’t worked. The robocallers are very adept at staying ahead of any blocking solutions.
Most robocalls originate or are processed from foreign countries, but most of the profits go to crooks in the US. When the FTC goes after them, it can only get civil remedies, basically pennies on the dollar. To the few robocall profiteers the FTC goes after, this is usually just a brief setback.
My proposal would make it a crime to receive monies from robocall sales. Rather than trying to trace the calls, follow the money being spent by consumers scammed by those calls.
This would be analogous in proof and penalties to receiving stolen goods. While these are not the easiest cases to investigate and prove, at least prosecutors are experienced in handling them. The evidence gathering would be similar to what the FTC does when it tracks down the profiteers. The difference is that the penalties would be much more severe.
When I proposed this to the FTC in response to its first contest, the FTC refused even to consider my suggestion. It was only interested in technological solutions.
4
My cellphone is set up as follows. Permanently on Do Not Disturb, with anyone in my Contacts able to get through 24x7. All other calls are shunted silently to voicemail. Callers can leave their messages but, bots that they are, they never do.
This requires me to keep my Contacts up to date.
6
Multitudes of iPhone users are sitting here wishing you had included instructions for how to do this.
2
Lucky you, that they don't fill up your voice mail! As many other commenters have stated, the most annoying spam calls come from their voice mail.
The article mentions how interception of robo calls has delayed hospital emergency treatments. What about our paid service providers , even the largest "monopoly," who do not transmit calls or texts sometimes till the next day and are risking doing the same thing? It happens to me quite commonly. With calls it has only happened a few times but the calls were delayed more than 24hrs!!! It's more common with texts.
When I complain to the provider for that the agent on the firing line mainly apologizes, feigns sympathy, and promises to transmit the complaint. Big Whoop.
2
Phone service providers must be forced to confirm the caller ID before letting the call come through.
This would require reengineering how system works but there is no way around it. The caller must be identified to avoild abuse.
5
There is a simple way to help cut back on the number of nuisance calls that make is through that has worked well for me. If you have an iPhone, turn on "Do Not Disturb" mode (crescent moon symbol) on in the Control Center. Then go to "Settings," "Do Not Disturb" and change "Allow Calls From" from "No One" to "All Contacts." That way all unknown and other phone numbers not in your contacts will not cause your phone to ring but the calls from people you actually know will go through.
3
It's easy to stop the robocalls. Give law enforcement personnel special credit cards, have them purchase whatever the telemarketers are selling and then track the money. Also, the fact that mobile phones cannot get telemarketing calls but landlines can, funnels scam artists right where they want to be, senior citizens.
8
Great tip (for iOS users at least)
1
Every hear about killing the golden goose? I no longer answer any phone call unless I recognize the number or see the name pop up. And I'm not the only one I know who is doing that. That keeps legitimate businesses from reaching me? Tough. Clean up your act, guys, or deal with the loss of business.
10
I'm finding that these days, the least useful feature of my smartphone are its phone (voice) capabilities. I'd like to say that the phone companies might finally notice the problem when we all stop using the phone but sadly, even if we all *COULD* cancel our phone (voice) service, we'd still be paying the phone company big bucks for the Internet service that they'll be providing. Cancelling voice wouldn't hurt them a bit.
1
I can't believe that credit card companies allow a user to authorize charges by saying "yes". I do NOT want that feature on my credit card!
7
Fraud has been around since money, but that's no excuse. Fraud is certainly a growing portion of the global economies. The lassez-faire politicians everywhere are feckless fools to these criminal behaviors, and largely ignore them for one giant reason: Politicians are largely supported by fraud organizations. From Moscow, to Beijing, to London, to Washington, to.....
2
I get constant robocalls on my cellphone. Pretty much every time it rings.
Currently, I'm getting the same "local cops will be arresting you for unpaid IRS!" call from about 6 different numbers.My phones have been on the Do Not Call registry since it was started. It appears to have no effect whatsoever.
And don't get me started on the political Robocalls.
Nonstop on every phone, landline and cell.
4
At work, I have to answer all calls. I get 5-10 of these bogus calls a day. I manually block each number from the VoIP website for my phone service provider. When the phone rings, I don't talk right away. I wait for the caller to speak, then I identify my business. If a human doesn't start speaking, I hang up.
For my cell phone, I use 2 different apps to screen calls. One is a free app, the other is not, but it's only about $15 a year.
It has cut down on the calls a lot.
5
People make robo calls because they profit from them. They profit mostly by victimizing the vulnerable. It seems to me likely that it would be fairly easy to set up sting operations--these huckster have to pick up the cash somewhere.
4
I imagine a scenario where everyone on Earth has died but for centuries, the phones continue ringing with robocalls and people long dead wish each other happy birthday on Facebook.
7
I’ve sadly learned that most people whom I don’t know who contact me are out to do one thing: separate me from my money. This is true whether they are fraudulent telemarketers, legitimate businesses or something in between. This isn’t limited to robocalling. It’s direct mail, email and even in-person contact. By default, I now distrust strangers. That’s sad.
5
A good place to start would be severe prison time for those involved in any manner with robocalls - from the owners to the people on the phones making the calls. This is the perfect bipartisan issue.
5
When I get one of these calls I speak in gibberish or bark like a dog. Robot or human they hang up on me immediately. Sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I'll tell them that no matter what they are selling, order me a thousand of them and send the bill to Donald J. Trump, care of the White House, Washington D.C. If a woman is the caller, sometimes I'll flirt with her just to see how far it goes. I guess, if you can't beat 'em at least have some fun.
5
I have no problem with this. Every time I am asked for my number by someone who I think will sell it or share it, I give one we don't use. So we have a land line that, it turns out, only receives junk. It has an answering machine that we can't hear and whenever we check it there's never anything worth answering. I have a cell package with a junk blocker and in the rare instance that someone dares to robocall me there I block it immediately. The land line is still worth it because we use it to make outgoing calls that aren't going to be dropped, and because we'll have it in an earthquake.
4
And yet pollsters still can't call enough people to predict elections accurately...
2
A problem which telemarketing and robo-calls have made much more difficult.
In primary elections for smaller states like Iowa or New Hampshire, the universe of potential primary voters is so small that many people get interviewed multiple times.
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2015/07/31/honey-its-the-pollster-ca...
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2016/01/31/iowa-so-many-polls-so-few...
Most of our legacy landline calls are robo calls which are quite sophisticated in many ways. What I noticed is that certain firms call at certain hours with an initial call. If it is answered - there is no message and no followup call with a live boiler room of unsophisticated live telemarketers. If you answer the call then hangup there is an almost certain followup call with a live operator who always never know our name or status (homeowner?).
The Federal Govt in all it's power can provide the consumer with a switch - on to receive all calls regardless of scammers or an off switch where commercial and charity calls are prohibited to calling. The mobile and landline providers would be responsible for this switch.
By the way the same should occur with junk mail and charity solicitation mail. Sure I know about the DMA etc but it's not 100%. Charities and PACs should not receive discounted mail rates.
1
Fax tones trying to initiate a scam are particularly annoying. They are hard to terminate. I do not have a fax but the assumption is the incoming tone will role to a fax machine. No doubt another Nigerian prince wanting to give me untold wealth if only I would send him a bit of money to get the process going. Add these to the four a day from Rachael at Credit Card Services, the IRS scam, the fantastic free vacation in Florida, and the Microsoft scam. All to may work phone.
3
WAPO is running a similar story today.
They mention the service "Jolly Roger Telephone Company" as a way to waste these criminal's time using automated voice messages that trick them thinking they are talking to a real person. Usually takes them 3-7 minutes to figure they have been talking to a robot.
The audio examples with scammers are pretty funny when they loose it.
3
Maybe the needs of 300 million consumers are more important than the needs of the American Bankers Association. How about it, Congressman?
52
FCC Chairman Pai was formerly with and a sock puppet of Verizon. He is responsible for allowing the robocalls to continue.
51
President Obama had 8 years. Why didn't he stop it?
1
The only reason this problem isn't solved is because they are stealing from citizens. If they were stealing from the phone company it would be solved in a snap.
65
If there is no caller ID I immediately block the call with a new phone that does that with the press of two buttons. If there is a caller id that i don'r recognize, I ususally block the caller. If I'm in doubt, I pick up the phone but say nothing. If the line goes dead, I block the call. Most of these phony calls don't leave a message, but if they do, I block the call. It's annoying, but I am now getting a lot of rings from blocked numbers--the phone rings once and caller ID says the call is blocked. If I feel like it, I answer and play with them and then block the call. I now use my ability to check the caller ID of recent callers before I listen to any messages. That way I know if there are any messages I want to hear. If not, I erase those messages and block the caller.
8
"A federal court ruling recently struck down a Barack Obama-era definition of an auto-dialer, leaving it to the Federal Communications Commission to come up with new guidance."
Who was the Judge? Who was the plaintiff? Who was the plaintiff's lawyer? What bureaucrat was involved in the defective regulation?
32
Someone might point out to Trump's swamp-a-rama that some regulations made life better for everyone but Nigerian princes and Macedonian trolls.
4
Does anyone want to receive a call from a telemarketer, even if they are legitimate?
34
We need to go after the mortgage lenders (by far my most common solicitor category), time shares etc. that hire the robocallers. Seems like they would be a lot easier to identify and they’re the main culprit anyway. I particularly hate the ones that leave voice mails, which are cumbersome to screen and delete.
7
We have two VOIP (AT&T Uverse) lines and two iPhones. We do not answer these 4 lines unless we recognize the caller on Call ID. When we do not answer, the answering machine requests that the caller leave a message. Spamers usually do not leave a message. We have also enabled spam filtering for our Uverse lines as well as nomorobo.com. These measures prevent most spam calls from getting through.
5
I set up NoMoRoBo on my home phone and use True Caller on my cell. I rarely answer any numbers that I don't recognize. If I do answer, I only say "Hello" once. Most robocalls listen for a second hello, to make sure it's an actual person answering the phone. If there is no response after one, I hang up. If it was someone who needed to get in touch with me, they will call back.
15
Can they also apply these to political robo calls? I'm really tired of them.
18
When Congress passed the Do-Not-Call statute they explicitly exempted calls from political and charitable organizations.
Also it's not clear that even without the exemption, political solicitations would violate the law. Most times these calls are made to lists of registered voters, not simply random calls like robocallers do. This issue has not arisen because of the exemption, so we do not know how, if at all, the law would apply.
If we can't stop this simple thing, then using technology to thwart election hacking, finance, and preventing threats to the homeland are just so much hot air. It only proves the incompetence of Congress is selling out the privacy and security and the peace of mind and well being of the American people for telecommunication and social media companies' campaign contributions and future job opportunities.
27
There is a simple solution to this problem, I believe. I have been interrupted too many times to recall, in the middle of thought processes and procedures to set up manufacturing work. I come back to my machine and have to think were I left off. It definitely costs me money and time. I now use a blocking box with a big red button at both work and at home. The ones that come with 5000 pre-programmed numbers are about $ 100. They work, too.
Back to my simple solution. Every call made would cost the caller a minimum charge of something on the order of 1/1000 of a penny. The normal person would not even feel this, but that token charge to the robocallers would add up to tens of thousands of dollars.
20
Great idea
1
Who actually answers their phone anymore? This is why we have voicemail and the ability to block numbers. Their robo voice and my pre-recorded voice have a chat and that's that.
9
Anyone else notice how fraud tends to become more common under Republican administrations?
44
Robocalls have been a problem for many years.
No.
1
Maybe the Republican administration is a fraud. Anybody in the White House lie?
3
Just another headache that our elected officials care not about. Nothing will happen. Remember bump stock regulation? Yup.
26
The robocall problem is directing call-receiving victims to the wrong enemy: it's not the companies making the automated calls that should be stopped, it should be the businesses that hire them to make the calls. They're much easier to find and prosecute, because they're always mentioned in the calls as the entity to do business with.
All a state has to do is pass enact legislation setting a punishment for each robocall made to a citizen of the state having one of that state's telephone prefixes.
All a complaining witness must do is record the call and present it to local prosecutors. This doesn't mean that a person must record all incoming calls; they can have ones from non-contacts go to voicemail, and when playing them back, simply record the ones that are robocalls.
As for criminally fraudulent robocalls allegedly from the IRS or other phony entities, all the authorities have to do is follow the money: a task that individual victims don't have the capacity to do.
10
one of the fruits of Republican "deregulation", the robocall and its attendant junk. A lot of them just call because they can, and they think they are clever by causing other people problems. We need regulation and the end to this unlimited capitalist system. Vote either Democratic or Socialist.
20
I'm getting 20-30 scam calls every single day on my landline, and even with NoMoRobo it means my phone is ringing constantly. I block through my Verizon account (with a measly limit of 100 numbers) and report major callers to the FCC. I also am absolutely certain that the Do Not Call List is being used to harvest phone numbers. I once got back to back calls on my landline and cell phone from the same scam number. Those two phone numbers are not linked anywhere except the Do Not Call list. They're not even under the same name.
16
The solution to this problem that I haven't heard anywhere is for the phone companies (mandated by government) to charge for every call placed, regardless of whether anyone answers. Think about it. Legitimate businesses and personal accounts could easily pay $0.01 to $0.10 for every call they place, or if they are legitimate long-term customers this fee could be waived. Robocall scammers could not really afford to pay that fee for millions of calls and would not easily get the fee waiver because they are doing something illegal.
28
Why, in this era, when we have 62 million voters out there who fell for one of the greatest cons going, are we surprised that robocall scams are skyrocketing? There are at least 62 million people identified who will fall for anything. The odds of a successful robocall scam have increased dramatically since November. Lots of money to be made.
28
I wouldn't go so far as to call Hillary an out and out con, though her trustworthiness was certainly questionable.
8
Not funny.
3
I don't seem to recall Clinton paying $25 million to settle a fraud case over a fake university like Trump just did.
1
Not a word in this whole article about encrypted caller ID authentication? Though it would require significant architectural upgrades to the phone system, the real solution to this problem will only come when we have a means to securely verify the source of the call.
16
You've identified the elephant in the room. Maybe this is what it will take to make the industry finally bite the bullet.
4
I know the official US position is that we don’t believe in torture, but couldn’t we make an exceptional for robocallers?
25
I do not answer these calls, presuming I'm quick enough on the uptake. I'm also adding all these numbers and companies to my contact list, and labeling them SPAM or SCAM. Each time they call, it adds to the record. When the time comes, I will be happy to hand them all over to prosecutors. In the lump. Watch out "Rachel" from Healthcare Enrollment Services, and "Kristy" from Credit Card Systems. And as for the guy who is always looking for Carl, but happy to talk to me in the meantime ....
4
Surreptitiously Russian meddling in our election process is already being shoved into high gear for 2018, and trump's complicity in it will become even more brazen, concerted and entrenched. The man is power crazed and has no scruples about pulling out all stops to keep it that way. The GOP will continue to use its wide elective powers to aggressively advance their voter suppression scheming in blatant gerrymandering and tampering with voting rights and mechanisms.
5
Now Trump is involved in robocalling? Will that man's depredations never cease?
2
Notwithstanding its accuracy, this comment is the perfect analogue of a robocall: a non sequitur, off-topic and unsolicited.
4
With more and more people (myself included) using call blocking apps that use crowd sourced data, legitimate numbers are being blocked. Here is how:
1. Bad actor sends out spoofed calls using someone else's (Person "A") phone number as the apparent calling number.
2. People with call blocking apps start blocking the spoofed calls.
3. After enough of them are blocked, all calls from the spoofed number - including legitimate calls from "A" - are blocked to all users of the apps.
Ins short, "A" can no longer presume that his/her calls to friends will go through.
Done long enough and often enough, any/all numbers in the US can be potentially blocked from completing calls.
8
The government is going to address this problem, don't make me laugh. The biggest offenders are our state and federal representatives and all their related support groups. I believe they are exempt from the do not call list.
3
Not in my neck of the woods, where the frequent fliers (>90%) are either commercial entities and non-profits trying for some of my ear-time, or out-and-out scammers masquerading as legit. The rare political call comes in the few days prior to an election.
3
May I just quickly add that the illustration heading this article is really great...
6
There is yet one more obnoxious outcome of the use of phone number 'spoofing' by spam callers. A few months ago, someone was evidently 'spoofing' my phone number while making spam calls. I received multiple irate calls and texts asking why I had been harrassing them, informing me that I had violated the "do not call" list, etc. I never called a single one of those numbers (in one case I even sent a person a copy of my call log), but I was personally blamed for the abuse.
14
That's beyond abhorrent. Crooks using the number and screen ID of the radiology practice we use phoned our land line last week. Do Not Call is useless. Now so is caller ID.
11
Wow. Time to get the police or the FCC involved.
1
and you will certainly find, if you can find, it came from an offshore computer routed through four or five different countries.
I'm afraid I’ve lost all faith in the government taking any action whatsoever to benefit the citizens of this country. It's beginning to look like everything in this country is fake or fraudulent.
• Our infrastructure is aging and falling apart, yet little seems to get addressed.
• Our schools fall farther and farther behind those of other nations and the government talks of charter schools or privatization—in a few decades public schools may be history.
• Financial institutions provide fewer and fewer services, less and less return on investments, fraudulent services that cost citizens dearly while institutions get bailed out with tax-payer money while taxpayers lose their homes and their invested monies.
• Environmental protections: slashed. Science and the future be damned.
• Our power grid, the safety of our water supply, our elections, communication, air-traffic control—everyday necessities that we take for granted are maintained by computers at risk of being hacked every moment of every day putting the health and safety of every citizen in danger.
• Civil rights—read the paper or ask people of color about that.
• Healthcare . . . don’t get me started—costs are through the roof and drugs and shootings have become public health concerns.
• Our leader is under investigation for possible collusion with a hostile nation and looking pretty shady while half of Congress yawns and enables.
And on and on and on. Robo-calls aren’t our biggest problem.
29
My wifi carrier provides a service that rolls home calls to my cellphone if I do not pick up after 4 rings. In the past few years, the robocall increase has tripled or quadrupled. I started using a "do not answer" app on my cellphone and if a banned number comes up on either phone now, it stops ringing after two rings and hangs up. It is better, but the problem must be addressed because it is getting worse and worse.
4
There are two related issues. One is robocalling which may occasionally have a legitimate purpose. The other is caller ID spoofing which has no legitimate purpose. I wonder if spoofing can be stopped or detected and blocked.
The solution to the problem is in the billing system: make the caller pay. Remember 900 numbers? My guess is there is a non-trivial cost to set this up and many businesses will kick and scream. A written opt-in could be used to cancel the charges.
2
The way caller ID works it can't be solved. There are alternatives for instance 911 operators will always get legit information, because they don't rely on caller ID. Of course some cell phone and VOIP don' provide this so the 911 center gets nothing.
The other is a toll free number which because you are paying for calls to that number get the actual numbers.
The federal DNC list is a joke. I was an original signer, land and mobile, and am still inundated.
Finally freeing myself from caring if I missed an “important”
phone call was a difficult, but ultimately rewarding, step. Everyone now gets voicemail. Smart people—the only ones I speak to—leave a message which is returned ASAP in emergencies. Otherwise, it’s when I feel like talking or see you in person. Especially smart people are already in my caller ID. Those, sometimes, get priority treatment. Our phones are only as important as we allow them to be.
8
On iphone you can block all calls except those in your contact list. Probably the same on android.
2
There would not be a problem with robocalls if the schemes did not make a lot of money for someone.
The robocalls are among the things I observe and read and hear from the general public in handling their financial obligations has convinced me that the United States has the larger problem of people being complete financial stooges and some going past that line and being complete cash idiots.
Even with the bubbles and real estate crashes and diminished wages and market ebbs and flows, there are still those that have no idea of the current value of a dollar and the power that loan interest handicaps them and those children that learn nothing about money under their supervision.
A sale is not a bargain if the product is junk or vastly overvalued to begin with. Being working class or poor in many cases seems to be be because they cannot say no to junk and ridiculous terms of finance. Money is burning more than a hole thru the pockets of the financial ignorant.
Truly, just say no, would solve a lot of problems.
8
Telemarketers I know recommend a blood-curdling scream into the receiver.
6
To all you people who say "block all numbers you don't recognize": That is impossible for any self-employed person seeking new clients. If you don't respond to unknown numbers, you will never get any new business. So we are forced to take all of those robocalls, because you never know who might be offering to hire you.
13
I'm a self-employed person. However, almost all initial communication with potential clients these days is done via email. Once I have an interaction or two with a client via phone, I'll put that person in my phone so I know it's them calling in the future (though again, most business is done via email anyway.)
Also, as a rule, I never pick up the phone if I don't recognize the number. I then check to see if the person has left a voicemail. If they haven't, I block the number. No legitimate caller would call without leaving a voicemail...and on the rare occasions that one might, they can also try me by...wait for it....email.
7
My solution is to have a main business number at Regus, with a receptionist who is savvy as to which calls to put through to me, or immediately into voicemail or to just hang up on. Clients and other important people get my cell. I don't pick up the cell unless I know the number.
My main concern is when these lowlifes tap into my contact book and start spoofing clients. It seems inevitable. Aside from staying off sketchy sites with my cell, I'll probably get an anti-malware and firewall app. Short of a large scale reversion to handwritten cursive letters as the prime means of communication, I think we'll be fighting this battle for years.
2
That's a self fulfilling prophecy Charlie. If you don't pick up your phone for unknown numbers, of course, you won't get any clients by anything other than email. There are a lot of people who don't call back, or leave a message, if they don't reach you the first time. They need someone right now, and if you are not available right now, they go to the next contractor on their list.
The object of robocalls is to make money.
America's business is business!
All freedom-loving God fearing folk should bear any burden to ensure that anyone who wants to make money should be free to do so.
Make America Great Again!
Amen.
5
So develop a way to shut this problem down and become rich beyond your wildest dream.
MAGA!
Amen.
(Although I'm surprised to hear lefties are into that religion stuff.)
3
Over half of the annoying calls I receive have a human voice on the other end trying to sell me something. Almost invariably, the call is from a non-functioning phone number. Although it might be difficult to enforce, it would be a deterrent to make it a separate misdemeanor to call, on each occasion, as if from a fake phone number, whether non-existent or belonging a telephone or computer different from the one making the call (taking into account servers such as Skype). This will not solve the problem, but it will create one big inhibition.
1
Perhaps someone could answer this question for me: why would I say 'sure, great, come on over' to anyone, even a legitimate business, who calls me to solicit? If I need something done, I'll be the one to make the effort to track down a reliable company.
Am I the only one who feels this way? How many positive responses do these people get?
11
First of all, my cell and land phones are my servants, not my masters. I do not jump up every time the phone rings and usually let calls go to my answering machine. I have Verizon Call blocking and NoMoRoBo which is pretty effective- if the phone rings only once I know it is a robocall. If I do pick up the phone and there is a pause, I hang up immediately. My friends and family know I prefer email and will contact me that way. This system is not perfect but I bet I get fewer robocalls than most of you. Good luck with hoping the government will do something about this nuisance which is an invasion of privacy and should be a crime.
5
As of today, 690 telephone numbers are blocked in my iPhone.
To temper my disgust, I have made it a game of accumulating points, with each call worth one point. I should make the IRS calls five points each.
6
Love it!
1
Blocking requires several keystrokes and really accomplishes nothing (they don't use the same number twice in most truly automated schemes).
Why not just ignore anything you don't recognize? And put your cell on vibrate or a low tone.
2
The caller ID is spoofed and fake, another sign that the perpetrators are lawless.
Reporting it makes no difference because the callers are difficult to identify.
This is the painful thing we all must do:
Press the buttons to be connected to the crooked caller, then listen and say yes during the entire call, up until the part where you have to give out personal identifiers.
The more time of the person on the other side you waste, the less incentive they have to do this.
We all must contribute to this effort, in order to have an impact. Donate a bit of time to the cause, it will work!
7
Sorry. My time is worth a lot more than their time. And that would be true even if they weren't calling from Bangalore and making $8 a day.
3
Thank you. I am an elder lady recovering from a total hip replacement and a retinopathy in one eye. When the phone rings, there is an automatic response to answer it. I even installed four land lines so that I would always be close t one. I have already fallen several times because of these robocalls.
They do target by name, address, and so on, and even seem to know what I'm looking at on the internet. (Lately, safe shoes and children's clothing for the grand-children).
These robocalls have real consequences even if one does not fall for them. (pun intended).
8
Do you really think that four land lines is helpful in your situation or does that just make you a pawn of telecom ?
You may be setting yourself up for MORE problems than you should have to put up with.
2
I have about the same amount of confidence that our government will address the robocall problem as I do that they will address the opioid epidemic--they haven't done anything yet and they don't really care because hey, a lot of their friends are getting rich from all of it.
12
Hint: vote democrat in every election. While not perfect, they're not nearly the shills that republicans are.
7
Oh Charlie. Because it's a known fact that Democrats just won't accept money from robocaller lobbyists? Bless their purity of heart.
1
@Wine Country Dude: None of the current Democratic candidates I am going to vote for are accepting money from big donors. None. Their money is coming in from small donors and they are running grassroots, localized campaigns. We are sick of big money dictating to Congress, and many of us are out to get Citizens United overturned, put meaningful spending caps on campaigns, and limit campaigning to six weeks before an election, as they do in other democracies. It is way beyond time to clean house and we have to start somewhere. It may be a long row to hoe, but it will be done eventually.
2
“...this is what they PLAN to do about it.” The Do Not Call list has been in place for years. I have been on it since Day One. Yet I have a blocked call list with hundreds of spoofed numbers of robocallers and scammers of all kinds. I used to take the time to report each number on the FTC website, but it’s clear that our government is either unable or unwilling to protect consumers from this type of harassment. Why should we have any faith in their so-called “plans” now? Disgusting.
12
There is no legitimate commercial use of a robocall.
The "Robocall community" is based on the false premise that people's time is free. It's a similar criminal inclination to the idea that "information is free".
Just a bunch of corporate crooks masquerading as legitimate business people.
It's hard to believe that the phone companies can't deliver better caller identification security.
Also, foreign countries should be 100% liable for any criminal activity by wire (phone or computer) that comes from their territory.
I do not believe this problem cannot be screwed down technically, if the will were there.
10
If the NSA can tap Angela Merkel's cell phone we can stop robo-calls. Don't tell me it can't be done. The only things we can't do are the things we lack the will to do.
27
Amazon sells a device called "CPR Call Blocker". When a bogus call comes in, it shows the number, and one can either block it as it's ringing, or block it later.Once the numbers are blocked, they can't get through again, unless you have call waiting. If you are on a call with call waiting enabled, they can call as you are talking. (You don't have to answer, of course.) It holds space for 1500 blocked calls, with 5000 pre-blocked numbers in its memory. I have blocked over 400 such calls to date.
3
Better to call your congressman
1
Usually impossible to get through, and if one does, and you leave a message, you're unlikely to ever hear from them again, except for a generic thank you letter telling you they are problem-solvers and hope you'll vote for them. At least that my experience with Tom Reed (R-NY). They are robo-listeners.
Great. I need to spend cash to fix something I didn't break.
3
Any prerecorded call except from a government entity (school, police, weather, etc. ) should be banned. Period. Any legitimate business doesn't need to robocall spam customers. If my business is SO important and valuable to your business, at least pretend to value it enough to pay the person calling me . ... and give me the Right To Say No.
8
My husband and I moved across the country a year ago and we both kept our NYC area cell phone numbers. I am getting lots of robocalls here that I never answer, it's easy to identify them as they come from 917 and 845 area codes with no caller ID. I guess the lesson is not to get a local number.
3
I don’t understand how this approaches disaster proportions. I don’t answer any number I don’t recognize. I have no problem.
2
Congratulations, you have a simple phone life.
I am a physician in a tertiary care medical center and interact with dozens of residents, physician assistants, nurses, and patients daily- many of whom need to contact me but whose phone numbers I have no interest in saving for perpetuity. These callers change as residents rotate or nurses go off shift so simply not engaging with numbers I don’t recognize is not a viable option. I can only assume many others with complicated lives I don’t personally have familiarity with have equally compelling reasons not to put their heads in the sand about this incredibly frustrating problem.
14
Doctor, doctor; Mister MD: maybe those people just need to leave a quick voicemail. Many services offer almost-real-time transcription, and you can see in a split second whether its urgent (assuming that neither a timeshare in the Berkshires nor solar panels for your house in Weston qualify as urgent).
As to your implication that some call will involve a catastrophic emergency involving imminent threat to life that cannot wait 30 seconds for response: I suppose it happens, as does the archetypal ticking-clock terrorist scenario, who absolutely must be tortured instantly in order to avert imminent catastrophe to Metropolis. But how often?
1
You're partly right. It doesn't matter at all as long as it's not someone in your family who needs immediate attention.
I had stopped picking up any call from a number I didn't recognize. Then my newly-licensed teen pointed out that if she were to get into an accident and someone were to call our home, we wouldn't pick up. Now I pick up when my teen is out on the road. Happy to say, given the context, that it has always been a robocall. As soon as the teen leaves home, we're ending the home land line. I realize that residential landlines are probably a small piece of the market at this point--perhaps too small to motivate the telecommunications companies to feel the impact of people like us dropping service--but we'll be dropping it as much to protest the abuse of our phone numbers as the fact that we don't need it.
5
There's a simple solution: I simply turn the ringer off on my phones, and let ALL calls roll over to voicemail. An amazing number of the calls that come from an "unidentified" caller simply hang up when invited to "leave a message." If people really want to get in touch with me, they can tell me what the message is, and I'll get back in touch with them -- or not, as I choose. In effect, this amounts to treating calls like postal-mail; most of it is junk, some of it is real but I'll ignore it anyway, and a few things I'll actually respond to. I don't think I've EVER missed
9
Agreed.
I've done the same for many, many years.
Since the use of robocalls for legitimate purposes is so limited and small in number, the obvious solution is to ban them outright. If the carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon, faced even a small fine of just $20/call for every robocall made, they'd stop almost overnight.
15
cell phones can block a phone number-why not be able to block ALL numbers except those you choose to allow thru-like spam blockers for email; you enter a list of names and numbers that you want to allow and that would be it. Of course-this really only works if it applies to all callers-including charities and politicians looking for money, so this would never happen, but let's face it-we pay for these phones and services-we should have control of them. who else gets the one in chinese four or five times a day?
4
Mostly, I don't bother to move to answer the phone; friends know to leave a message and, if I'm around, that I'll call right back.
But now and then -- well, lots of times -- I like the freedom of letting loose my meanness on whatever nematode is daring to try to make a sucker out of me.
"Does your mother know you're a thief and a liar?" "Is this all you have to look forward to all of your days?" "You were Charles the last time you called, how come it's Andrew now?" "How does it feel knowing that hundreds and even thousands of people hate your stinking guts?" "I'm fixing a voodoo doll in your image and you will soon burst into flames." And so on, depending on the pitch and my mood.
At least I amuse myself.
19
CenturyLink is my landline phone provider.
I subscribe to their "No Solicitation" option.
Telemarketer and robocalls have dropped from 10-12 day to (maybe) 1 a week.
http://www.centurylink.com/home/help/home-phone/calling-features/use-no-...
3
Your post is indicative of the larger problem with someone having something to sell at anytime.
1
and then “take action based on the record it compiles.” Sure... Just like they took action on net neutrality
7
I have nomorobo. It stops most robo calls but not all.
Just recently I got a phone call from someone who's voice mail says he is the world's best realtor. If he was such a person, he'd know I lived in an apartment.
Sometime back ABS-CBN called my home around 11:30 in the evening EST. A Filipino company but with California offices. Some genius must have thought the 8-9 time restriction for calls didn't apply because it was that time in California.
More recently I have gotten phone calls from people saying they were AT&T, AT&T 800 number was showing. They were offering some discount and sounded too good to be true. I asked them to tell me what my account number was. They said they were the marketing dept and didn't have that info! Red alert, I hung up but these calls continued for another week or so. I couldn't block the number because then AT&T would be unable to get a hold of me for legitimate reasons.
2
But did you then notify AT&T ?
Nomorobo. Best service ever.
5
I've lived outside of the US for the past 15+ years - China / Singapore / UK, I've never had a single* robo-call at home or on my mobile. (*last year in Singapore - I did get a Chinese DHL scam call - once). Is this just an American phenomenon?
6
It may have more to do with the cost and hassle of making transoceanic calls.
Solutions:
1) BLOCK ALL CALLS without a valid caller ID. Do not answer if you don’t know who’s calling. Let them leave a message. And if they don’t - block ‘em!
2) BLOCK ALL: Unknowns, private, out of area, nonsense acronyms (‘DD’ and I.R’ are a couple that pollute me landline on a regular basis); and
2) Use a good call blocker. The one I got on Amazon is cheap enough or at least pays for itself by allowing me to block in real time, with my handset by pushing #2 after answering or via the unit attached to the line by tapping the ‘Block’ button.
FIGHT BACK PEOPLE!!! Don’t be cowed or fooled by scammers!!!
8
Yes, this problem is bad and getting worse. And given that the Trump regime and its henchmen have been more than open about their hostility to consumer protection, expect this problem - and many others, including familiar shenanigans by Wall Street predators - to get worse yet.
13
Invent a solution to this problem and get filthy rich in this Trumpian economy. But then there will be the ticklish issue of switching your party registration.
I will generally pick up and hang up, or if I have reason to expect a call from a given area code and exchange, I will pick up but not say a word until the other party asks. "Hello?" so that I know it's a person.
There is a group that has as it's gimmick the phrase "Wow, getting hold of you is harder than ..." Very friendly, as if I know them. Often it's 'harder than getting my kids to listen' and I have taken to suggesting that if they paid more attention to the kids instead of being on the phone all day making annoying calls, perhaps they would listen more.
Having been a working mom, I hated myself for doing it the first time, but I have reached my limit.
4
No need to feel bad. They don't really have kids.
1
It should be illegal for a computer (or any machine) to call a human being. Period. Not by scammers, not by marketers, not by politicians, not by charities. No one. If you want to take a human being's time and attention, you — a human being — must be on the other end of the line.
Worldwide — enforceable (and unhackable) — protocols need to be established to ensure the ability to track down the origin of any call (even from blocked numbers). It should be required — worldwide — that each phone number be tied to a specific individual, and that the phone number continue to be associated with that individual for at least 6 months after termination of phone service.
There should be a minimum jail penalty (say, 3 years?) for anyone pushing a button that initiates a robo-call (and additional jail time for each successive call initiated in response to the single button push).
And a financial penalty — say $5 for the first dialed number in violation. Double that for the second. Further double for the third. And so on. Make the penalties exponential.
We need to stop them.
9
What about compensating every single person bothered by such calls? Hit them where it hurts. Allow people to sue them in small claims courts and win. An added jail stint should help put a stop to these crimes.
Being on the do not call list does nothing. Our government should protect innocent unsuspecting people from such scams. People are pretty much powerless to stop the calls on their own.
4
Allow people to sue them????
You'd have to find them first.
Somewhere in Asia.
Why is it that Facebook can track every detail under the sun but phone companies are unable to do something about phone calls? Perhaps we would be better off if Facebook ran the phone companies too.
14
Try Google they have moxie with technology.
1
No one who actually needs to get in touch with you will call you. People who need to get in touch will text because you will read that almost immediately and can rectify the situation almost immediately back. Phone calls are those things that only get returned at the end of the day (maybe). Rarely does anyone actually need to call anyone anymore (including for the all-important tornado alerts, appointment reminders, prescription pick-ups etc).
1
That simply isn't true, especially where older people are involved. I happen to like to use email (NOT texts), but plenty of seniors don't.
6
One other solution: Pick up the receiver, but don't say anything. If it is a robo call, or even a live solicitor, after an interval, the call disconnects. The theory is that if they think the line is dead, they won't call it again. If it is a genuine caller, they will say something and you can respond. Seems to be working -- the robo calls are diminishing.
7
I changed my voicemail message to say I do not pick up calls from unrecognized numbers so callers should leave a message. I reply ONLY to legit calls. All the rest are reported (whether or not a message left) and then use the feature on my iPhone to block calls from unrecognized numbers.
1
My recommendation: Charge each call 10 cents to the caller with 5 cents going to the callee. The other 5 cents goes 1 cent to the phone company (internet or other) and 4 cents to the government to police this. Same thing for e-mails.
Five cents??? It takes more than five cents worth of time to answer, lower your blood pressure, relax, and . . . Five hundred dollars in my pocket each time such a call invades my phone is more like it.
2
I, too, say nothing when I get a call from an unknown number. However, for fun, I will answer the calls with "colors" only and practice my acting skills. Orange? (quizzingly). Red (Emphatically) Chartreuse (when asked my name), and Magenta for other questions. The caller goes from annoyed to just plain mad "hey lady, I am just doing my job", to which I respond with great empathy "green". Once an art teacher, always an art teacher. Violet.
10
“Business groups, including the Consumer Bankers Association, counter that defining auto-dialers too broadly would hurt legitimate businesses trying to reach their customers.”
Therein lies our answer. There will be no relief. Business interests will ALWAYS prevail over an individual and ordinary citizen’s interest.
11
to be fair, businesses give the phone companies a lot more more $$$ than the ordinary citizen. I don't disagree with you, but money talks, and whoever has the most talks loudest.
1
The fact that the Do Not Call list is a joke of a feel-good law that included no real mechanism for enforcement, was obvious years ago. But the volume of these call, which are essentially the opening salvos from people intending to commit fraud, has made it apparent that our legislators don't consider fraud worth pursuing.
Apparently this is not a problem for the wealthy. If it were, something would be done.
10
I swear this is true ... I am on the no call list and all during the Obama era it worked and I didn't get any calls. Ever since Trump got elected it doesn't work anymore.
19
Yes, same here.
8
And I'm the tooth fairy!
1
Easy way to stop robo calls: Pick up the call, but say nothing. No "hello", no noise. If legitimate, the caller will eventually say, "Hello? Are you there?" If a robo or human spam call, it will immediately disconnect, and mark that number as not working or impossible. This technique derives from linguistics research ages ago into speech protocols: the rule that the called party speaks first is rarely violated.
8
if i don't know ya, i don't answer ya!
4
I came home from work to see my message light (yes, I still have a landline) flashing. To my great surprise it was a robocall message with a woman's voice telling me that "There are problems with one or more of your accounts. You must call this number in the next 8 hours or the cops will come to your house and arrest you." It was almost funny but it made me really angry. What if I had been an elderly person who might not realize it was a scam? What's worse is I had just added both my cell phone and my landline to the FCC's Do Not Call Registry several weeks prior to the call. What is the FCC really doing about this? I asked them and got no response.
5
I minimize ever making a call on my cellphone. However if someone calls me from out of state.... within a few minutes of hanging up I get a telemarketer calling. At work we get ten to twenty a day even after IP has updated their blocking list. Back at home in the evening, sign-on to Facebook with all privacy settings maximized (and I have never given it my cellphone number, two minutes after signing off a telemarketer or scammer rings my cellphone.
Seriously, if it takes adding up the amount of money this costs in lost time, can it really compare to what Congress is allowing the telemarketers and scammers to make?
2
We know already that the business of America is Business, not the welfare of its citizens. With more advanced technology we become less and less civilized!
12
The question is: how can these dialers "spoof" a number with a local area code and prefix? The major carriers are no doubt to blame since I can call someone in a different area code and 15minutes later receive a spam call spoofing the area code I just called.
5
It is dialed by a computer. The phone companies as caller ID exists do not get the actual number but assume it to be true. Remember this system was set up long before PCs were affordable or long distance was cheap.
Services like toll free 800 numbers and 911 emergency get your actual number which cannot be spoofed. Though in cases of 911 it may show up as unavailable .
Though not a true scam, about half of my robo calls are from political groups. I made some donations in 2016 and now get called several times a week, just by political committees. Bet Congress never touches them. Fortunately, I live in China, so most come when I am asleep and phone is silent.
3
There is no such thing as a legitimate telemarketing call and the industry would collapse if people stopped buying products and services from strangers who cold calling peoples phones!
If the lawmakers, FTC and FCC were serious about helping voters, they would pass laws allowing consumers the right to sue companies that the telemarketers are calling on the behalf off. I would not hesitate to sue companies who utilizes third party companies that routinely violate our laws!
I would also support regulations that mandate phone companies to allow consumers the option of blocking entire area codes and blocking unlimited phone numbers - which would help stop the abuse by telemarketers!
Unfortunately, telemarketers are spoofing legitimate numbers... and I haven't even gone into details about the numerous threats made by these scammers!
3
They have exploded recently. I’m a receptionist who answers 3 incoming lines. I’ll get one robocall, hang up, then get 2 more instantly, from the same fake number. The phone rings off the hook with them and I’ve begun fantisizing about torturing and murdering the jerks behind them.
Worse yet is knowing there are ways to force the calls to stop, but pols refuse to. Maybe we can all forward the calls to those who refuse to stop them?
17
If your a business getting that many calls, I would bet it's a disgruntled employee that is putting your number out there in revenge.
1
Personally, I’m tired of hearing about how bad life has gotten thanks to technology, that’s obvious. Like with Trump, publicly grumbling about it only feeds its ego and there’s nothing substantive to do to fight it. Same with Climare Change.
1
How can we feel protected from terrorists if Congress is incapable of protecting us from Robo calls?
16
@James: Congress does not protect anything but its own interests. The idea that they have the interests of the rest of us at heart is fiction - so, no, we won't be protected from terrorists nor from robo-callers.
9
I have learned to never, ever give my cell phone number to a business. The example someone gave of a spam text they received, purporting to be from CitiBank, is a prime example. Credit card companies and banks that may want to send you alerts via text can be spoofed, and your accounts hacked. I purchased a car from a BMW dealership in Pittsburgh and gave explicit instructions to not give out my cell phone number to anyone. Ever. I even insisted they put it in writing. As i drove away the salesman asked if he could take a pic of my car, and I agreed. Thirty minutes later I received a text from an outside company with that pic, thanking me on behalf of that dealership. Soon thereafter, I started receiving a large number of robocalls. I'm absolutely convinced there's a connection. The dealership violated my privacy. I informed the sales manager I will never purchase from them again, after doing business with that dealership for almost 20 years. Business owners, beware of the consequences of violating your customers' privacy. The implications may be far greater than you could imagine
14
How about jail sentences for the owners and managers of these robocall centers?
17
That the government and telecommunications industry, et al, will not do anything at all about the robocall problem makes them complicit and indicates that they are in collusion with he robocallers.
Whatever happened to the government FOR THE PEOPLE thing? It was bought and paid for by those who want to keep the robocaller industry going, and sold by the elected officlas people voted for.
10
It is the government for the people....rich people
3
The service is named ROBONOMO--blocks robocalls effectively.
No! It's NOMOROBO, not ROBONOMO!
I got about as far as "FCC looks favorably on Robo callers and in my mind, that is so Trumpian. Robocallers are considered an industry? To consider relaxing regulation on seriously? Think about that when you vote this fall. Anything Rotten Trump's monkeys relax regulations on to our disadvantage. Just one more reason to hope Trump gets impeached. I hope they call Melania and she writes them a huge check without Donald's knowledge!
8
I get calls from Elizabeth all the time...asking me about a vacation that I'm entitled to via Marriott. I am beyond sick and tired of this. I have blocked, told her not to call me anymore, etc., and nothing works. They spoof the local numbers, so I have no idea if the calls are real or not.
5
The person who reins in cable companies, and eliminates robocalls, will be president for life.
Most of us would be OK with missile attacks on robo-call centers.
Find two people who would object.
13
I block calls.
I have caller ID.
If I don't know the phone number, I won't answer.
All these people are going to miss:
The call from Commerce Clearing House awarding them the million dollar prize.
and worse
The midnight call from the stranded niece who asked to use a stranger's phone.
2
Scammers will continue to do this until it gets expensive for them.
The FCC should require phone companies to compensate customers for unwanted intrusions upon our time. A ten-cent credit per phone call that is hung up on within ten seconds would be charged back to the scammers and transfer the cost of bothering people back to the instigator.
18
How about this? Every time someone calls you, you have the option to hang up and hit *123 or something, and the person is fined $0.10 or something for wasting your time.
15
That robocall center will be somewhere in Pakistan. They're not worrying about anyone in the U.S. leveling fines.
4
The more technology advances, the more intrusive it becomes in our lives. I don't think this is what the innovators had in mind. It's more of a liability than a benefit now. So i'm more out of touch than in touch since i just refuse the play the game.
2
Verizon is horrible! I pay an extra $2.99 a month for "Caller ID" which identifies SPAM numbers but the "Add to Reject Call List" NEVER WORKS! I must have 20 open cases regarding this problem and still not a word from Verizon!
9
Like Sen. Grimsley, here in Maine, "Elizabeth" calls me too offering a vacation package, claiming I purchased one before. I just hang up, but it is truly annoying. If the good Senator can figure how to get "Elizabeth" a better job so she can give up this telemarketing gig, I will applaud her!
4
I really really can't understand why this is such a problem with phone users. With the free technology available today there is no reason to be bothered by robocalls.
Step 1: use a message that says something like, "Thanks for calling. If I do not recognize your number I will not answer your call. If is important please leave me a message telling me who you are and why you are calling. I will listen to your message shortly after you leave it and I will call you back as soon as possible. "
Step 2: NEVER answer a call from any number you don't recognize or from anyone showing up in your caller ID you do not know. NEVER! NEVER!
Step 3: ditch your land line or put a similar message on it and never answer it.
If the plastic surgeon would do this the most time he would likely lose is a minute or 2.
I have used this system for 10 years and have never answered a robocall nor missed an important message.
If everyone did this the robocallers would be out of business quickly.
2
I no longer answer my cellphone unless I recognize the number. And I particularly don't answer calls that come from the same area code.
I don't now how they come up with these numbers that are supposed to look familiar (i.e., same area code), probably randomly, but something funny happened to me a month or so ago. I got an irate call from what sounded like an older woman (like me) demanding to know why I had called her (she hadn't answered a call allegedly from my number). I had the funny feeling MY number had come up as the number the telemarketer was using to to get HER to pick up what seemed to be a local call. I hadn't called anyone I didn't know recently and just said something like"sorry, wrong number" to her, not wanting to engage in a longer call.
6
I'm crippled with a back problem and it's hard to get to the phone.
I got tired of being angry with 5 or 6 sales calls a day.
Finally called my phone carrier. With some difficulty they helped me to install Robocall. Now I don't even get one robocall a day. Good result!
4
" Federal lawmakers have noticed, and this is what they plan to do about it." YES, PLANS ARE LOVELY THINGS, AREN'T THEY ?
5
I've heard if you include the tone for disconnected numbers in your voice mail you can fool some robo dialers into taking your number off the list because they are designed to not waste time dialing disconnected numbers. I'm not sure it actually works, but might try it. Of course, I'll probably annoy people who want to leave a message.
1
Weak knee'd house and senate along with a chief executive chiefly in business aimed against American consumers means no end to robo calls...Unless consumers are willing to ante up and pay for it.
Phone makers, ISP's, and social media gives away our privacy, which includes our phone numbers. The house, the senate, and cabinet level agencies are all accomplices to it, by their ignoring it. Which consumers cant do, unless they turn off their phones.
10
Until Republicans receive all these calls, and are just as annoyed as we are, don't expect anything from this congress!
4
When the caller ID displays a different number than that of the caller (spoofing) it's FRAUD. Verizon will not do a thing with respect to fraudulent use of the numbers they assign. I've complained to them many time about spoofed robocall numbers. Verizon just doesn't care.
14
A nasty experience is having the police knocking on your front foot at night because your house has been identified by a ping from someone who can’t find their cell phone.
2
Simple solution for land lines...buy a phone that blocks the calls. The phone we bought (AT&T) has an allow list and a block list. Any number on the allow list (and in the directory) comes through immediately. All block list calls are blocked. Calls not on any of the lists hear a message telling the caller to push the pound key to get through, so it needs to be a human caller (although we think some robo-calling systems are set up to bypass this). Works great. Stopped 95% of unwanted calls from day one.
9
We used that "press 1 to ring through" feature with our land line, only to learn that the desired automated systems didn't bother to press 1 but just started talking as soon as the screening message began. The upshot was that we puzzled long and hard over whose doctor appointment (and where and when) reminder had been phoned, and which prescriptiong was ready to pick up. We canceled that service, and now just screen calls. It IS aggravating. We are on the Do Not Call lists, but it doesn't seem to help.
5
Understood. That is a potential weakness. Our phone has afew other features. One is you can have all calls not on the Allow or Block list or in your directory to go directly to your answering machine. Another is you can enter the first several letters of the caller id name (e.g. Cedar Road Elementary) in lieu of a phone number for those robocalls you want. Admittedly, that's far from foolproof. Also, when a call is being screened, the phone lights up, so you can decide to answer it. And all calls appear in the CID log. With a few button pushes can be saved to the Allow list for the next time. It's also easy to turn off the screening feature if you are expecting an important call. There are other phones that you can set up so during certain hours all calls go to the answering machine. Lots of choices.
I get so many scam calls on my landline I use for business and family calls. I got a new landline and it is happening on that, too. I have received calls from the IRS, Windows, Microsoft, Dell - I let everything go to voice mail before I pick up or do not recognize the number. STAND IT! I turn off my cell when not in use but cannot do so with landline. Phone company I use is no help!! Can only block 8 calls on-line.
Thinking of using carrier pigeon next........
3
Some of my relatives are so upset by junk calls that they have disconnected their landlines. We may be next. It is rare now for us to receive a call from a legitimate contact. Political party campaigns are just as bad.
4
Anyone who wants to start a robocall business should first download the federal do not call list and use that as their starter call list. I believe it is free to anyone to download and each number is guaranteed to have a live person sat the other end.
2
My phone rang the other day, and the caller ID showed my own name and number. I thought, "Hmmm. That's weird," and picked it up.
In the second that it took to put the phone to my ear, a wave of panic washed over me. What are the existential and ontological ramifications of answering a phone call from yourself? Have I gone insane? Is this a hallucination? Is it a glitch in the Matrix? Will I disappear if I don't answer it? What will I say to myself, what questions should I ask? "How are you?" Technically, I know the answer to that one already. Or do I?
I thought about asking where I/you were calling from (where y’at?!), but this seemed a terrible idea. If he/I said, "My/our apartment," it would have made the situation much worse.
"What are you doing?"
This was another bad question. How would I/you have responded if I/you said, "talking to myself on the phone?" If someone else heard me say that, they would call 911. And I/you was/were… what?
Deep breath, phone to ear, and then, "Hello?"
Nothing. The line was dead.
This freaked me out even more. Had I just called myself to tell me that I was dead? That answering this call was like something out of an Ambrose Bierce story? There was a faint static on the line, and I desperately tried to make some sense of it. Then, suddenly, recordingly;
"THIS IS BELINTRICE. I WANT TO HELP YOU LOWER YOUR CREDIT CARD INTEREST."
And so it is. I am a machine, and I am a jerk…
Just make it stop.
23
8 on Thursday
7 on Friday
only 2 yesterday and 2 (so far) today
I guess they have the weekends off?
4
No, they just know people are less likely to be home on the weekend.
2
Robocalls sometimes have a very legitimate purpose: The school system announces a snow day, or there's a tanker truck accident releasing dangerous fumes. In my opinion, political surveys and charity fundraisers no longer rank at all. In the past, perhaps, but the system is now so corrupt, that I always ignore such calls. For example, the patrolmen's benevolent organization is seldom anything more than a fund raiser business taking most or all of the contributions.
Local telephone companies get a (small) fee for each call answered. They can't resist the income from robocalls.
Other telecom companies can't turn away the income from providing computerized VOIP access to scammers often operating from offshore.
The FCC is a now little more than a whore of the politicians.
16
Actually, the PBA was never anything more than a scam. And "Officer Soandso" was never a cop at all, just a hired hand at a company that makes intimidating solicitations all day long.
2
It is worse than ever. And this deal of mimicking numbers in your area code is pretty slick (and horrible). Sometimes before cutting them off I'll say 'I already reported you.'
Best advice from this article is reminding people not to answer anything with the word "yes," which can be used later as your agreement to who knows what nightmare. Thanks, Tara Siegel Bernard.
3
They're afraid it may harm "legitimate business"? No one has any business making unsolicited calls. Not one business should be calling trying to sell something.
If I don't recognize the number calling I don't answer. If it is a business returning a call they'll leave a message. If they don't that's too bad.
14
Our robo calls are blitzes from someone who speaks Chinese for about a minute and hangs up. They come in on landlines and cells phones. At work they come in on all the lines at once. It's like an attack. I posted on Facebook and many friends in the area are also receiving the same treatment. This is literally a useless interruption of my phone service at home and at work. Calling the number back? it's busy.
3
I would rather have all calls blocked by default, except from numbers on a list which I provide to the phone company. My approved list would include family, friends and selected business contacts. Why not?
5
And what if a family member has been in an accident, and the number ou failed to listwas the number of a police officer or emergency room that needed to call you?
One shouldn't have to foresee every possible calling scenario in order to be free of the disruptive harassment of robocalls!
12
This is a national security issue, as the lines could be overwhelmed in a true national or local emergency.
If these originate from countries that refuse to control them - I seem to hear a lot of accents from South Asia - then there should be diplomatic or trade means to deal with these.
The spoofing opt-out for domestic violence victims can be reasonably controlled as well.
14
Is there an Android App that will block any number that's not in my contacts?
2
There's a few.. but none actually "Block" the call. They redirect it to your voicemail.
Thanks.
Spam Blocker. free and easy. my daughter installed it for me.
There is no fool proof way to stop these calls. I have a landline and cell phone. I receive calls and text messages. The calls come from my local area code. I can call back in a few hours (my phone is seldom answered) and the telephone number is no longer in service.
Home sick last week and 6 times I received a call on the landline answering machine telling me about how to manage my "delinquent federal student loan". Needless to say- I've been out of college over 40 years without a student loan. The sixth time, I answered the call to hear a recorded message tell me to press "1" for information. A voice came on the phone. I informed "the voice" I have never had a student loan. The voice asked if I had co-signed for anyone. I answered no. I then told "the voice" I was on the Do Not Call registry. I demanded to have my number removed from their list. "The voice" told me "Unfortunately, as long as we have your number, we will still call..."
So, all the advice in the world will not stop this assault; even class action law suits are now useless since it is almost impossible to discover who is actually behind the calls.
5
I just block the numbers as I get em. Doesn’t take more than a couple seconds on the iPhone at least. Not sure about android. Also, I don’t pick up the phone for numbers I don’t know. That alone has made me receive less than 2 calls a week (on average) from a height of almost 4 a day when I would answer every call in case it was important.
4
Even if we block numbers as they come in, including spoofed numbers, algorithms simply increment the number up or down on the last digit ... I think there needs to be a legislative/enforcement solution to this ...
2
It's a bad feeling to hear the phone ring and know it's probably a nuisance call.....but what if it is a call you need to take. One of my doctors calls me from different numbers depending on which clinic she's working in that day. She has also called from her home phone number. Usually, I don't recognize the CID or the number. It's embarrassing to say that I do not have a # where I can be reached unless I get a message or Voicemail
Yes, the telecom companies could stop this. But Congress will have to make them and we don't have a consumer-friendly Congress at this time. Vote in people who will end this nuisance as a priority.
6
I generally don't answer calls I don't recognize but when I'm feeling frisky, I answer with "FBI, Agent Mulder speaking, how may I help you?"
10
But the fact is, that isn't going to stop anyone or scare anyone, because if your robocalls are like my robocalls, it's a robot delivering a spiel as soon as you pick up.
1
Despite all the taxes I pay, the U.S. Government cannot even shut down the robocall scams.
And I am to believe that they can stop terrorist attacks?
Dysfunctional, nonfunctional governance -- is a failed state.
With an orange dotard at the top, the failure to smash the robocall/scam industry--even pretending to be the IRS--demonstrates the lack of rudimentary competence.
How many politicians get kickbacks to let this go on?!
19
This will never be solved under the current administration. They don't believe in regulation. Money talks, that is all.
19
President Obama had 8 years-why didn't he solve it?
I don't even listen to my voice messages anymore. I got sick of playing them and having to delete the ads, wasting time and money, so they have rendered this function useless. But I have to live with the unsettling feeling that I missed something important from someone who needs me.
5
It is surprising that some ambitious legislator in the Senate or the House doesn’t take this on as a priority. He/she would gain followers overnight.
Several things can be done to reduce robo calls:
First, and most important, figure out some way to charge for over (say) 100 calls per day. Yes, I know, for calls from out of the country and such this is difficult but it is far from impossible. Because the calls cost nothing there is a payoff even if a tiny fraction of the calls brings in a result. And, it is a “market solution” so dear to the core values of those in power. If the cost is prohibitive for local legitimate businesses, be they retail or survey or political, then the calls should not be made at all.
Second, make spoofing a federal offense with a high fine and jail time as a felony for repeat offenders.
Third, require phone companies to get involved. For instance, following up on reports of spoofed numbers by stopping use and reporting to the feds ; blocking phone numbers with only a minimal charge (my carrier charges several dollars to block a number); background checks of new phone service applications.
These actions, taken together, are possible and would certainly help.
13
If the President of the United States can break the law with impunity, why not telemarketers too?
13
As an independent Information Technology consultant, I had a toll free number that I gave to clients and prospective clients. At one point, I began receiving calls at all times of the day and night but there was never anyone on the phone line. Each call would tie up my phone line for a few minutes before eventually dropping off. At the end of each month, I found that I was billed for each of these numerous calls.
At first, the provider of my toll free service - Verizon - would credit my account for these calls. After a few months, they said they would no longer issue any credits to me. When I asked to speak with their security department so we could try to halt these incoming calls, I was told they have no security department. I eventually had to suspend the toll free number and change my advertising to provide a new telephone number.
I never did find out who was making all those calls to me but I’m sure someone was profiting in some way for routing those silent calls to me and making me pay for them.
17
More likely your competitor was harassing you or a disgruntled client was upset with your.
1
The scams are getting more sophisticated. Two recent examples that happened to me: a scammer calling me after the purchase of a new car to get my billing set up for the satellite radio (something I had already done). And after getting my laptop back from Dell, a scammer calling to report there was still an issue with the computer and he needed to remote into it. These criminals are somehow finding out about recent transactions you have done, such as these examples here, and try to scam you using this info that might be believable to many people. This is an area the Authorities should focus on.
29
These calls are more than just an annoyance. More and more of us work nontraditional shifts and are trying to sleep for all or part of the day. Leaving the phone off the hook or unplugging it makes it impossible for friends or family to reach me in an emergency, and slow me down if I need to call 911. I have to lose use of my phone each day because of robo callers? It's a struggle to get enough sleep outside the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. hours the rest of you sleep. Night workers deserve uninterrupted sleep too. Chronic poor sleep is associated with a host of negative health outcomes -- it's even been linked to Alzheimer's. If these yahoos were calling during the night, I feel certain the problem would be dealt with in a heartbeat.
12
Unless and until we use our diplomatic authority in India and elsewhere to demand that their governments stop their piracy, this will continue.
India has traditionally been in the thrall of the Soviet Union, and now Russia. How can we not address the link in overt Russian aggression and corrosive Indian piracy?
4
It's hardly limited to India. Many of the robocalls I get have American accents.
2
I'm going to read every comment in the hopes that someone has found something that works!
6
Fritz, Go for either an air horn or a loud whistle. Works for me!
5
More worrisome: many spoofed area codes of calls I receive are from cities where I have lived in the past or was born in. Very likely the massive email hacks of Yahoo and others have resulted in databases that contain your cell phone cross referenced with publicly available information on you. If you get a robocall from the area code you were born in, likely you’re on a hot prospect list that’s being exchanged as the result of all those major hacks and breaches in the past few years.
6
I received an alleged text or email from, I think, CItibank, or some other entity that has issued a legitimate card to me, re some sort of fraudulent use of my card and was supposed to call a certian number immediately. I think they even referenced my correct account number. Instead of calling them, I called Citi or whatever outfit issued the card, and they knew nothing about it. I came very close that time to getting scammed, because they had enough correct info on my account to scare me.
3
I have ended up making the default ring on my cell phone 'vibrate only' and assigning an different audible ring tone to the numbers in my contact list. My message tells people that unknown numbers will not be called back unless they leave a message. I generally only get buzzed perhaps twice a day, compared to the five to ten calls a day the husband was getting before he asked me to set his phone up the same way.
8
I have a landline and after an increase in the number of robocalls, I turned off my answering machine and just let the calls ring and ring. (I turned the ringer off in the bedroom so they don't wake me up). The volume of calls seems to have decreased since I did this. I occasionally look up the caller numbers on line and report them, but it's too time consuming. I have a cell phone which I use only for outgoing calls when I'm out. It gets swarms of robocalls which I just delete. It seems with all the advanced technology we have there should be some way to control this nuisance.
5
If we can send humans to the Moon using 20th century technology . . .
7
But Congress WANTED to send a human to the moon. They now WANT political payoffs from telecom companies.
3
My question is who buys any good or service based on a robocall? Anybody who does that is a fool. We should not be receiving robocalls at all period. They are based on a dumb business model(If you just annoy someone enough they will buy something). They are also an invasion of privacy and of our right to just be left alone to enjoy the peace and quiet of our own homes and families.
21
I've been getting hundreds of calls night and day over many months regarding my student loan. Trouble is, I have no student loan and never had one. These calls apparently come from several sources. I've tried to tell this to the callers (after I'm forwarded to a live person) but to no avail. Tell me again, who do I complain to?
14
Do not answer calls from numbers you do not recognize. Block all such calls.
14
@Antoine I have the same problem. I get calls for in home medical equipment and to remind me that the warranty on kitchen remodel will soon expire. I never had my kitchen remodeled. There really isn't any one to complain to. The robocallers know that and that is why the problem persists. Years ago you would have an actual person in a boiler room with a phone book making 100 calls a day just to nab one "customer". Now with this robo software they just turn that loose with thousands of calls and nab a few suckers. Only the government can step in and stop this. My guess is that will NOT happen.
4
I get repeated calls, multiple times a day, regarding a car warranty that is about to expire. I have never owned a car in my life.
One time I decided to engage. When a real person came on the line, I said "which car warranty is about to expire?" They said "you have more than one car?" "Yes," I said, "and if you can tell me which warranty is about to expire, I may extend it." End of call.
Solution: don't answer your phone. If it is important, they will leave a voice mail message. I have advised my friends and relatives of this approach. A no-brainer solution.
26
When I don’t recognize a phone number, I don’t answer. If the calls leaves a voicemail, I’ll listen to it. Otherwise, I will put the unknown phone number on the blocked list.
30
My experience is robocalls have decreased since a call center in India was raided and 700 people were arrested. The guy claimed to be calling on behalf of the IRS if I did not call a number they gave me. I told them that I am reporting to the FBI. The guy on the line started using abusive language. I hung up and sent an online message to the FBI. This was before the raid in India. People should should report the robocalls and their scams to the law enforcement even if they don't think there will be some action.
11
When I called out one of these Indian IRS scammers, the guy changed tactics: he said he loved me and would pay me to marry him so he could come to the USA!
5
There used to be on-line State and Federal sites to report scams; you registered and then had access to reporting, and to some stats regarding certain common scams. Way back, Nigeria was a home base for scams. I no longer have a mobile which was the source of voice and text scams. If you have stopped driving due to age, chances are you don't really need a mobile. If you do get one, sign up for a limited data plan for emergencies, cab and Uber service. Don't engage a phone scammer; hang up. The IRS does not make personal calls to collect tax; utilities do not make personal calls, if you can be reached through the internet.
2
This worked: I called Comcast and asked them to put a Robo-Call blocker on my land line. The rep first said "We have no such thing" - so I asked the rep "How many Robo-Calls a day do you get?" and she said "Zero" - so I said "I'd like the same one you have" :-) Well I held firm in my request and they added a robo-call blocker on my landline at no-charge (because they "don't offer it as a service") and now when a robo-call comes in, it rings once then when the system detects it's a robo-call, it stops ringing and the call gets blocked. EVERYONE should do this until the phone companies block the Robo-Calls like they do for themselves. Congress, don't let the Phone Companies get away with telling you they are powerless. They make a fortune putting robo-calls through to everyone but themselves.
46
My land line is via Google; I pay $10.00 a month for the phone line and no call gets thru my land line that is not on my contact list.
1
I was getting repeated cell phone calls from different numbers at the same exchange--mine. I recognized the pattern and never picked up. Those calls have stopped.
Now, I simply do not pick up if I don't recognize the number. 9 out of 10 times, they don't leave a message, virtually guaranteeing it was spam. The problem will be when they invade one's contact list (via malware through the web) and spoofing actual clients, relatives, etc. It may simply be necessary to get a new cell number, and repeat as required.
And landlines are a thing of the past.
49
I don't answer either,but they still call, though they don't leave messages. I just don't answer any number I don't recognize. If it's important, they'll leave a message.
9
That dystopian future is nearer than you think. I've noticed that when apps update, they request increasingly invasive permissions. Why does a book reading app need access to my contacts or camera? Most people don't even check what an app is accessing on their phones. I've turned off auto-updates. The downside is that my phone crashes more as Google gets more aggressive and invasive. If an app wants permission to files and other apps that it doesn't need to operate, I don't download.
10
Landlines are critical for those elders who rely on them for medical alerts and in areas where power outages are frequent (no cell without power).
10
Using the term 'robocaller' is being too kind.
99% of robocalls are scams.
It's illegal to use a fake caller ID, but it appears the FCC doesn't make much of an effort to pursue these crimes.
We have NoMoRobo for our land phone, but it requires the phone to ring once. We were getting up to 12 calls a day, when I discovered that our land phone system has an option to not ring the first time. Now our house is much more quiet.
I haven't had many scam calls on my smartphone, but it's easy to block those.
BTW, our congressman (Mo Brooks) uses robo calls with a fake caller ID. This should explain why the GOP-controlled Congress won't take action.
30
I don't answer unknown callers with unknown numbers, but it hurt me one time. The billing Dept. from a company making my allergy solutions called a few times with an out of state 800 number and no identification as to who was calling.
Of course I refused to answer, legitimate companies need to display their names on caller ID if they expect anyone to answer and at least leave a message.
BTW, i wound up going off my allergy shots and the company lost $400 a year from my business.
10
If you have caller ID Android now automatically identifies many spam callers and gives you the option to dump the call to voice mail.
You see a red screen and can refuse the call.
Previously you had to go through a number of steps to block the caller.
4
I have an Android and it does not do this! Do you have to request it or install something?
1
It seems to me that telecomm companies could solve this problem overnight.
1.) Program their software to display the actual name and phone number of all commercial accounts. Do not allow commercial accounts to modify this caller ID.
2.) Any phone number making over, say, 100 calls per day is automatically a commercial account and comes under the above rule.
29
These are the repercussions of your voting. If you voted in this President and Republican Congress, looking the other way for so long, you must live with the nuisance calls. I don't think the millions of calls would be occurring with a Democrat government, a sentinel of Consumer protection. Think about what the Republican "Pro-Business" deregulation means to your life.
25
This problem is not just on cell phones, it happens on land lines and Voice Over IP (VOIP) services, too. I am on both Colorado's and the Federal No Call Lists. I get several of "similar area code/local exchange calls" each week. I routinely block the numbers.
Because all numbers just show phone number, city and state, on caller ID, I do not know know if I am blocking someone really tying to call me, for legitimate reasons. I have the ability to send them to forever ring; leave no message. That is better than going through dozens a scams each week.
Congress opened the door to this, by allowing robo calls for campaigns and charities, when the No Call List was first devised.
Add, the creation of technology which masks where a phone call comes from. This is the equivalent of sending e-mail Spam from a fake e-mail address. Something that can be blocked, if you know what you are doing. With phones, you are at the mercy of various providers.
The telemarketing industry is pushing for direct to phone voice mail INBOX to be legalized. This will make this existing problem worse, as it will bypass your carriers. It would be like sending SMS straight to your cell phone number.
What needs to be done, is for each incoming each phone call, and text e-mail, is filtered to verify the originating phone number matches the actual calling phone number. If not, the call and/or text message will be dropped. Similar to how filtering e-mail works.
15
I might also add to my post below that dialer software can spoof phony caller id numbers to be displayed.
4
Maybe we citizens need to hire our own lobbyist to pay Congress to fix this for us. Be expensive, but a couple million of us could do it, a small fee and stop sending donations to political parties and candidate campaigns and put those donations to a better use. And as we all know, Mick Mulvaney would be open to this.
10
I just don't answer any call from a number I (or my phone) don't recognize. Legitimate callers will leave a voicemail, telemarketers rarely do. My phone's in vibrate mode most of the time, so this seems like a fairly minor annoyance to me.
With many of these calls originating from offshore operations beyond the reach of U.S. law, I doubt anything will change.
68
Bingo! I do the same. Vibrate, and if the unrecognized call seems potentially important, call voicemail immediately. Any legitimate caller WILL leave a message, and right from voicemail I can return the call.
At most, I've delayed our talking by 60 seconds or so. I've been doing this for over 5 years, and have yet to have someone ask me "Why didn't you take my call?" Heck, as far as that goes, I could have simply been in the bathroom for all they know.
10
Better yet, just turn your phone completely off. Then you don't have to bother with rings, vibrations, nada.
4
This is a problem when you're expecting a call from someone important whose number you don't yet have. I'm a caregiver, and I frequently await legitimate calls from various providers or customer service people. Often I pick up a plausible-looking number (NOT in my own exchange) only to find it's a robocall or some other wretched solicitation.
4
I use my mobile phone for work and my job requires me to call dozens of people in numerous locations each week. When a call comes in I am thinking: do I recognize the area code and location? It's not realistic to have so many people in my contacts.
Worse yet is when the robocallers start using your number? I was on vacation for a week last year and came home to over 3 dozen angry messages because that stupid woman with the British accent that wants to lower your interest rate spoofed my number.
Sigh.Hopefully someone will take action.
12
Why don't you ask your employer to purchase a dedicated phone and service for the calls you are required to make on their behalf. It would seem to be an intrusion into your personal life to ask that you open your contact list to a commercial business. Contact an official agency governing employment regs and ask if this is legal. If you agreed to do this, then you are stuck. Read anything you are asked to sign, and look for references to the use of your personal phone. If there are none, the employer has no right to demand that you use your personal phone for their commercial business calls.
4
Yes, I recently had an angry call, a first, from someone called by a robocaller using my number. Maybe when someone gets shot or something over this the authorities will do something.
1
Ironic this article should appear today.
We've gotten four calls today, supposedly from Apple, warning us that "our iCloud account has been breached". And it's just barely noon.
We're looking into phones that white-list - that ring only when a number is in our contact database. Maybe that will help for awhile, at least.
6
An Apple iPhone will allow you to put your phone on "Do Not Disturb" for everyone except your contacts, or just your "personal" contacts. And you can easily block numbers.
3
Thanks for this. I should have included that we got the "Apple" calls on our landline.
If you want action from your Congressional Representative, try this.
Put his office number on speed dial. Every time you get a robo call, call their office and leave a message saying you just received another robo call and please do something about it.
The staff then have to listen to your call as it is legitimate about your issue.
When his office gets bogged down with these constituent complaints whatch them take action.
18
Genius!
2
I recently got a very angry call from another victim, accusing me of placing phony calls because my number showed up on their caller ID.
I am losing faith in the FTC do-not-call list. I believe it has become abused to be the "you can call this number" list. Under this FCC and this administration, I am afraid they will just make it easier to abuse that valuable list of real numbers.
So in addition to the half-dozen or so robocalls I get daily, I also get accused of placing them by angry neighbors. I am getting close to disconnecting both my land line and cell phone. I'll keep my cell phone as an internet-only device. Phone companies: Wake up, your business is about to collapse due to this abuse. A pity that Alexander Graham Bell's great invention will end like this.
16
Yes, I also recently got what seemed to be an angry call from another victim. I suspect we won't see any action on this probem until we have multiple victims being used like this coming to blows.
1
I have my home # on VOIP. I never answer it. 99.9% of the calls are spam and hang up when they hear the machine. But I have been getting bill collectors call me, looking for someone else, on my cell phone for over 18 yrs. The name just keeps getting sold over and over. They use local #'s and I just block them. But they all come from one co: Diversified Holdings. Why the Feds can't nail them is beyond me.
14
I do not know of any legitimate services who make personal calls to collect overdue or unpaid bills. Utilities might make a call, or notify you via your e-mail address they have on file; those are easy to identify via your account numbers. Old people are vulnerable to these scare tactics.
2
I’m surprised the article did not mention some of the winners of the government contest to block robo calls:
I use nomorobo calls- a free service to landlines and it blocked 98% of robo calls. I think they charge about $1 month for cell phones but not all carriers allow you to use them-
7
Yes, I have this too and it's better than nothing. But each robocall rings once. I am very ill and these wake me.
5
I file a complaint for every call; I look up reverse phone look-up use every app possible. What irritates me is my phone company/phone will allow 5 blocks which is sheer idiocy. Or I have to pay extra to add more prevention. Rip off. With all the technology and as fast as phone companies can add all these extra conveniences to the next phone upgrade, they can't find a way for the consumer to be protected. Unfortunately, I feel most of the phone companies are making money off of these telemarketers and delay the prevention. Or our lobbyists are somehow involved, lining their own pockets. Seems to be the protocol for American Corporations in today's unethical behavior patterns.
9
I’m with the people who don’t answer unless I recognize the person calling. Unfortunately their are companies I do business with whose employees use their own phone or have a blank CID that don’t get answered. If they don’t leave voice mail it is their problem. Who I feel sorry for are receptioists that have to answer every call.
10
"debt collectors must stop calling after consumers send a written request". Send a letter to whom? How are we to know who it is?
7
Go to Better Business Bureau, or to your State commercial reg. Agency. Every State has a site where you can log in a robo call complaint; you do have to present as much documentation as possible. Scammers do not want to be reported to a Federal or State Agency; you can answer and threaten to report the caller; or, you can write down the number, look it up and then report it. Most of the scam numbers use off shore pre-fixes.
3
The number of calls is nuts, yes. I get them constantly. But -- I never answer the phone if it is from a number I do not recognize. If it's someone in my contacts their name shows up. If it's someone not yet in my contacts, but a legit call, they will leave a message, and I can call them back and add them to contacts. No, I'm not a doctor, but it seems if someone leaves a message the doc would listen to it pronto? There's a new feature on the my phone where it is transcribing the message, not great, but good enough to see what the call is about. I haven't had a landline in about 20 years.
7
Keep a loud whistle near your phone. Blow it as hard as you can into their head set(s). This works well.
4
Many of the calls I receive are recorded messages.
3
I agree with SAR. Just about all the calls I receive have recorded messages. So whistles and the like have no effect.
1
I receive at least 5 calls a day. I have the volume off and never answer. I expect a vm message if it is a real call. But, sometimes it is a real call and an important call and the caller will not leave a vm. Still, it is worth it to not have the interruption.
2
If the call is legitimate and important, the caller should leave a brief vm. If the caller won't do that, it probably is neither legitimate or important.
3
This is a timely story. I recently got two phone calls moments apart from local business and local neighbor including their names in my caller ID. When I complained to Verizon (these were landline, not wireless received), I was responded to by the Wireless department who told me to change my number. They denied culpability nor interest.
I think the first thing that needs to happen is that the owners of the fiber transmitting the calls be fined for each call that can be recorded. That would get their attention and would immediately get them working on the problem.
7
"Business groups, including the Consumer Bankers Association, counter that defining auto-dialers too broadly would hurt legitimate businesses trying to reach their customers."
I happily take this risk. The robot-callers - many aparently from the Filippines and SOuth America - are invading privacy and tealing time. If this is not a crime, I don;t know what is. Is it not the duty of the government to protect the citizen?
10
Business and/or merchant groups have a vested financial interest in keeping telemarketers active. Telemarketers are paid for each contact made, not call made. They have to make contact with you. These are nuisance calls by definition. If I want a service, or a bank contact, I can find a proper number to call.
1
I think we should implement a minimum 10 cents tax to initiate any call. That should fix the problem and get people off their phones which would be better for everyone.
On a practical note I recommend changing phone numbers when things get bad and if possible choosing a number from a very rural location rather than a big metro area.
I miss Ma Bell more every year and am about ready to get rid of phones and email altogether. A string and a couple of soup cans would be a better phone system than what we are stuck with now. The phone companies seem to be complicit while Congress is more than useless.
If any of these robo-calling scammers are ever actually caught they should be shacked to the sidewalk in a very public location so we can let them know how we feel.
5
If you recommend changing your phone number, you also need to recommend that the phone owner keep an active list of all those numbers connected to legitimate businesses or others. If you don't have a list, and you change your number, good luck with trying to remember those you have to notify. That is why some businesses will not send correspondence to P.O. box numbers without documentation provided by the P.O.
1
Like other independent federal agencies, the FCC is an advocate for business/commerce as well as citizens. In the area of robo-calling, they appear to often err on the side of business too often. They could eliminate a lot of caller abuse by forcing the telecoms to allow customers to block whole groups of phone numbers - like specific area codes and local exchanges. But the FCC and the telecoms see this as anti-business. The FCC and telecoms need to put the caller control into the hands of the customer.
5
One brother answers in Russian. Another thanks the caller for reaching out and asks if this is a good time to discuss whether the caller has accepted Jesus as his personal savior. This gets foiled by robot callers. My husband just keeps saying "maybe" to confuse the computer. I bark "pronto!!" and let the line hang.
But wouldn't it be nice if the carriers were required to screen the calls? Service is hardly cheap. We are not customers. We are raw ore to be exploited and mined.
15
Love the brother who references getting saved. Priceless.
2
I see no reason why ANY auto dialer should be allowed. The F.C.C. defending this is a huge example of why voters need to get a grip on reality.
15
I use Nomorobo on my landline. My robo calls have dropped dramatically. It's offered free through my provider, Verizon.
3
I also use Nomorobo through Verizon, and I've been getting calls with the caller ID showing up as "Verizon." It comes from a local area code (212) 362-7890.
The first time I was puzzled, since Verizon does not typically have local area codes but I answered in case it was legitimate. I was connected to a live person who immediately started talking about lowering my credit card interest rates. When I said that I though this was Verizon, he hung up.
However I keep getting these calls, but Nomorobo stops them and I now recognize the number if I check Caller ID when the phone rings.
3
Spam caller are now getting and using our names in the messages they leave.
Two days ago I got a call from a similar area code and prefix and, as usual, I didn't answer it. As they occasionally do, the caller left I message. When I listened to it, it was a man. He said "Hey dugggg, this is Michael I'm returning your call."
I checked my logs and I never called that area code or number. I don't recognize the person's name or voice. I suspect he got it from my voicemail message, which I then changed to something without my name.
4
Sadly our right to privacy is trumped by the First Amendment free speech rights of robo-callers to make the calls. At least that is how the corporate lackeys now in charge at the FCC feel. If I do not know you, or if I did not give you my phone number then you have should have no right to intrude in my life.
7
Don't get mad get even.
The best response I learned on the internet. I spoofed a "detective" investigating the murder of the phone owner and started asking specific questions as to who, where a subpoena can be sent, asking them to stay on the line long enough to trace the call so the Police could send officers to interview why the caller was interested in doing business with a murder victim.
The oldest and most tried and true response has to do with my "ballsack".
Does nothing to stop or limit the amount and veracity of the calls but it sure makes one feel better about the whole process.
3
I agree. But that's 10 minutes of your life you'll never have back.
6
I have a cell phone - for emergency purposes ONLY, when I am in my car, driving to an appointment. It is for ME to make any necessary calls. NO ONE has my cell phone number, so IF there is an 'incoming call' - I know immediately it is probably a ROBO call. If at home and a call comes in with "NO NAME PROVIDED", I delete the call after the (almost always) second ring. IF a name is provided, I answer it - as soon as I am aware it is a ROBO call I say: "You have the wrong number".
3
I was applying to use an online banking app (Zelle) to transfer money via smartphones. I discovered the fine print of the contract agreement states that they are free to add your phone number to robo call lists. Beware.
11
Zelle itself is unreliable at best, a scam at worst. Tried it once at a client's request, and her payment left her account but never reached mine. I'll stick with Venmo, thanks.
1
I pick up the phone, hang up so they dont leave a message
.and it seems to work..fewer calls.
3
I usually don't answer any "robocall", but on the occasion that I do, I simply contrive a Russian accent and say, "Hallo... this is the Russian Embassy, how can I help this member of the Trump family today." The caller quickly hangs up. I at least have a good laugh.
7
You shouldn't live in fear of answering your phone because you're being stalked by robocalls. Phones were created to make communication easier but that's not going to happen if people are hesitant to answer their phone. I shouldn't have to screen my calls.
5
Blocking numbers is pointless because spammers constantly use new faked numbers. When you get a call from no number, or a number you don't recognize (especially if it kinda sorta looks like your own phone number), don't answer it. If a spammer leaves voice mail, don't call back. Anything else is a waste of time unless you are amused by dealing with these creatures.
5
Or my personal favorite, sales calls that rained down on my elderly mother after my father's obituary was published. I was staying at her home and answering her phone when we were in mourning. Did those sales people ever get a piece of my mind and mouth. Unfreakingbelievable.
12
Obituaries are also the source of identity theft. Make sure no one has opened a credit line under your father's name.
6
Some now recommend not having published obituaries.
2
Occasionally, I punch through to a robocall sales person. Often, they have someone else call back. Once on with the sales person, I try to get as much information as possible. With that information, I report them to the FCC.
One caller claimed that the IRS was planning to take me to court and that they were the IRS. Of course, I was concerned. I got all the information, and then reported this to the IRS and the Inspector General.
It's not a lot, but imagine if a lot of people did this and tried to investigate the people behind these calls? Another thing that would work would be to have a non-profit that would go after these people. Those of us who are irritated could contribute and we might be able to get something done, both politically and technologically. I don't have time to do it, but perhaps someone could organize this.
I tried to help someone get health insurance on the exchange this year, and the insurance companies on the exchange started calling me. This is a government run exchange. Why are they allowing insurance agents to use the exchange to get numbers for robocalls? Why isn't Fox News all over this? Oh, that's right, Republicans are running government now so Fox News thinks that it is perfectly fine to have useless Health exchange and to feed numbers to robocalls.
3
My wife and I now get few unwanted calls, probably because (1) we turn our cell phones on only when we are away from home and (2) our landline in on a business exchange (and on the Do Not Call list). I understand some people need their cell phones, but I have to wonder if most people are not their own worst enemy when it comes to cell phone use.
3
I know landlines are more rare these days, but my provider, AT&T U-Verse allows me to limit all inbound callers with the exception of up to twenty phone numbers of my choosing. Love it. Phone never rings.
4
When my in-laws were alive, I worried in particular about my father-in-law, a very sweet man who was also rather gullible. Anyone who called could have gotten his SS number from him. The elderly are targets of so many scammers. I am particularly concerned about them.
My solution is caller ID. If I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. If it's someone who wants to reach me, he or she will leave a message. If I have time and feel particularly peeved, I answer the call. If it's a live person, I ask them to stop for a moment. I tell them that I'm going to record the call (you need the permission of both parties in my state). If the person is still on the phone, I ask them to remove my number from the list. The person thinks I've recorded that request, which I haven't. Yes, it's time-consuming, but it is the only way I got AT&T to stop the daily marketing calls. A small victory.
5
I feel the pain of Dr. Pess and Mr. Hein. In February, I received more than 40 robo calls. Bear in mind, February has only 28 days.
4
I don't answer 9 out of the 10 phone calls I get. It's bad enough that, if I didn't need a phone number just to live, I'd cancel it in a second. I've gotten calls as early as 6:30 in the morning and as late as 11:00 at night. They're endless and virtually instantaneous. My girlfriend just got new service on her phone the other day, and her first phone call within an hour was spam.
Sooooo sick of it.
7
Like everyone else, I get several robocalls a day on my landline and often on my cellphone as well. I screen all calls and usually don't answer if the Caller ID is at all iffy. Luckily I answered this week, because it was someone from my health insurance company calling me back as promised.
One thing that helps is a Google Phone Number that can be set to ring any number I wish. If I do not answer the phone, real callers can leave a voicemail that is sent to me as an email. If I choose to answer, Google announces the name of the caller. I can choose to proceed or hang up.
My number is based in the state where my grandsons live, so that they call without long-distance charges on their landline.
Most importantly, whether I answer or not, I use this number on all internet forms. That hides my home number from some would-be callers. I can also block anyone who calls repeatedly or send calls straight to voicemail.
The whole thing is a nuisance, but it does save me time in the long run.
2
Our previous methods of communicating have been ruined.
I get about 20 calls a day and none are personal.
My physical mailbox is full of mail every day and not one item is personal.
My email boxes are crammed with ads, in this past week alone, about 400 ads. Don’t tell me to unsubsribe, it does not work, the things keep coming.
Sometimes I miss an important email because there is so much junk to scroll through.
It’s all commerce; it’s dehumanizing and it’s disgusting.
7
The only solution is to give us passcodes that callers need to answer unless the caller is qualified as fire police or medical.
1
If Republican lawmakers are unwilling to put a stop to this, maybe we should require they list their personal cellphone numbers on their Congressional webpages.
My guess is their attitudes about "smaller government is good government" would change quickly.
7
If the number looks legit but it's not in my extensive contact list, my voice mail says ...
"I'm sorry I did I not answer your call, but I was either unavailable or did not recognize your number. Please feel free to leave a message."
If it's an obvious fake, I hit the "reject call" button. I then have the option of looking it up and blocking if needed.
But it is a pain and it's getting worse all the time.
1
No legitimate business should be using robocallers. Just one more way to eliminate jobs. I don't accept any from anybody. But that interferes with receiving social calls, when all have to be screened. But I found an effective way to stop them. On my answering machine, you hear the message, "This is Rachel, from cardmember services..." at that point, they disconnect. It goes on to say please leave me a message. So, everyone should change their outgoing message, or get one, and quote their most-hated robocaller's spiel on it, and they will nearly all disconnect immediately!
2
After receiving a “neighborhood spoofing robocall at 2:04am the next day I called the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (which has oversight for Communications).
They didn’t care, didn’t want my story/issue, didn’t want to take a report (nor have me report this).
They said to call my own Representative. I told them my Representative wasn’t on their Committee and that was the end of the discussion (they reiterated not their problem).
6
Yes, that is very true. Even when I called my bank, Citibank, regarding a fraudulent text I received referencing my actual Citicard, they seemed to have no interest. (How did someone get my email address, how did they get my Citicard number?) Had never heard of such a scam they said, and didn't seem to particularly want to hear about this one.
1
This one is ez. I have 3 numbers on my iphone.
1) Original ATT#. Only family will call this. Every other call is garbage & isn’t answered. It is then blocked by either me or ATT’s software.
2) Google#. Businesses get this number. Since it isn’t an ATT/Verizon/Sprint # - No robocalls.
3) Sideline#. Only clients get this number. And only clients call this number. This number always gets picked up. The Doctor in your story should immediately place this on his phone. As should anyone who is willing to pay $3.99/month for a private number service w/vm & txt.
Problem solved (about 4 years ago).
2
nothing about this is 'ez'
2
Enough with these Robocalls, and enough with these incessant pharmecutical TV commercials that actually try to make it seem cool for someone to have a horrible malady, that these drugs are supposed to treat! Disgusting and inappropriate!
6
Don't worry, Congress is right on top of it.
Maybe, if they ask real nice, they could get the NSA to chip in a little something from their annual 10 billion so as to start figuring out how cell phones work.
5
We Americans are used to such distractions. Many people with T shirt messages and messages on their car windows do exactly the same thing as robo-calls, steal your precious time reading a stupid message.
1
Lock the perpetrators up and make them listen to robo call messages 14 hours a day. That'l stop them.
2
The writer suggests that the reader look at Christopher Mele’s article “Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here’s How to Stop Them,” who quotes Alex Quicili saying that Rule No. 1 is to not answer caller ID numbers you don’t know.
This used to be good advice, but is now absolutely useless.
The problem is that these days many LEGITIMATE callers use caller IDs that are indistinguishable from scammers' caller IDs, listing, instead of useful information, some version of “unknown caller” or a mystery phone number that cannot be called back.
Calls from doctors’ offices, labs, hospitals, dentists, insurance companies and financial services companies, for instance, are now usually like this.
Why on earth many legitimate callers have deliberately chosen to make themselves look like robocallers is a mystery, but unfortunately it is becoming the standard thing to do.
So maybe a much better solution would be to persuade such businesses to start using caller IDs that would be recognizable to the called person – “Dr. Morgan,” “Mercer Hospital,” “WestLabs,” “Herbert Financial,” or whatever. (They can still be numbers that cannot be called back.)
Here’s the point: The called person knows whether he or she has any affiliation with Dr. Morgan or Mercer Hospital or WestLabs or Herbert Financial, or whatever, BUT THE ROBOCALLER USUALLY DOES NOT.
If legitimate businesses simply started doing that instead of dopily imitating robocaller IDs, much of the problem would be solved.
4
Robocalling should just be made illegal....there is no need for it.
4
Thanks Trump!
1
Everyone talking about not answering the phone number in the contact list. If you are running a small business, this is a real menace. You can not afford NOT TO answer the calls. We waste a lot of time picking up these calls.
This is a serious problem now because it do not cost anything to make a call. Change that as one reader suggested. Charge $0.01 per calls. The robo calls will stop then.
So frustrated that our regulators and government can not protect the general public. It is pathetic!!
4
So call your congressman or woman and tell them either to fix the problem or you will vote them out of office. This is something the idiots in Congress should be able to get done rather than allowing them to continue spending their time calling for yet another investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Are you listening Chris Collins?
3
As Republican Donald Trump a.k.a the Frauster-in-Chief , Trump's killing off regulations which were devised to protect consumers against fraud, scams, money cons , bank shark, bank fraud, ripping off- , award-winning fake phone calls, etc. as president , the American people got to live under this nightmare TRUMP"S FRAUD society for 3 more years under the Republican criminal gang regime!
4
I was receiving at least four robocalls a day before I started putting my phone in airplane mode. This is not an option for most people, obviously, but I'm in a position that allows me to ignore incoming texts and calls until I feel like dealing with them. It's never an emergency call, anyway. Oh, and putting my number on the DO NOT CALL list did not help at all.
These robocall intrusions, the Equifax data breach, toxic social media mob justice, and duplicitous people in general have left me so jaded that I'm considering moving off the grid. I'm a lifelong Democrat but recently I've started to understand the "[Bleep] you, I got mine" mentality. People are the worst.
2
I received 59 scam calls on my cellphone in April! One scammer called daily from “Citi Bank” at 8,12 and 4, every day except Easter. And just wait until you are 65. You will be inundated with calls for Medicare, braces, I’ve fallen and can’t get up alerts, I have a buyer for your house, IRS, lower you credit cards to zero, and on and on ad naseum. And yes, scammer do leave messages to either press 1 to order your alert or 9 to D/C these calls. Of course when you hit 9, they have a live person so they call you even more.
Only one way to stop these criminals, if you don’t know who is calling you,JUST DONT ANSWER! You can’t be scammed if you refuse to talk to a criminal.
3
This really is a plague. Telemarketers are ruining phone communication. I no longer pick up calls from unfamiliar numbers, and usually don't even listen to voice mails anymore, because they are all robot-voice scammers. A few times I've missed time-sensitive, real phone calls because of this. I have a list of blocked numbers a mile long, but they keep coming.
3
I occasionally get calls on my land-line where it's some pre-recorded idiot reading "scripture" - always from a spoofed number, of course - but the worst part it is that once that incoming call engages my phone line, even if I hang up my phone repeatedly, I CANNOT get the call to disconnect!
Since this "scripture" nonsense goes on for a number of minutes, it means that in an emergency, my phone line is tied up & I'd have no way to call 911.
That Congress & the FCC don't care about that is simply a disgrace.
3
I've even received a call with MY name and number on caller ID - so it was like I was calling myself. Then we had the fake Microsoft Windows 10, "talk to me immediately or else your computer will crash" fake phone calls. Ridiculous. Unfortunately many people do return calls or hit # 1 to talk to an agent and then get screwed out of their money. Then there's the survey calls that ask you all sorts of questions you shouldn't answer but since they called on the phone they MUST be legit, right? NOPE, they aren't. If they gather enough info about you they can go get credit cards, mortgages, whatever with YOUR information. These people should be in jail.
4
I have never understood why the Democrats don't run with this. Its is clearly pro-business Republicans bending the knee to their masters.
3
Until phone and email scam abuse are capital crimes nothing will change. Time to fire up the electric chair once again. (No one can buy leathal injection drugs anymore so let's go back that that old fall back. Anyone have cyanide tablets? That will work too.)
Robocallers see the current F.C.C. leadership “as friendly to industry,” said Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, “and they are anticipating F.C.C. rulings that will enable more calling and forgive past mistakes — or violations of the current law.”
Anticipation from a liberal group doesn't make it so. Such a biased, anti Trump administration quote allowed by NY Times editor.
3
The "problem" with robocalls can be easily solved with a few $M in campaign contributions from the telemarketers. Congress will have a few "dog & pony shows", drag telemarketing execs in front of cameras, and scold them. Then they will take the money, shake hands, and look the other way.
3
I wish there were more attention given to these qualify of life intrusions or crimes. I limit my smart phone calls to those on my contact list.
10
Use do not disturb on your IPhone to only allow calls from those in your contact list. Others will be sent to voicemail, Toni callers typically do not leave messages.
5
Well, good idea but it does not work; I have a scroll of robocall telephone numbers so long I should probably put some in iCloud.
I have to put my phone on "do not disturb" starting at midnight thru 7PM daily.; I just do a visual during the day to check which numbers are for my call list.
and yes I use "Nomorobo."
2
I have my own form of revenge. When I get calls offering services or renovation contracts I always invite them up to make their pitch. I live very remotely and it takes them a good hour to arrive and find out that I have a locked gate. They do not have the code or cell service to call so they end up having to make a second trip and when they arrive I explain to them why Robo calls are great economics and how I try to change that paradigm by wasting a few hours of their time. Many get very upset and I tell them to complain to their boss for using illegal operations.
For those that are only phone calls, I wait to get a live person and say things to them that you wouldn't want to say to the devil himself. You can use your imagination because I do! My goal is to get them to reconsider their career choices.
24
We applaud your guts!!!
1
I was especially dismayed to learn there was nothing I could do when my home office number was used by robocallers last year. It was a couple of hours after the first voicemail had been left by people I’d never called telling me to stop calling them.
I immediately changed my outbound message to begin with a statement explaining my number was being used by a robocaller and asking they notify the FCC because there was nothing I could do to prevent it.
It helped a bit it seemed but I still received a few more increasingly agitated phone calls from folks who thought they had reached the person responsible for the calls. I suspect that after the first call or two to me they were pressing # on their telephone keypad to skip the outbound greeting and, thus, never heard the explanation or my request they call the FCC.
My own calls to the FCC were fruitless. They had no process for helping people whose number is spoofed. I can understand why but, still....
Fortunately, despite a few threats of violence -it was my home office number being spoofed and that the 6-7 messages I received reflected dozens or maybe hundreds of calls placed- no physical harm came my way. However, I am sure some of my own calls to people and businesses in my area will fail because those folks blocked my number.
Complaints ended after about 48 hours. I guess my number’s utility had been exhausted, the other 999 numbers in my exchange, at least, having been hit. I reset my outbound message 2 days later.
15
Here's a possible fix: Offer customers a toll number, maybe a couple of cents a minute, in exchange for a reduced monthly rate. The few cents per call would be just enough to kill phone spammers' business case.
5
Toll number? Most of these calls originate VOIP and cost next to nothing to make. They also change their caller id often,
There is also technology called predictive dialing. Put 16 people in a room and have them dialing lists of numbers. Change things and take half those people (8) on a predictive dialer equipped with the same 16 phone line and the will spek to 3 or 4 or more times as many people as the 16 without dialing technology. Why? The dialer is set to dial based on how many lines are in use at a given time and the average length of each call. It dials from a database and "predicts" when an agent will be available to begin the conversation. An agent is never exposed to a call that is answered by voicemail or never answers at all. The pace of the dialing can be aggressive or not so aggressive. Collection agencies dial aggressively. Ever received a call where seemingly no one is at the other end, or you get a message to please hold for an important call? or suddenly after waiting a moment, an agent comes on the line to pitch you something or collect money? That call probably originated from a predictive dialer dialing aggressively. It failed to properly predict when an agent would be available to initiate the conversation. Collection agencies are famous for this. The "robo" dialer is the tip of the iceberg of problems/harrassing calls.
1
Part of the problem is that while there are laws on the books about this they are not being enforced by states or other agencies. They seem content to leave us to our own devices when it comes to combating these callers.
How are the callers able to get anonymous local numbers to use without the service of phone companies?
Why are there so few prosecutions of people who ignore the Do Not Call registry. There are fines for that...individuals cannot enforce that, federal and state attorneys general have to to more.
The law must make liable, the recipient of any benefit from the calls, not just the "machine" making those calls. Bottom line someone at the end is getting money which means there should be a paper trail of that money leading to the persons instigating those calls.
If this is also a federal crime, isn't the FBI tracking the money to it's end point? Don't these people need some means to collect such as PayPal, banks etc?
9
They don't need phone companies. Google "caller ID spoofing apps" and you'll see that there are a whole host of them out there. They claim to be legal because it's apparently legal to spoof Caller ID as long as the purpose is not fraud or harassment. They claim that it's meant to be a joke. It shouldn't be legal but apparently it is.
1
Aa lot of these scam calls originate outside the US and are able to purchase local US phone numbers from international companies that own them. No one phone company owns the total pool of available seven digit US numbers with associated area codes. You don't have to be a phone carrier to sell phone numbers. If they are available, they are easy to obtain in blocks from the consorium of carriers that manages US phone number. Sometimes they are like URL's--purchased directly and then offered for sale in blocks to others.
1
If no one did business from cold calls, these calls would not be made.
9
I wonder whether this problem is as pervasive in other countries - I suspect it is not.
9
I recorded the sound that a disconnected phone makes and tried playing that back at them, that sometimes works but you have to have the recording ready. One could put that sound as your outgoing message, but that would mess up incoming legit calls.
The latest trick I try is as soon as I realize it is a robocall hold down the number 9 key for at least 15 seconds. That seems to mess up some robocall machines, or at least my calls have gone down since I started the 'press 9 and hold' thing. Maybe?
6
I use a small air horn designed for use on a boat. It blasts right in the ear of the caller. Sal for New York no longer calls me now!
7
The article describes an increasing ongoing and serious problem. The robo calling problems developed many years ago. The existing laws relating to unsolicited calling specifically exclude charties and political organizations. Many of the intellectually modest people commenting on this issue blame the Republicans and the President. The problem grew exponentially under Obama, but it was not his fault either. The fault lies with the telecom carriers, they have the lawfull authority to inhibit robo calls but choose not to!
9
I never get unsolicited calls from charities or political organizations. If you give to a charity, you might get a call, same with a political organization where you are on record as a donator. Legitimate organizations do not use robo calls; they want /need to make contact to request a pledge. Use Charity Watch to see a list of those which are frauds, the list is extensive.
1
I have been consistently called by a company that implies it is Microsoft, that swears it has detected viruses in my computer. The calls are originating from India. I will not go into detail the variety of tactics I use to discourage the calls. After all the NYT is a family newspaper. But, on one occasion, I called the number displayed on my caller ID. It was the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Being a good citizen I wanted to alert them that their switchboard was forwarding robocalls. One can not directly contact the Federal Reserve. I would have to request a form by email to address my (their) concern directly.
7
I would ask the Indian tech caller to tell me the IP address or brand of my computer. The would say I had to tell them, my response was that if you know there is a problem with my computer then you should be able to tell me something about my computer. Or else let them yammer on about Microsoft etc.etc. and then inform them I have an Apple. They would hang up.
I also do a similar thing with auto warranty calls, I ask them to tell me the year and make of my car. I tell the caller that if you know my warranty is expiring then you should know the year and make of my car. They hang up.
Another strategy is to ask them to hold on and then walk away for a period of time, come back to the phone after 20 minutes and tell them that you're too busy right now and hang up.
Lastly, I pretend to speak a foreign language that I make up as I go.
2
I sometimes pick up the phone and don’t say anything if it’s an unknown number. If it’s truly a robo dial, they’ll hang up if they don’t hear a “hello”. I pick it up bc it takes less time than having to go thru the answering machine playback and deleting the call.
If they have a robo voice going into a pitch to say hit “1”, I’ll sometimes hit it if I’m in the mood to play along and get the poor human in the call room who’s getting paid on conversions and lead them along with non-sensical answers till they hang up on me. It gives them less time to make more calls.
Don’t ever hit 2 to “get off their do-not-call list”. That lets them know you’re a viable number to call again. And they will.
8
I understand your point but isn't all these games we have to play with this problem ridiculous? I don't even have patience to do what you do. It just should not be happening when eat consumer pays for a service and gets more than he/she bargained for.
1
Large companies, such as Marriott, need to use some of their enormous resources to work with the phone companies and with law enforcement to track down and shut down the operations that are placing thousands of robocalls that start by saying “Thank you for choosing Marriott...”
I encourage anyone who gets such a robocall to contact Marriott (or whatever company name they hear) and politely request that they take action. They may ignore the first 999,999 such requests, but you may be one in a million.
I believe these calls can be traced to the actual origin. Don’t believe Marriott (or Hyatt or whatever) representatives who assert that they can’t do anything. Yes, it would take time and money and talent to shut down the robocallers, and this has gone on way too long.
3
I do not have Windows computers. I do not need my house remodeled, nor do I want my carpets cleaned, even though I have won a half-price offer. I'm not free to go on an all-expense-paid vacation to the Bahamas right now, and I would prefer not to listen to 30 seconds of of silence when I pick up my phone. My blocking option is full so scammers with changed numbers can no longer be nipped on the first ring.
I have missed calls from my doctor when he was calling from his cell phone and the number showed "unidentified" on my screen. A friend's panic plea for a ride went to voicemail, which I didn't notice until it was too late to help, because I've stopped answering any calls from numbers I don't recognize.
A 90-year-old relative was receiving stacks of magazines from "subscribing" to "free" offers, for which he was automatically billed at exorbitant rates. They got cancelled, but not before he'd had a fortune charged to his credit card.
I don't know what regulations could effectively stop at least some of this abuse, but I'm eager for the feds to give it a try.
15
Here is a recent scam: caller is panicked about a deposit to your bank account, made in error. Would you please return the deposit, recipient bank account number given, address somewhere in the mid-west. If you take that request info to your bank, you will be told there is an active scam. Put the deposit in escrow and leave it there. You are not using the money; the scammer is not being rewarded; the scammer will not try to get the deposit back; you will receive no further scam deposits; the bank will pursue the scammer.
1
I'm amused by the angst this subject creates for so many commenters. Whenever I get these type of calls, I just thank the technology gods that caller ID was invented, and then I continue with my day without getting twisted up in a ball.
5
Obviously you don’t get the threatening fake IRS call s several times a day.
1
The IRS does not make personal calls; if you have a tax preparer, they deal with the IRS. The DMV does not make personal calls, either; it is up to you to keep your registration up to date.
The government's Do it Call registry is virtually useless. How about putting some bite into it?
5
Maybe the politicos can use the same magical thinking they employ for Facebook - simply instruct the phone service providers to magically stop this - hold a hearing - and then move on
4
I get at least 3 calls a day, 5 days a week for the 0% credit card gimick. All from a local number. I now wait to talk to a real person and blow a loud whistle right into the phone. I think I'm more annoying (and painful) than they are.
6
Our landline has been on the federal government's do not call list for more than 15 years. We still get multiple bogus calls daily. Robocall at least stops the ringing after the first ring. but now there are frequent bogus calls spoofing our area code and initial three digits of our number. I often report the bogus calls to donotcall.gov, which is like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the ocean - no way of knowing what action if any will follow. These automated invasions of privacy are crimes, followed by no investigations or punishments. The government, the phone companies, and the business lobbies do not seem to care about this widespread epidemic.
10
As soon as I started asking them to tell me which credit card they were referring to they either hung up or read me a number that was wrong. When I asked one man where he got his information from he responded with a lovely phrase. I told him that he was amazing. I hadn't seduced a man that quickly in decades. And then I told him I'd have to hang up because my husband was coming home and he didn't like me talking to other men.
We get the one about the computers. I told my mother to tell them that all our windows were broken. Then she could ask them to send someone over to fix them and help us clean up the mess.
7
I downloaded the Hiya app on my iPhone and it reduced my unwanted calls by more than 90%. Make sure to enable it in "Settings/Phone/Call Blocking and Identification".
4
I get the "preapproved for a loan" call several times a week and the "you owe the IRS" call about 3x per month. Almost every day, though, I simply get calls in which they don't leave a voicemail.
While I abhor all of these, I am at least somewhat amused by the "preapproved for an auto loan" and "discounted auto insurance" calls I get about 3x per month, given that I do not have a license and have never owned a car.
4
So have you ever tried to see what company would be selling that insurance or what bank offers the loan? They have to be behind those calls or else making those calls it pointless.
1
Unless they do it to tease information from you such as your social security number, credit card info, etc.
I answer the calls then scream and swear at them. That seems to slow it down.
4
I block all but my contacts on my home and mobile numbers and spend time each day reporting all other calls. I do miss some legitimate calls though and have to call them back.
One thing that is never mentioned about debt collectors is the frequency with which they call people at random, people who do not owe them money. There's no easy way to report or block those calls.
6
Robocalls should be illegal, for any reason, for any purpose. That includes politicians running for election. That includes the bank which would rather use a computer to dial a customer, not a human. If something is important enough for a phone call, it can be done by an actual human being. To the extent that banks, politicians would have to ditch computers and use actual people, that would create more jobs. Penalties for robocalls must be real, like 1000 per call and legal fees (I think that's the penalty for junk faxes), and real criminal penalties for anyone involved. If a few people go to jail for this, that would help. Its time to get tough on this.
34
I have a policy...if your not a real person I hang up. That includes my bank, Human health insurance etc. If you cannot bother providing an actual person to call me you don't need to talk to me that bad.
11
After over a year of receiving 10-15 unwanted calls on my landline, I was forced to actually unplug my home phone to get some peace. This, after adding spam phone numbers to the "block" feature on my Optimum/Cablevision account. This so-called feature limits blocked numbers to less than 40. And there are so many spoofed numbers I receive on my cell phone, I never answer unless I recognize the number. I use the Whoscall app to block those numbers but of course spammers just use another spoofed number. This is a constant invasion of my privacy.
My own cell number has been spoofed. I received a call from a man who said he was returning my call. I told him that I hadn't called him and made him aware that my number must have been spoofed.
10
do not forget that the fcc I believe, is considering allowing calls direct to your voice mail.
by default, you will be "REQUIRED" to listen to spam/robocalls/junk to keep your voicemail storage open and free for those who you actually wish to hear from. if your carrier offers unlimited/unlimited voicemail, it will be filled by direct voicemail either way
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/104010829816078/Petition%20for%20Declarator...
10
My regular phone has no voice mail. My cell does but other rules prohibit robocalls to cell numbers because you get the bill so a rule regarding voice mails on cell numbers should apply. I can disable that if it happens because I really don't care about getting voice mail.
I'm either here or I'm not...try later bub!
2
Thank you for reminding readers of this important point. It shows the extent of collusion between the FCC and those that perpetrate fraud under the false pretense of 'doing business'. Those in public office wonder why we've lost faith in our government; look no further.
6
I have changed my phone message to: Leave a message. If you don't, or I do not recognize your number, I will block you and delete the message you have left without listening to it.
4
I now live in a country that takes individual privacy and anti-monopoly very seriously. I do not experience robo-anything here in the EU (although I’ve heard some tepid complaints from others). But before I left the U.S. I spent the last year finishing a work contract in a different area code. Unbeknownst to me I had selected a number that had a previous owner. I got all her robocalls repeatedly — even after I lied and said she was dead (actually, it might have been the truth). After months of agony I called AT&T and was told that they make previously assigned numbers available only after a one year hiatus. Sorry, that was not my experience. From day one I got inundated and it only got worse — never for me, always for a Mrs. W.
My takeaway was that the telecom was making money off the robos and just didn’t care.
10
Navient is one of the worst companies I ever had the displeasure to deal with. As soon as my daughter's loan kicked in, they began auto calling even before I knew the first payment was due. Had no incentive to change the the high interest rate of course. I finally refinanced the loan and, unfortunately, it was immediately sold back to Navient. Granted it was a lower rate, but variable, which Navient raised twice within a year. An agent once told me that, by law, they could raise the rate whenever they wanted and go as high as 99.9%. Not sure that's true but wouldn't be surprised. I finally decided to just cash out some stock and pay it off but, I'm afraid, I'm one of the lucky few who won't have to deal with Navient for years to come!
6
I just don’t understand. Why would anyone answer a call from un unknown number? If a number is not on my contact list, I won’t pick up.
Problem solved
16
The right wing will demand regulation to stop getting telemarketing calls but will curse regulation that protects workers, the environment, or the middle class from abuses of the aristocracy. Go figure.
10
I'm sure if any right wing persons will demand regulation, even those generally inclined to view regulation as unjust, their right wing corporations, PACS, think tanks, trade associations lobbyists, investors etc. will ignore said agitation as "bad for business".
2
Having watered down and or eliminated consumer protections by way of executive orders and so-called business friendly heads of consumer protections agencies (witness Mark Mulvaney), the Trump administration has opened the door to big business and other bad actors to again act in a way that is a disservice to the public. For the past number of years, besides the explosion of robocalls, there has also been the rise of unwanted and intrusive ads poping up on the internet. These are very disruptive actions that need to be addressed by government. I have contacted the FCC and FTC to tell them of these pervasive actions.
What is needed to stop these bad actors is for consumers en mass to put pressure on our government representatives to pass legislation and enforce the laws to protect us.
18
The government has done nothing to protect us. This is why we have the second amendment. Arms today means encryption not guns. The government wants to take your encryption and your ability to defend yourself. Time to frame the second in the 21st century
5
How would encryption prevent robo-calls.
Never answer phone call where the number isn't one I've listed in my own contacts. Never answer home phone the same. Never answer phone during early evening.
My friends and family are recognized. Others leave messages. Never listen to robos.
23
I have not dealt with a robo-call in years, and my only phone is my cell phone. Here is how I do it:
Be patient and don't feel like you have to answer every call. I don't, so I turn my ringer off. I rarely answer any call, even from friends and family because I don't hear it. They all know this and only text me. If a doctor or someone important is trying to reach me, they will leave a message and I call them back, at my convenience. If I am expecting a call, I make sure the number is in my contact list and only answer it if the contact name pops up on the screen of the cell phone when it rings.
Patience is your friend to make this work. Robo-callers are relying on the fact that most people are pretty much slaves to their phones. Put yourself in control of when you communicate, not the robo-caller. Texting helps a lot with this because it is designed to accommodate delayed responses.
37
I have never had a doctor pick up when I call. It almost always needs to be at their convenience, which means answering your phone.
4
exactly!
The biggest victims are seniors, the disabled, and those who are seriously ill or have an ill child or partner. They are so constantly tense with expectation that they rip the phone out the moment it rings, only to find that it's not the hospital or insurance company but yet another robocall. An uneccessary torment on top of all their other problems.
29
I yield to no one in my anger and frustration at these calls, let’s not forget its us dummies that perpetuate this practice by the small number of pinheads who answer these calls then agree to whatever scam is being proposed.
Robocalling must be profitable otherwise it would not continue. Maybe in addition to testing to use self serve check out stands we need to add it to phone ownership. Tens of millions of people get abused daily because a small number of knuckleheads are too stupid to wake up and smell the coffee.
9
A number of the people I know who fell for the scams have been elderly people who are beginning to slip, and don’t have family or friends who have noticed yet and intervened. Calling them pinheads seems very unfair.
2
If the percentage of gullible people were actually small, we would not have the current POTUS in Washington. Since these calls are extremely cheap to make, it takes only a very small success rate to render them profitable.
6
And on top of that, which I agree completely with (more than once, I've said to myself "What are you, stupid or something?"), how about a reflex test for drivers? As you mentioned, self service checkouts seem to challenge some people, last night at the grocery store, a customer on front if me had apparently never used a debit card before, tried maybe 5 different PIN numbers, never did get their stuff.
Common sense isn't as common as it used to be. "Dead common" used to be an insult, but it can be a compliment today.
1
Spoofing call originating numbers is a technical process, akin to fraud and there should be technical solution to it. Who will step up to address that part.
I actually cannot imagine why anybody would want to business with a caller who reaches you fraudulently.
25
If you're wondering why illegal robocalls have pickup up recently, look no further than the FCC's enforcement web site. They stopped all enforcement actions in September 2017. So robocallers, with the help of blind deregulators like Ajit Pai, are running amok:
https://transition.fcc.gov/eb/tcd/eabydate.html
60
Some days, I receive as many as 10 calls in 24 hours. Verizon does nothing except to point out that I can block them with my phone, which I do AFTER the call and researching the number. They can tell when they're getting high levels of activity from a single phone number or group of phone numbers. It should be trivial to disable these spammers before they progress through their lists of phone numbers. Political callers and pollsters can simply register with the phone company.
Why is this so hard for the phone companies to solve? Oh. Money.
26
It seems pretty obvious that the root of this scourge is easy money. Easy for the “telephone service providers” and for the scammers. The phone companies are against any regulations that negatively impact their revenues regardless of the impact on their customers.
The real enablers are the bought and paid for elected “representatives”. Until we the people get the message across with our votes, there is no chance of any of a number of abuses being stopped. The current “Administration” consistently demonstrates utter and total disregard for protecting us against the unmitigated greed that drives so much of business today. To me, this is proven by the rush to undo virtually all protections against predatory practices pretty much across the board.
The “swamp” is still inhabited by mostly the same creatures. These creatures are simply more emboldened because the alpha creature is the most immoral of the lot.
History teaches us that empires destroyed themselves and that moral decay was the beginning of the end. I am not religious and I don’t mean religious morality, very often a joke in itself. No, I’m referring to leadership by people that truly have the best interest of the nation and the citizens at heart. Is such a person still to be found? We had better hope so.
8
Public financing of national campaigns would go a long way to solving this problem. Citizens United defined corporations as people; corporations cannot run for office; they are not "people" or "individuals". Elect people to Congress who pledge to repeal this gift to corporations by the now dead Scalia. I have yet to meet GE when I get my mail from my mail box. Worse yet, the Decision was based on a typo in an old Superior Court Decision where "corporation" was transcribed as "individual"; the error was never corrected; Scalia, the Constitutional scholar, dragged it forward and used it. Obama referenced it, and directed his comment to Scalia during a State of the Union Address. Appointments to the SC Court, and to Federal Courts are serious; that is why who occupies the Oval Office is really important. And, no, both Parties are not the same. Scalia and Gorsuch, the anti-employee Justices, were appointed by Republican Presidents.
1
I keep my "phone" on Do Not Disturb 24/7 & make sure anyone who needs to reach me leaves a message or texts. The creepy thing is my phone lights up whenever I wake it up to check a text, email or map. They know when my phone is active.
8
This should be an easily solvable problem. The government must *require* that every phone service provider (e.g. Verizon, AT&T, etc. etc.) must charge the user a fee of $0.001 for each outgoing call made.
4 billion robocalls a month. $4 million a month in robocall origination fees.
The only reason why robocalls are a viable scam is that the cost of a robocall is zero. The fix is to make the cost of a call not zero. But it has to be at the *outbound* end.
17
I've been using the AT&T Call Protect app which works pretty well.
2
As has been mention elsewhere, this is a telephone company issue. Both DTMF signaling and Signaling System 7 provide a methodology for identifying the caller and therefore vetting the calls. The fact that telcos have chosen not to do this, in my opinion, makes them accessories.
And, I believe, in most states the callers, and their accessories the phone companies, are guilty of the crime of harassment.
A number of years ago, there was lots of spam claiming to be from Microsoft. Microsoft devoted the necessary resources, got a few people locked up, and the spams dropped off.
I would suggest that a few criminal prosecutions would do wonders for the problem. If state Attorneys General aren't willing to do their job, and the same goes for local prosecutors, then members of grand juries should hand up indictments. Then let the DAs (Messrs.. Vance, Gonzalez, Brown, Clark, and McMahon) continue to ignore the issue.
4
I can't believe that the FCC and telephone companies, etc, could not solve this issue if there were a will to. Again, it seems like our government, etc doesn't care about the average person. The other strange thing is sometimes legitimate companies that I do business with often don't have the right caller ID showing up on my screen, which makes it confusing.
I know many people who have given up landline because 90% of calls are not real calls but robo or other annoying sales calls.
Finally, my job at a medical facility involves calling patients pre-procedure to discuss instructions. It's amazing that almost no one picks up their phone anymore, so we are left to voice mail, or they pick up mid message, or call us back a few minutes later when we are now onto calling the next person. It would be so nice to just have someone answer the first time. Because of the nature of the call, we do need to speak to a human being, and it's for their benefit!
4
I kno longer answer my home/work phone. it goes on all day long. I am seriously thinking about buying on of those blocking things for land lines.
2
There are lots of call blocker apps, even some free ones that are pretty good, so there's no reason to pick up any of these calls anymore. My app blocks all calls from numbers that aren't in my contacts. If it's important enough to call me for, leave a voicemail.
2
This is a fixable problem. Unfortunately, as a result of "Citizens United," there is a financial incentive for both state and federal legislatures to do NOTHING. That is what people will get with regard to these activities, NOTHING. I ignore every single call on both my land line and mobile phone in which the caller's [recognizable] name is not immediately identified.
9
I'll believe that they're serious about this at all when the inundation of calls so obviously, by style and message, from the same few sources, are prosecuted and stopped. The end of that perky "Hello, this is Kelly!" company. And the one where the guy "fumbles around on the phone for a second" to seem real. The nation awaits a televised perp walk for these hoodlums..
6
My issue seems kind of self inflicted. I answered an online advert about lowering my mortgage interest (because, apparently, I'm stupid. I thought it was a legitimate ad). The first few days, I received a few calls per day, not too many. But as days went by, they sold my number to more and more companies, after a month I was up to nearly 500 calls. It continues to this day. I sometimes answered the phone, at first, to see what interest rate they offered, but they always wanted a Scocial Security number, a few of them were very, very pushy, they weren't taking no for an answer. With those guys, I'd get my own version of Tourrette's Syndrome (with all due respect for Tourrette's sufferers), I get very offensive with my language with them. Stuff I wouldn't say to my mother. I can usually get them fired up to hang up on me. At least I feel better then.
4
I don’t understand why those “companies” making these calls can’t be traced. I have a feeling that if the government considered it a priority, they could shut these things down. Prison time for robo callers. Make it happen!
5
Most of them are located off shore; the government has no control over them. Nigeria used to be the hub; then the Caribbean, now it is China.
Get a clue, robocallers. If I actually needed anything you're selling, I'd be calling YOU. Stand by your phne and wait...and wait...and wait...
Robocallers depend on the fact that even when it's clearly against their interest, a very few people out of every 1,000 are stupid, senile, or drunk enough to respond positively and take up one of these "great offers" up in reaction to a cold call.
Don't encourage them people. If you want to be scammed find some to rip you offface-to-face..
Meanwhile, where are the feds? Dawdling, perhaps even encouraging more "Friends of the Donald, " err, I mean crooks to enter this business in the spirit of "deregulation."
3
As a Taxpayer, the FCC is a joke. FCC is interested in Corporate issues and ignore robocalls, burdening citizens without help of any kind. All we do is hang up continually. These creeps use local exchanges of residents, stealing their numbers and FCC does nothing! The swamp grows.
7
I would suggest that any organization wishing to send robocalls should have to register, and the phone companies would then block any automated calls from orgs that aren't registered.
1
My unanswered landline receives multiple unsolicited calls a day despite being on the DO NOT CALL LIST. Same with my cell phone, but now the calls are also coming in Chinese. Blocking is ineffective. We are under siege. HELP!
6
Carmen from Cardholder Services is my new best friend.
3
Prince so and so from Nigeria used to be mine; he has disappeared, probably in a palace coup.
1
How about robo texts?
1
Man, it's so obnoxiously frustrating when authors of articles such as this state (without basis or thought) that this is a difficult problem to solve. It is a TRIVIAL problem to solve, if people were so inclined.
Step 1: Instigate a callback number (eg: #111, etc.) for a recipient to indicate a robo/spam call, and make all carriers required to implement it.
Step 2: Require all carriers to credit receivers with a token amount as a bill credit for every spam call reported through the callback reporting number (eg: $1).
Step 2.5: Allow carriers to establish reasonable limits to prevent fraud and abuse of the new system (eg: 5+ reports of a caller to trigger payment, etc.).
Step 3: (as necessary) Legally allow the carriers to cross-bill other carriers for chargebacks/credits due to spam, modifying cross-connection contracts as necessary.
Then just allow the carriers to solve the problem in whatever manner is efficient for them. For example, you won't need to regulate correct caller identification; carriers will affect it themselves more efficiently and correctly to make sure they can purge spammers from their own services. The problem would be non-existent in a month or so.
4
I love to mess with callers so sometimes I answer the cellphone even though I do not recognize the number.
I loved the recent robocall that went off in Mandarin. At least I think it was Mandarin. Maybe it was Cantonese. But it prompted me to ask a neighbor which dialect was more popular here in Seattle.
I answered another call that went off about my credit cards and the threat to them and what needed to be done pronto. I have never had a credit card in my life so I couldn't resist and asked to speak to a rep. Some poor guy with a thick Punjabi accent came on and started his speech. I stopped him and asked him where he was. He paused, and then rattled off the company address claiming he was in "dahNEEa" Florida. I laughed and told him it was pronounced "DAYneea" Florida and that I used to live in Broward. I asked him if he had even ever been to Florida and I asked him how he got my phone number. Then he hung up. Poor guy getting schooled on how to pronounce American city names:)
I changed my voicemail to read just like all of my doctors/pharmacists/case managers voicemail - "You have reached the number for Tom Harrison. If this is a medical emergency please hangup and dial 911. If you are thinking of harming yourself, please call the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Para Espanol, empuje numero dos. " I notice that I get very few voicemails now:)
5
Like every other recent diminution of the quaility of our lives, this surge in robocalls reflects the lack of interest by Republicans in protecting the average citizen from abusive behavior by businesses - whether they are robocallers or abusive big banks. For the GOP, we are all fair game.
4
Why have they skyrocketed in the past year? Because the scammers know that government will not stop them.
It's nothing short of pathetic.
5
I can add another scam to the list. Lately, repetative calls using snippets of female speech, say that my Microsoft computer has been compromised and my data is being taken. Although 90% of US households have Windows computers, I use open source operating systems that focus on security - no Windows computers in my home network. On occasion when I've played along and selected a #1 to speak to a "technician", I am connected to a male with what I belive to be a Pakinstan/Afganistan/India region accent. When informed that I have not Windows computers, the technician states he is also an Apple expert. When told I'm running OpenBSD unix and Debian Linux, they hang up.
I doubt they will ever be brought to justice - the only thing that can be done is to waste their time and belittle their scam.
122
This particular one drives me insane. They leave numerous messages on the phone even when we're out of town and aren't using the computer. The problem is if you talk to them, then they can claim they have a "relationship" and continue to harass you.
9
@JSH: My 86-year-old father called me in a panic about this scam. It wasn't a phone call, but a pop-up ad that froze the screens on both of his computers. He called the number they gave him and got a man with either a Pakistani or Indian accent. He became suspicious when the man told him to open up his Google browser, because he thought, 'Microsoft and Google are rivals!', so he hung up the phone and calles me. I investigated, discovered it was a scam, and reported it to the FBI cyber crimes website. They won't do anything about it, but at least I tried to alert the authorities.
I have told both parents to beware, to never send money to strangers, or give out personal information over the phone or on the computer. My dad still has all of his marbles, but I worry about my mom, who has Alzheimer's and doesn't always understand what is going on. If you're sensible, you can generally avoid these scammers, but there are more and more old folks who are vulnerable.
17
If I'm not too busy, I usually waste their time for a while asking them questions and pretending that I'm following their instructions. Eventually, I tell them what a stupid scam they have.
6
It’s about time lawmakers took notice of this issue! I was chased away from the landline I’d had for years when I started getting 10-15 calls per day from the same tele-harassment company - different #s every time, though, so when I reported them to the FCC, nothing happened.
Now, I’ve started getting barraged just as badly on my Cel phone. But, I’ve come up with a solution!! Apple has a “Do Not Disturb” setting, where the phone only rings if it’s someone on your contacts list. Otherwise, it’s voicemail city! This has made me a much saner human being - I still get upwards of a dozen robocalls every day, but they don’t interrupt my life so much.
29
A problem with that is you could miss an emergency call from a hospital about a loved one or a call about a job opportunity or a neighbor calling about a flood in your apartment or a crisis with an elderly relative, or your credit card company calling to inform you about unusual activity on your account. Not to be all doom and gloom but you get the idea.
6
Oh they've noticed the issue for years. Some of their biggest donors are from marketing lobbies.
5
thank you for the apple heads up.
This is a minor nuisance that's become a huge quality of life issue through sheer unrelenting persistence and volume. Please, please make robo-calls illegal except for when you actively choose to receive, such as from your hospital. And yes, that includes political calls. When I am inundated with unwanted robo calls during an election y annoyance is such that it turns me off the entire voting process.
24
"Robocallers can easily dial millions of consumers daily, experts say, at little cost."
Wrong. The cost is born by the person called. It is measured in minutes for those with phone on limited minutes and in added stress for those irritated/interrupted by them. The costs are actually high.
7
I have started calling back the politicians from whom I receive their stupid robo calls ... and I am not always polite about it.
I keep my cell phone caller i.d. private. That way no businesses called can see my number. If a friend/relative doesn't answer unidentified numbers calling their phone, I leave a message for them to call back or text them instead. I don't answer unknown phone calls.
I give false phone numbers when they are required online (555-555-5555 if it's accepted). If a company needs to contact me for a legitimate reason, they have my junk email address.
These tactics have worked well so far...I probably receive 5 - 8 unknown calls a week.
7
This is just one more piece of evidence that big business and government are cozying up to each other in order to victimize the average person. Stop voting "businesss-friendly" candidates into office, and we might finally start to see some "citizen-friendly" legislation!
57
It's time to treat phone as they once were--highly regulated utilities. We are on the verge of having only three major telecom companies. God forbid, that the Trump administration and the FCC under anti-regulation, anti-net neutrality Chair, Ajit Pai, would even think for a nanosecond about protecting consumers! Ever other day I clean out my voicemail which over 90 percent scam and spam.
19
I no longer answer any calls from numbers I don't know because of this. If they leave a message fine but most don't.
18
Oh, come on.
It takes, what, three seconds to answer the darn phone, figure out it's a robo call, and hang up. On the worst days, I get four.
Why are folks so worked up about less than 30 seconds, max, taken from their day? A surgeon not answering his phone because he's afraid it might be a robo call is ridiculous--that's on him, not anyone else.
This story describes a low-grade nuisance with a reaction completely out of proportion to the alleged problem.
2
Ok. When I’m operating on your kid’s brain and I have to be distracted by my phone ringing because I’m on call and the circulator is out of the room and I have to ask the anesthesiologist to answer my phone then perhaps you’ll get it.
4
August West: It's not "30 seconds max taken from my day". Not all "30 seconds" are created equal. For me in late March it was a crazy night at my mother's house while she was dying of pancreatic cancer--the calls just kept on coming and we couldn't shut off the phone because we needed to be able to hear from the hospice people. These calls took away from quality time that I wanted to spend with Mom. i dialed *57 (call trace) after each one and blocked the numbers and they kept on coming. I even reported it to law enforcement. Harassing calls are illegal (if you still have one, read the note inside your phone book) Robocallers and CallerID spoofers are a bane on our society. There is NO EXCUSE for these calls to be permitted. Period.
18
And coal mines provide valuable goods and jobs and should not be forced to filter or modify their discharge. Poor people are only sick because they all smoke and women like abortions.
5
I note that what little has been done is aimed at "certain robo calls" which leaves me suspicious. Why not all? Why doesn't legislatures and Congress just nix all, and although we are all just fodder for our wonderful "markets" to be preyed upon, give us a bit of our privacy back? We will call them for whatever is needed. Unfortunately there is not the will to do this. A friend does have a screening added on to his phones, so there are inexpensive tools in existence.
1
One of the great features of my iPhone is the “block caller” feature. My home phone service company, Spectrum, has a similar feature but oddly limits the number of calls you can block to 30 I think. Why have a limit? Lame.
8
You can also get apps that do this for Androids. Used one for awhile. It was kinda crowd sourced. If you reported something as spam they blocked it from you and other users. My ancient phone didn't have enough memory for me to continue to use it...
1
I now no longer answer my cell phone unless the number is known. I will check voicemail, if any is left. My favorite (if you call it that) is “there have been serious allegations pressed against your name” in a pleasant female robotic voice.
In the last year, I have accumulated nearly 700 different numbers in my phone’s block list.
I rue the day a friend or family member in distress calls from and unknown number and I may not respond in a timely fashion.
5
Unfortunately consumers will get zero help from this Administration and Congress, of which the majority believe that businesses don't need regulation and consumers don't need protection.
A couple of ideas; if the call comes through to your cellphone, you can block the number and if you use and internet phone service like Ooma, you can also block all numbers outside of your contacts. I know the scams include a regurgitation of phone numbers, but it will reduce the the traffic. And lastly, don't get suckered into anything the caller has to say!!
8
I simply refuse to conduct business transactions over the telephone. After years of trying be polite n grounds solicitors were simply trying to make a living, I simply hang up rather than listen to a sales pitches. This saves them from wasting their time.
7
I'd pay for an app that forwarded all robocalls to the White House, all Congress members and the FCC.
75
Heh. Amen to that.
I used to be an engineer in the telephone industry. Blocking fake caller-IDs is much easier than the phone companies admit. Trunks to international locations could easily be barred from claiming their calls originate in the US. Furthermore, caller-ID falsifying services are perfectly legal in the US, which is an outrage. It is what makes the dangerous "prank" of "swatting" possible. Once again, this is a failure of Congress, not technology.
76
@Correction: How about if the phone companies stepped up all on their own - without needing Congressional approval - and barred trunks to international locations from claiming their calls originate in the US?
4
What? And deny shareholders the value added from this curse on society?
I don't answer.
I just have them leave a message.
I cancelled my landline.
Prisoners in their own homes.
This is not how the West was Won.
You find them and lynch them.
The Attorney Generals need to start finding whoever is behind them and starting putting them in prison.
If the judges go softie, like they always seem to do, they need to be removed too.
Just take the kid who is threatening to kill people at his high school and the judges let him loose to roam the streets.
Criminals don't need phones to get the word.
When word gets on the street that you do this and you go to prison, this nonsense will stop in two shakes.
2
"Robocallers see the current F.C.C. leadership “as friendly to industry,”"
That is generous. FCC leadership is anti-consumer.
25
There are some free services which will filter robocalls to a landline. I've been using one for a few years now.
1
"A spokesman for the F.C.C. said the commission would seek public comment on how auto-dialers should be defined, and then “take action based on the record it compiles.”
Judging from how the F.C.C. dealt with the avalanche of public comment in favor of retaining net neutrality, then defying overwhelming public opinion and abandoning it, the F.C.C. retains little credibility with the public. No wonder robocallers consider them allies.
Remind me again why we pay their salaries with our taxes?
18
I was getting as many as 8 unwanted calls a day and it was driving me crazy. Finally found a call blocker app that blocks all calls except those numbers on my contacts list. All other calls are sent to voice mail, where any caller can leave a message. I turn off the ringer on my landline and forward it to my cell phone, where the call blocker handles everything. Works perfectly.
2
...and never say "yes' if asked if you can hear them. They are recording your response and it will be used to authenticate your agreement to purchase whatever it is that they are selling!
8
It’s incredible the lengths we go to thwart robo calls. Smoke signals may make a comeback
2
Bill Gates in the late 90s has a wonderful idea to mitigate cold calling. He suggested we have the ability via a dashboard to charge callers to talk with us. We can set up rules depending on when they called as to how much they be charged. Let’s hurt these sleazy fraudsters where it hurts, their pocketbook
12
I sometimes think maybe I should destroy my credit rating so I won’t be a target.
I think there is little interest because of big-business lobbying and because most campaigns are now using robocallers with blocked misleading caller IDs. I get these every single day and will not answer or donate again.
6
One possible solution is relatively simple.
All our phones are computers - with the exception of the fewer and fewer landlines in existence.
Require all incoming calls to include a phone number and an IP address. My phone/computer then requests confirmation from the device at the given phone number and IP address - if it does not reply that it was the requesting device, then the call is blocked and the IP source of the call is reported to a central database.
Landline calls are all routed through computer-controlled equipment, which could handle that task for them.
Any IP address that is consistently reported is blocked from placing future calls.
Problem solved.
3
I’ve got the solution. Fine phone providers for letting scam call through. Make it so phone providers are responsible for their customers financial losses plus penalties. It’s the jobs of these companies to provide a SAFE service to the public. If they don’t bear the cost of this abuse there is no incentive to fix this. And they definitely can fix this. They are tech companies.
10
I pretty much only use a cell as I see no value in a landline. Maybe if I wanted to fax something. Sure I get these kinds of calls. Sometimes I let it go to voicemail. If I pick up I either say not interested or if they are annoying I engage some verbal flaying. As for scams if people fall for this well I have little sympathy. Folks need to engage the critical thinking switch.
I paid $29 for Robokiller -- supposed to keep my cell number robo-free. They still sneak through but at lesser numbers. No telecom will help in the battle; it's worth too much income. Fight it yourself -- Congress may do something... sometime...someday......
You know what else is bad, and also surging? The use of periods in headlines. It's completely obnoxious. I can't figure out why it's on the rise; all of the guidelines I've read on headlines explicitly say to not use periods, but for some reason a lot of (perhaps coincidentally?) liberal media -- and I don't mean that as a dirty word, it's simply a correlation I've found -- have been using them a lot lately.
4
I have a retired attorney-friend who loves to take these guys on. He gives them phoney fictitious info. Wben the bad guy (or gal) caller realizes they've been schemed, they are furious and often call back to make verbal threats to my friend. He enjoys his laugh and minor victory
106
That is not how I think the battles of this war on robocalls will or should be played. This is a serious quality of life issue, that costs time, money and needless frustration. There needs to be stricter laws placed on the phone companies, as they're more capable of preventing this, than they lead us all to think.
15
When you answer a robocall, you are telling the robo computer program that it has reached a viable number. The more frequently you answer these calls, the more calls you will receive. If you do not answer the calls, the computer program eventually will decide that it is not a viable number, or that there is so little prospect of you answering the phone that it is not worth their time, and you will receive far fewer calls.
I've reached the point where I never answer my landline or cell phone unless I know who is calling by looking at caller ID. Legitimate callers will leave me a voice mail or message. Dirt-bags don't leave messages because it's evidence against them. I have even received robocalls that show my own name and number on caller ID - as if I am calling myself.
Congress needs to do something about it. The FCC finally forced TV stations to limit the loudness of commercials after consumer outcry. Same thing needs to happen with these intrusive and fraudulent phone calls.
24
My husband had a college professor--an expert in American religions--who would take on Mormon missionaries and Jehovah's Witnesses. He knew more about their faith than they did, and he delighted in running them in circles for a couple of hours with questions that sounded innocent but made them increasingly uncomfortable.
5
The problem is not new. The problem is much wider than just robocalls. The problem will not go away as long as the dominant narrative in legislatures is "balancing" consumer "annoyance" (in other words, supposedly not a significant problem for any reasonable person) with the livelihood of "legitimate" business-people. Thanks to the recent ballot box success of the far right, the pendulum of regulation is taking an extreme swing in the anti-regulation direction. Robocalls are the least of our worries. The "legitimate business-people" are making a much bigger killing with quack snake oil treatments which are also seeing a sharp increase. Even actual companies that you'd think would have much greater incentive to act ethically even without the law, pharmaceutical companies, are making a killing gouging the desperate public while government is paid off and does essentially nothing.
The bad guys are marketers. The good guys are consumer advocates. If you hear legislators speaking of "balance" you can be certain that they are selling you out.
175
One key requirement that FCC and/or Congress can initiate is to make "spoofing" of the incoming call's Caller ID (to hide its true origin) a felony, punishable by both fine and imprisonment.
Email spam has been greatly reduced by features such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) that email-provider companies have implemented.
So telephone-service companies should be mandated by FCC and/or Congress to set up similar filters to verify if an incoming Caller ID is true or fraudulent. In other words, if you cannot call the number back to reach the person or outfit calling you, the call should be determined fraudulent and blocked before it can ring one's phone.
Telephone subscribers should be provided a setting to allow "private calls" (i.e., those without any Caller ID) to go straight to voicemail, rather than being blocked entirely. If these are truly from people or companies who have valid reasons not to broadcast their Caller ID, they ought to be willing to leave a message.
188
Terrific idea! My husband and I have been inundated with so many robocalls it's more than a minor annoyance. The once reliable option to simply change one's phone number is not so simple anymore. The problem is that our phone numbers are not simply a way of communicating-- they have become ways for many places including credit reporting agencies and email providers to verify our identification. Changing our phone numbers would be a major hassle and those spammers know it. Now do you have any suggestions for stopping paper junk mail from invading my home? I've tried opt out lists, they aren't worth beans. I cringe when I see my recycle bin full of paper waste from so much unsolicited junk mail. All these problems really make it so tempting to just go live somewhere very isolated and get completely off the grid and pay cash for everything.
5
You already have that setting - just don't answer any calls from numbers you don't recognize. Those calls go to voice mail, no special "setting" is required.
3
Some Chinese woman calls my cell and leaves voicemail in Chinese. I block the number, then she calls from a new number. Whoever is doing this, it's a waste of money. I don't speak Chinese.
85
I cannot help but ask this: If you don't speak Chinese, how do you know the woman is speaking Chinese?
5
In the same way I can tell when somebody is speaking Spanish ( although I don’t speak Spanish). Many of us have been exposed to our friends, neighbors and colleagues speaking Spanish, Chinese and some other languages so we can make a good guess about what somebody is speaking. Guessing a less frequently heard language is much harder.
2
I get those too. Bizarre.
5
We pay extra to our phone company for Caller ID. They should be required to provide actual ID of callers for at least 80% of calls, or to refund our money.
Robocalls have caused friends of ours to give up their landline entirely, having only a cell phone. Of course in a power failure due to earthquake or flooding they'll eventually not be able to make or receive calls, a public health hazard.
And the landline companies are losing money because of this.
It would seem that government should step in and help. Why don't they?
8
Sadly, our government is in the side if the telemarketers profits.
1
I dropped my landline about 3 or 4 years ago, all I received were sales calls, nobody real ever called it any more. It seemed like a difficult decision, I'd had a landline for over 50 years, but I don't miss it a bit. Or the bill for it.
2
Since the telecommunications industry is getting rid of the old copper lines, soon no-one will be able to make calls during power failures.
2
"“Everywhere I go, it is what people talk about,” said Denise Grimsley, a Florida state senator..."
No, Senator, people have been talking about this intensely for about five years, but your Senate has been too busy falling all over itself encouraging the FCC to enact a disservice on citizens to end net neutrality to listen to the millions citizens who have complaining vehemently and pleading with our legislators to act against these nuisance and criminal callers. You legislators turned a deaf ear to these nuisance calls just as so many of you turned a deaf ear on the issue of net neutrality.
81
She's a state senator. Nice try. Next time read the entire article.
This what the Federal Government --the Department of Justice--should be focused on, this and SPAM, identity theft and other aspects of fraud or taking (not drugs, not prostitution (now dressed up as "Human Trafficking" and of forth.). Do a real service rather than trample on God-given liberties (and make the situation much much worse for all concerned).
15
No amount of laws are going to stop these calls. A lot of them are made from another country. Outside of placing sanctions on the offending companies or countries (if this is possible with a profits above people administration),nothing will be done. But then again,drone strikes on call centers might be an option.
15
The easiest way for us to deal with this is NEVER disclose your cell phone number to anyone and never answer calls to your cells except for identified numbers in your contacts list, and then immediately block the spam call number with Verizon "do not call". Also, pay Verizon Wireless $2.99/mo for real caller ID.
At the same time, keep your "old" legacy "home" "landline" number and hook it up to your cable carriers or Vonage type services for about $15/month and connect that phone to an answering machine that no one answers but takes messages, including important ones from the pharmacy, doctor's offices, etc. Use this "legacy" "landline" number with the typical local area codes and exchange prefixes for your normal number. Also, have caller ID on that phone too.
I realize that a lot of younger folks who have never had landline phones from local exchange carriers think they can get by with their cell phones only, but given the sheer volume of junk and scam calling out there, this solution works well to preserve our sanity for and privacy for less than $20/mo.
6
The solution seems simple: Require phone services to charge an escalating rate that increases with the number of calls made so that as you make more calls the rate per call increases. If the call is important then people should be willing to pay what the call is worth.
2
Robocalls are done through proxy services. This would be easy to circumvent. Instead let the call recipient set their own charges for what a caller should pay to reach them. Today there are many ways to get in touch with someone legitimately. Let’s punish illegitimate callers
1
Unfortunately, a lot of these companies are using VOIP, so they're not dealing with actual phone companies, just internet providers.
2
if you have an iphone, put it on do not disturb. Then, the only calls that ring through are from people on your contact list. Others go to voicemail, so you can listen if you wish. Expand your contacts list to those you know, doctors etc., and no unwanted calls ring.
7
It would not be that hard for Telcos to stop this. They would just have to required verfied caller ID's.
They have no interest in stopping it because they make too much money from it.
43
Like many others here I never answer the phone for any number I don’t know. Then there’s the one number I know well that I wouldn’t answer; the robocall was supposedly coming from the phone I had in my hand.
We should be able to easily trace the last mile carrier calls of these and report the calls to that carrier. If ABC phone service or XYZ cable company receives enough calls to disrupt their service, they’ll find a solution.
10
I use a free app USPhoneBook that allows me to enter the number I don't recognize it then tells me the name of the caller. Been very handy as I receive several calls a day from numbers with my area code and first 3 numbers of my phone.
Like many others, I don't answer the phone if I don't recognize the number. If it's anyone I know, they'll leave a message, and I'll call them back. I can see how it's a problem for physicians who have to deal with life and death situations, but for most people, this is the only practical solution.
I don't think businesses, legitimate or not, should solicit business from individuals on the phone. If I want to do business with an entity, I will contact them. But I never, ever do business with anyone who cold calls me, and I never will.
19
Any place that tries to sell me anything with a robocall is the last place I’d buy anything from. It’s their business, they can run and ruin it anyway they want.
2
After receiving threatening phone calls for debts I didn't owe, I started looking up numbers on 800notes.com. This has been helpful, but time consuming. Now use the Jolly Roger Telephone Company service. It works in conjunction with simultaneous ring. Bots at Jolly Roger sound human and trick the autodialer to transfer the call to a human. The bots, which sound confused, preoccupied and distracted, and who seem to forget immediately whatever they are told. waste the scammers time, sometimes for minutes on end. The service has a database of known scammers. You still have to add numbers that get through to the list to transfer to the bots, but it beats being threatened and abused by vultures.
9
Given I know exactly what I owe I find the threatening ones entertaining. With one I explored the possible impact of concrete nails on various human joints.
1
My cell phone number has an area code for a place where I know no one. I get 6-8 calls a day from this area code, but I know not to pick up.
I know it's a pain to change your cellphone number, but this has worked out great for me. I almost always have the phone turned off, but I do look at it fairly frequently to see if I've missed any voicemails.
3
Depending on my mood, I occasionally will stay on the line through the recorded spiel (almost always about my student loan debt --I'm 71, never had a student loan at a single one of the three universities and two community colleges I attended) and then ask, when a humanoid speaks, where they are calling from. When I tell them that, according to my cell phone display, they are several hundred or thousand miles closer to me than they have just said, all that follows is silence. At other times, when the caller is "Canadian Pharmacy," I practice full-throated pornographically impossible threats, just to keep my Vietnam-inspired military vocabulary in top notch form.
Never waste a good chance to let off steam without any repercussions.
9
I just usually ending up feeling sorry for the poor person stuck on the other end of the line. It’s time we humans circled the wagons and took refuge inside from the onslaught of savage machine warriors.
1
Bill the caller $1 to connect. Have the callee refund it to legitimate callers.
6
This what the Federal Government --the Department of Justice--should be focused on, this and SPAM, identity theft and other aspects of fraud or taking (not drugs, not prostitution (now dressed up as "Human Trafficking" and so forth). Do a real service rather than trample on God-given liberties (and make the situation much much worse for all concerned).
6
My land line answering machine was receiving numerous hang up calls, so I deleted my greeting from the phone and allowed it to fill up with messages so that no additional ones can be left, and we do not answer it at all. Also turned down the volume to silent. I would love to get rid of my landline altogether, but it is still cheaper to have the triple play that to purchase internet and tv services separately. Just waiting to "cut the cord" altogether, but hubby loves his live sports!
And not answering any unknown calls on my cell phone has greatly reduced the number of robocalls.
3
Trump world is about deregulation and using every techinque in the book to make money.
So do not expect any regulation coming from Congress. The only way to regulate robocalls is to vote out the GOP. I am not a hard core Dem by any stretch but the Trump administration is pro "do anything" business and anti-individual rights.
So you can blame companies, you can blame technology but these are not going to stop any time soon until there is a responsible majority in Congress who want to do the right thing for the consumer. The GOP will do the right thing for themselves and the companies that support them.
Welcome to Trumpworld.
29
It should be noted the Trump campaign heavily used robocalls. Why would they outlaw them?
This is a political, not a technological problem. The current administration in Washington ran and was elected on a platform that the government should not impose regulations that impede the right of a business to make money in any manner. These multiple daily robotic scam calls, which have rendered telephones practically useless for normal legitimate communication between individuals, are but one unfortunate result.
21
I constantly get calls about urgent issues with my student loan debt... I've never had student loan.....
3
I don't see why the telecom companies, who are so willing to provide info to the NSA on exactly who called who, cannot automatically block robocallers. At the very least, it seems like it should be easy to block the latest scam of spoofing numbers local to you. Even if calls do "travel through various carriers and a maze of networks," any call coming from another carrier or network is obviously not a local call.
I also don't see why it is up to individual consumers to take action. This should be something that the government should require the telecom industry to address, just as they require financial institutions to have anti-money laundering mechanisms in place.
12
Unless I recognize the number, I do not answer my phone. If someone wants to contact me they can leave a message and I will call them back. Most of the 7-9 calls I get a day from unrecognized numbers do not leave a message. As a teacher, I have to silence my phone - as a parent I would prefer not to do this in case it is my son's school calling. What a pain!
7
Although I block numerous calls or my AT&T app does, I'd rather see a system whereas the call does not come through unless I authorize it. If one fails to authorize future incoming calls from a number after 5 days, it falls out of a queue like it never happened. I almost never answer my phone unless the caller is in my contact list. Like I tell my friends, that is what voicemail is for.
4
Laughable, after all these years and billions upon billions of unsolicited intrusions, all the FCC has to offer is that they will "seek public comment"! We could put a man on the moon in the sixties but this apparently is beyond our government's capabilities.
25
I think the FCC's 'do not call list' is really a 'call list' for spammers and solicitors. Sadly, it's only the robocallers and scammers that have their identities protected. Me, I'm completely naked in this AI robo-calling business.
7
The inevitable future, for most of us, is a whitelist call blocker. Only pre-authorized numbers get through, everything else goes to voicemail. Some call blockers allow a legitimate caller to get around the block by pressing a numeric code, then calling back (robocallers aren't set up to do this so they simply drop out). Unfortunately legitimate automated dialers (a credit card company warning you about a suspicious transaction, a drug store calling to tell you your prescription's ready) also cannot get around the blocker.
For home phones, there are machines that handle this for as little as $50. For cell phones there are whitelist-based apps for Android, I'm not sure about IOS.
Anyway whitelist systems will change the way we think of phones. The days of anybody in the world being able to call you if they can dial your number -- those days are ending.
3
Identifying robocalls is much easier when you have a phone number outside your area code. Local businesses sometimes act askance. Generally speaking though, the tactic is very helpful. No one I don't know is calling me from my phone's area code. Period. We don't even own a landline. In response to the emergency argument, I'll suggest a basic CB radio and a little preparation.
Another tactic is to fight fire with fire. If you've already abandoned the traditional telecom model, finding ways to obscure your true phone number is relatively easy. Even something like a skype number with call forwarding to a true number is a decent level of obscurity. When in doubt, don't hand out. Treat your number something like a social security card.
We shouldn't have to resort to these measures. However, seeing as the scams are generally international there's not much Congress can accomplish anyway. We are both political and legally powerless. I might add technologically powerless too. If nothing else, let everything go to voicemail. If they have some legitimate concern, they'll leave a self-identifying voice message. Personally, if I get a voice mail box, I look for an option to text or email instead. A legitimate caller has more than one way to get in touch with you.
7
The above brought to you by the telemarketers association. This is the way they push back and protect their livelihood. at your cost.
1
Political campaigns are among the worst offenders, so there is all but zero chance Congress will enact meaningful laws.
14
It's legal for political campaigns to call you. They're exempt from this law.
1
Precisely, which is the main reason my comment refers to "weak laws."
It used to be only to landlines, but now my cell phone is inundated too. I turned off the ringer on my landline and most of the voice-mail is spam, including the 7 calls from "Apple" about my ICloud account breach. One time when I actually was getting a call from Apple they had to send me an email that they kept getting voice mail. I forgot to turn the ringer back on to receive their call.
I also do not answer calls I don't recognize on my cell phone. This is ridiculous that we pay for services which we can't control. I am on the do not call list but that makes no difference. I block as many numbers as I can and that makes no difference. It is time that our government does something constructive to stop this illegal activity. While they are at it, they should also ban charity and political calls. They exempted themselves from spam phoning so they can harass us around election time. We have the right to privacy in our homes. How about the death penalty for those who run these scams. The CIA should have the authority to knock off the perpetrators where they live.
13
A huge part of the problem is Caller ID spoofing. According to the website Trapcall.com, "The only circumstances in which caller ID spoofing is illegal is if it has the intention to cause harm in some form. If no harm is intended or caused, spoofing is legal." I've seen similar explanations on many other websites. There are caller ID spoofing apps widely available. This situation MUST be changed. Caller iD spoofing should ONLY be legal in specific and very rare circumstances. I can think of three: 1) Calls forwarded from your home phone to your cell phone (or visa versa) should be allowed to show the initiating caller's information rather than that of your home (or cell) phone (perhaps with an "F" in front to show it was forwarded. 2) Calls from a business with multiple "trunk lines" should be permitted to show the "main" number on all outgoing calls and 3) Certain professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists dealing with crisis situations should be permitted to have their office number display when calling a client from their personal home or cell phone. Other than these types of situations, caller ID spoofing should always be illegal. If Caller ID spoofing were stopped, technologies like "NOMOROBO" would work far more effectively and the problem would be far more manageable.
8
It is wholly possible to do something about this issue, an issue which has a corollary IMO to our national security as well as the security of our marketplace. The failure to do anything about it after over a decade merely reveals yet ANOTHER failure of leadership and absence of care for the citizens of this country.
By attending to the flaw in a system called the SS7 which is involved in how calls are id'd in transit during the first second of the call, the issue could be resolved. It is possible for the perpetrator of this act to spoof the recipient (many companies like www.spooftel.com sell it for a fee).
FYI, when you call the police or some other authorities, this issue has already been resolved. It isn't possible to spoof the cops.......Only YOU
12
“defining auto-dialers too broadly would hurt legitimate businesses trying to reach their customers.” If a business needs an auto-dialer to reach its customers, they’re not really customers.
There are also robotexts, which are not mentioned in this article. At least twice a week, I receive auto-texts addressed to “Paul” with an allegedly irresistible business opportunity, including a URL.
The Do Not Call registry is an anachronism from the days when landlines were more common than mobile phones. By definition, callers need explicit consent to call a mobile number (with certain exceptions, such as political campaigns). I suppose it doesn’t hurt to put your number on that list, but it should not be necessary. Of course that does not matter to overseas criminals.
8
Report it? To whom? The FTC?
That agency is a joke. I repeatedly contacted them and the local police about my 90 year old father being continually bombarded by fraudsters. Under threat of destroying his PC, they got him to buy iTunes cards and read them the numbers
The FTC is completely useless. The police said there was nothing they could do.
17
I called AT&T about this and they suggested their Call Protect app. It identifies possible spam and blocks calls.
1
The harm they are doing goes beyond just the call. One of these guys spoofed my phone number. I am getting angry calls from other people asking me to stop calling them. It is creating a rippled effect of malice onto innocent people.
28
Just outlaw spoofing - period!!
That would stop it.
But commercial telemarketers don’t want it .
17
We get dozens of these calls a day, on our duly registered "do not call" landline as well as both of our cell phones.
The most persistent is "Rachel" of "Credit Card Services"--who is quicker than a whackamo. Every time we block one of her--apparently local--numbers she almost immediately pops up with another. And her tricks--if not her speed--are shared by "Heather" and "Veronica" and "Molly" and "Rewards Notification Services" and that guy who keeps "returning" our calls about our "computer" despite the fact we have a Mac. And don't get me going about those calls about medigap coverage or the walkers, back braces or other elder care equipment we supposedly ordered. Or the "final notice" messages before the IRS brings suit. Or those guys who were "in [our] neighborhood" and saw how much our (brick) home needs aluminum siding.
If I knew where "Rachel" lived, I'd probably do something I'd regret. But first I'd pass on her phone number to the rest of you who posted here.
28
I’m surprised this article doesn’t once mention the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which is the federal statute that is supposed to prevent commercial solicitors from making these types of calls. The statute provides a private right of action to consumers that receive unconsented calls, and people can receive $500-$1500 per call they receive. This hasn’t been effective to curb abuses by scam companies because they’re impossible to sue, but it has effectively curbed bad business practices from otherwise legitimate businesses.
There need to be additional protections from the scam robo calls, and I’m happy lawmakers and regulators are moving towards a solution.
4
Both domestic and overseas cold-calling centers - aka the boiler rooms of live person openers &/or closers to whom the robocalls turn over targets who press "1" - tend to hire desperately under-employed and unemployed people.
This is partly because there are too many job seekers in cities, yet not enough living wage job openings for them.
Even if/when job seekers do have the education and skills, secure full-time job vacancies are still limited.
However, desperate job seekers won't go back to their impoverished/underdeveloped rural hometowns or blighted urban ghettos, so off to the boiler rooms they go.
Some job seekers also resort to shady boiler rooms because they have felonies & other criminal records (ex. outstanding arrest warrants; too many unpaid traffic tickets/DUIs/DWIs that prohibit driving, thus limiting job options to anything reachable solely by public transport) that make them unemployable for a lot of in-person, mobile, and higher-paying work.
Other job seekers w/abysmal credit histories (i.e. bankruptcies, tax liens, garnishments for alimony & child support, etc.) also don't qualify for jobs that they could get blackmailed/corrupted at, like being prison security guards.
Frankly too, there will always be smooth talkers who want to get rich quick on phone-driven "investment", "charity", "tax/debt collection", and the like scams.
Overpopulation & materialism fuel con artists & suckers everywhere. Just block any robocall & any no-voicemail-left calls!
3
I use the Jolly Roger telephone company, which has an amazing and clever solution. jollyrogertelco.com. Check it out it's fun and it is a mere $6 per year. I just forward my calls to their robots that waste time of the robo call robot or human.
I tried to post this comment earlier but there was an "error."
I had a robocall on my landline the other day that did not cease when I hung up the receiver. The voice could still be heard going on and on. It never stopped until I disconnected the phone from the phone line. Anyone else? What new technology permits this?
2
I the calling party does not hang up, the connection is maintained. This is the way land lines have worked for many decades.
FWIW: My ISP/landline provider are one and the same for one price. My cell is with some one else. I use my landline phone as my "junk" phone. When/if I'm required to provide a phone number for a registration, etc. I give the junk phone number. I surmise I get an average 10 - 15 calls a day on the junk phone, no messages left.
I set my cell up with the names associated with the numbers. If I get an unidentified number I let it go into message mode without answering. If a valid message is left, I return the call, otherwise I erase it.
Unnecessary complications, yes. But worth the effort, IMHO, and these are the times we live in...
First the landline. Now our cell phones. These spammers and nuisance callers are so persistent, they would probably find a way to call me if my phone consisted of two tin cans and a string.
3
We have stopped answering our phone unless we know the person calling us. We get about 20 calls per day on our land line phone and about 5 on each of our cell phones. Once a day we check for messages in case we missed a call that we should have taken. Generally, robo calls do not leave messages. I have "blocked" certain numbers on my cell phone and they are still put through. These robo calls have escalated over the past 6 months. The worst ones are bogus calls from Dell, Microsoft, and the IRS.
2
If the caller is not identified, I ignore them.
5
One defense: Hang up the phone instantly if a voice does not respond to your "Hello" within a second of your greeting. If they're a friend of yours they'll call you back asking why you hung up on them.
4
This simple...
Just stop using the phone - connect to everybody and everything through Amazon and Facebook...
If not sure of someone's ID number - look it up on Google...
They'll all be absolutely as careful about limiting inappropriate stuff coming in your direction - as they are about limiting your stuff inappropriately going out the other way...
Smartphone makers would be fine...
Before the iPhone, there was the iTouch - a complete iPhone, except for the phone...
Retro sells, these days...
Early Apple II - more than $18K on eBay, at this moment...
PS
Expect Congress to do about as much to ban these assault weapons, as they do for the other kind...
Increase background checks - on the complainers...
Doesn't seem that our telephone monopolies have much interest in cutting off this source of their revenue, unless they can charge us for it.
6
I got fed up with the Robocalls from a medic alert company ("Hello Seniors!) which I had no need or desire for. So eventually I clicked through, gave them a false name, false address and false credit card number. Several days later I got a call from a supervisor asking if I made a mistake. I told him I was tired of being harassed, and all the information I gave was phony. If they were wasting my time, I'd waste theirs.
The calls stopped- for about a year, then slowly, but infrequently resumed.
7
I will believe in new restrictions on robocalls when I see them, because the current leadership of the FCC is not so much "friendly" to phone companies as violently in love with all aspects of unrestrained capitalism - what should we expect when the chair used to be an attorney for Verizon? Legislators need to avoid the temptation to be even-handed as between corporations and the public in drawing up new restrictions, and come down strongly in favor of the public. Companies wishing to reach their existing customers just indicate their identities in caller ID and/or leave a message, so there is not really a problem for them. Consumers need to lobby their representatives hard and hold them to account.
10
I find it hard to believe that nothing can be done. One of the most annoying calls is from companies offering to get your credit card interest reduced. If they are legit, or not, there must be a way to find the company or businesses behind the calls and hit them hard.
If the technology is out there to make the calls, the technology must exist to track the call. My guess it that it isn't enough of a priority for lawmakers or law enforcement.
7
This noxious problem has literally ruined telephone phone service in this country. I recently had to purchase a new phone system just to get a blocking feature for my landline, and I have NoMoRoBo and am on the do not call list and I’m unlisted. All that does no good. And I never used to get these calls on my cell - now I get them constantly. At this point a lot of them aren’t even in English. I can’t believe with all the technology out there that there isn’t a way to stop this. I think the biggest problem is that the people who could stop it simply don’t want to.
4
Simple solution: re-engineer the phone systems so that everyone who owns a phone can charge a fee to everyone who rings their phone. Let the phone owner set the amount of the fee.
A few of ten cents would stop the robocallers.
4
I live in a different area code now from where I purchased my phone. Over the past year, I noticed that I was receiving a plethora of calls from bizarre IDs or unknown callers from my old area code. I'm not surprised that Trump's FCC has sided with the robocallers over the citizens of our country. We need to pressure Congress into acting to protect our interests on this issue. We can't count on any help from the White House until this regime has been removed from power.
4
There are smartphone apps out there, some free, some subscription based that really help. There are also physical devices that will work on landlines. Just use Google to search for Caller ID Blockers to find apps and reviews. Many tech sites offer extensive comparisons and reviews to help you pick the best one for you.
In fact, here is one such article by The NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/smarter-living/stop-robocalls.html
I personally use Hiya (I not affiliated with them in any way). It has helped my friends, clients and myself get rid of this scourge. It works VERY well. Found out about it from the article linked above.
Information is key. The more people that find out about these apps, the less the scammers will make off of unsuspecting victims. It may help stem the tide until the FCC and communications providers have a chance to catch up.
1
Yes! "Friendly to businesses".
More! More of the abuse businesses can heap upon people in the name of profit. That's what America is all about: being a Consumer Target.
That profit benefits me, the consumer.
Right?
Right.
6
This plague of robocalls is one more example of how the only persistent freedom in America is the freedom to rip people off under color of law. Our government's primary purpose is seen by the wealthy as delivering up easy marks, suckers, and ignorant citizens who have been brain washed into betraying their own individual best interests by endless appeals to the idea of freedom being defined as ideal when the citizens are hamstrung into inaction against their wealthy "betters" and our elected representatives bought off or even acting on behalf of those ripping us off.
118
I often wonder how many of our do-nothing legislators receive campaign donations from these flea-infested robo-callers. Nah, that would never happen, right?
10
The scamming is getting worse. Not only are they spoofing local numbers, they actually SOMEHOW actually use real numbers without the owner's permission. A couple of times I've tried returning a call and gotten a real person who didn't have a clue!
Of COURSE businesses that are "legit" don't want controls on the scamming robocalls, because they do it themselves. So what if the "Hi! This is Elizabeth..." scam violates wire laws, interrupts important meetings and activities, leads people to NOT answer phones?
Besides, even "legitimate" robocalls are annoying. And how do I know if the supposed "legitimate" call isn't actually a scam?
What's not touched on in this report is a constant, live-call scam. They claim to be from Microsoft and they've detected a problem with your Windows op-system. The callers are always heavily accented, and the calls don't have an ID, and clearly are VOIP and could be anywhere in the world.
When in the world did MY phone, that I pay for for my convenience and safety, become the "property" of every advertiser, drummer and scam artist? And why aren't the Republicans protecting property rights? Why? Because they are in the pockets of these scammers.
6
Yesterday, robo-IRS called me. Then before that, robo-China. And before that robo-collection agency. And before that, robo-lawyer. They all said I was facing "criminal charges" and prison if I don't sort things out. My virtual-self seems to be living a more interesting life than I am.
7
Just say no. Ignore the call.
I never pick up the phone unless Caller ID gives a name I recognize.
If I fail to pick up and it really is a human caller, I assume they will leave a message.
If I do answer by mistake, most often the caller seems to hang up. The robocalls never leave a message.
1
DNC list doesn’t seem to help at all. My husband and I cancelled our landline because or the robot all’s, and I never pick up unknown calls on my cell. So the local phone provider just lost a customer... it astounds me that these robocallers are successful enough to maintain their operations - I cannot imagine responding to an unsolicited robocall!
Be proactive while waiting for the industry and/or government to fix the mess:
• Turn off the ringer on your mobile phone when somewhere you don’t want to be disturbed; it will still vibrate if you want to peek to see if you need to answer
• Don’t answer the phone unless you recognize the number, even if it appears to be a local caller; a legitimate caller will almost always leave a message or text
• Use the privacy settings on your mobile phone; I have mine set so that only family members will ring between 11pm and 7am; for anyone else, it will ring silently and they’ll be routed to voicemail
I’m sure one or more of these won’t work for everybody, but our home phone receives many spam and/or spoofing calls; less so on our mobile phones. However, by employing the above tactics, we find it to be, on balance, a non-event.
If I don't recognize the number, I don't pick up the call. If it's someone I want to talk to, I already have them in my phone on my contacts list. I've been done with answering calls on both my personal and business cell phones that look like local callers because they are using my state's area code and sometimes even local exchange numbers only to get the long pause before being connected to a robot or being "threatened" to be arrested because I "owe money to the IRS." Shame on the telecommunications companies and the FCC for continuing to allow con artists to try to scam us while we pay them to do it.
1
Robocalls have gotten completely out of control. I don't answer any call unless I know who is calling. If it is important my friends and colleagues will leave a message and I will return their call. It is difficult to believe how many people are fooled by these calls.
2
To fend off such nasty calls install an answering machine and "the cheese is eaten". Robust German counter-offensive.
Alteratively, if you're the least bit masochistic go ahead and answer that phone. Announce that you are only picking up so you can participate in the class action lawsuit that will shut their company down and send you a nice check.
1
A number of the calls I get say Scam Likely on my phone screen, and those are easy. I also don't answer calls with my first three digits and other unknown calls. I figure they can leave a message. When they don't, I know it's a scam.
1
If you don't recognize the number, try entering a few digits on your phone before you say anything when you pick up the phone. If it is a robocall, the robot on the other end will think it is a computer and take you off the list. If it is a person, they will answer, and you can tell them not to call again. I've tried it and it has worked!
Officials often suggest that the best way to deal with robocalls is to hang up, not press “2” to be taken off the list.
I take the opposite approach. I always press “1” to speak to a representative. After they go through their pitch I asked to be taken off their list. I doubt it works, but if more people did this the savvy companies would figure out that it is worth their while to do so. Their business model depends on the 99.9% of people who don’t want what they are selling to hang up. If we waste the time of their live operators their business model collapses.
1
"Neighborhood spoofing," where robocallers use our own area codes and prefixes to disguise themselves, should be easy to block. But neither landline nor cellphone carriers have systems in place allowing us to block specific area codes or prefixes. The carriers should fix that.
1
I received a robocall voicemail on my cell this week allegedly from the IRS who were going to be on my doorstep at any moment (and also keeping an eye on me and my assets) to arrest me for unspecified felonies. I was to call back immediately—the call back number was the same as the caller ID number. I called back so I could read them the riot act while laughing uproariously, only to be told the number had been disconnected. I’m hoping it was the FCC or some government agency that made the disconnect—but I won’t hold my breath.
2
I'm sure others have asked this, but do robocall scams exist in other countries? The spoofing technology is cheap and easy to use, so other countries should have the same problem. Do they? If not, why not? My guess would be that in the US we're much more likely to allow obvious scams, under the thin pretext that some unsolicited, automated calls may be legit in the barest sense of not being openly fraudulent. We can't have a "nanny state" that puts time share sellers out of business because Freedom.
We have "nomorobo" at home and it works well. We still get toll free, automated calls from legit sources, but none from illegitimate ones.
1
I bought a "CPR CallBlocker" and it has saved my sanity! Now I average one or no nuisance calls a day. You can order it on line. It only works on land lines with caller ID.
I no longer answer the phone-- unless it's someone I know who has called me before. I really and truly have zero interest in talking to people working for call centers trying to scam me. It's a blight.
1
So, if I get this right, any-old-body can set up a robocall operation to call me to try to sell me something or cheat me out of something because they have a constitutional right to call my number, a number which I pay money for in order to be able to have contact with people I want to contact me who do not sell me stuff or try to cheat me. The question here is where is my constitutional right not to want to hear from robocallers? Am I missing something? Or, is the sole purpose of my existence on earth to be a market for business? Just asking.
3
Got rid of my land line. Silence.
Have been reporting unwanted phone calls/robocalls on the “Do Not Call” website for years. I learned from this fruitless experience that I wasted precious time on this activity because the Do Not Call registry is just as ineffective as our current administration is and, as ineffective as Ajit Pai is to the Federal Communication Commission.
5
A couple of comments...
1) You should never be disturbed while in a meeting, the doctor's office, or in church because your ringer should be OFF in those situations. That is just common cell phone etiquette.
2) If a number is calling me that is not in my contact list, I ignore it and don't answer. If it is important, they will leave a message.
3) It should be illegal to "spoof" the call ID and put up a fake phone number on your screen. Doing so is a form of fraud as they are misrepresenting themselves.
2
I too do not answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I regret that my cell phone now suffers from the same issue that plagued my land line before I got rid of it. If people don't leave a message, I block the call. Idiotically, I've lately been receiving calls and messages in Chinese, a language I don't speak. They're certainly casting a wide net. I was also left messages from the faux threatening IRS.When we get a decent government, the wild west internet businesses will pay. The scamsters are like cockroaches. Regulate, fumigate, rinse, repeat.
241
It should be a criminal offense to use caller id spoofing. I am really sick of getting phone calls that look like they are from real people that turn out to be robocalls.
91
I block them, knowing those actual people with my same exchange digits will never want to call me anyway. Eventually, I will have blocked everyone but my husband who has the same exchange digits as well.
1
I screen all my calls whether they are sent to my land line or my cell phone. If I don't recognize the phone number I don't answer the phone. Spectrum also gives their customers the option to block phone numbers. I have used that service too when I was getting calls from scam artists.
9
I got this one the other day: "A review of outstanding criminal warrants has your name on at least 2 indictments. Call us immediately at ... to avoid being arrested in your home, your workplace, or in your automobile." They then repeated the same message, apparently so that after the shock wore off, I would rehear their phone number...
19
I've been getting a lot of calls on my landline where it rings once, and that's it. I've quit jumping up to get the phone unless it rings more than twice. Nope, the do not call list doesn't work, or maybe it does and I'd get 100 of these calls a day instead of the 25 or so I got last week.
My elderly mother got one of the scam calls about her grandson needing money to get out of jail. Luckily she did not give them any info but it scared her silly. Don't people have better things to do with their time than frighten old people??
15
Apparently not.
1
I cannot use my landline anymore (and think of cancelling it). I have a message explaining that I do not pick up my phone anymore + if they leave a voicemail I call back.
My phone company VONAGE makes it hard to block calls. Instead of a simple button on my phone, I have to log on, copy the offending number and paste it into a 'blocked' list that allows 50 numbers max.
Anyone here has a suggestion for a more consumer-friendly company?
5
I also have Vonage & use it to block calls. It works perfectly. The routine you describe takes me about two minutes. I don’t find that difficult and really liked how it works.
I find it hard to believe that if the Feds truly wanted to end these calls it couldn't do so very quickly.
55
Agreed!
If the NSA is really doing it's job why hasn't this already been done?
2
I've been introduced to parts of the US and read about towns that I've barely even heard of before thanks to looking up the zip codes of the all the robocalls I get. Western Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana. It's a geography lesson.
6
I am deluged by them, get three or four a day in no small part because Mick Mulvaney, assigned to head President Trump's Consumer Protection Agency, actually works for those behind the avalanche of robocalls. He advances their interests at the expense of mine and all other consumers'.
Defrauding us with legal impunity, of course, gets Trump's blessing. After all, that's his raison d'etre -- what he did before becoming president and what he does as president these days. "No lie too vile, no con too brazen or swindle too small" should be his administration's motto. And if you object he'll punch your lights out, then pick your pockets clean.
65
I never answer calls unless the caller is identified by name as someone I know. Unidentified callers can leave a message, and I will decide whether to respond.
20
Big telecom companies like Verizon and COMCAST could end all of these robocall tomorrow but they won't because it's profitable for them. The technology is there but they don't care.
Bottom line today is if there's money to made they will do it.
The customer is to be bilked and stolen from, that's what we're good for.
21
I wish this were true, but these call do not originate from the networks of, and are not in any way profitable for the larger telecom companies. Virtually all of these calls originate from smaller voice over IP carriers, typically overseas. This makes them hard to trace, and even harder to shut down.
Robocalls
"Both the House and Senate held hearings on the issue within the last two weeks, and each chamber has either passed or introduced legislation aimed at curbing abuses."
The "Do Not Call List" has been on the books for a long time. In one case millions of Americans filed complaints against "Card Services". I filed a complaint every time that bunch called, but to no effect. I wrote my senator about no enforcement every being taken. One of his people called me to report that they had contacted the federal agency in charge of enforcement and was told that they do go after some companies, but there is a certain number of complaints that have to be filed. They would not tell the senators staff person how many complaints have to be filed.
Just this past week I had several robo calls from "Card Services". They call several times a month.
Any hearings by congress are just for show unless they put teeth into legislation and require strict and swift enforcement action and full disclosure of how many complaints will trigger enforcement. Congress will also have to provide for hiring people to do the enforcement, which they have never done before.
9
Who answers calls from those they don't recognize?
Almost all of the calls I receive on my landline are robocalls.
It may be a ploy for us to get rid of our landlines. Getting everyone on to cellphones and off of landlines is the major telecom's strategy. Because to keep up the landline infrastructure, (poles and wires) costs money and cuts into their bottom line, obscene profits.
I want to be the last person in America to have a landline.
You'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
10
Sorry, but this makes no sense. As the article says, robocallers target cell phones as well. I get 3-4 per day on mine.
2
I only have a cell phone, no land line. Trust me, robocalls afflict cell phones too. A lot.
1
Thankfully, I'm not a doctor that might get a call from a random ER about a patient, most of us aren't.
The solutions are at our fingertips, don't answer calls from anonymous or unknown numbers. If the call is really important, the caller will leave a message and you can return the call.
And if you really want to protect your privacy, keep your phone on silent all the time! (you can always program certain numbers, like from your kids, to ring no matter what.)
4
That sounds fine to me, Prodigal Son, I can do all that. But what about my elderly mother-in-law who always answers her phone and has trouble distinguishing between legitimate calls and scams? And millions of other people just like her?
1
If I don't know the caller I do not answer. Period. If it's legit, they should leave a message and I will call them back. My TMobile provider appears to do a good job with robocalls. The calls come up with a red screen and big letters saying "probable scam". Love this feature!
3
They are a nuisance. A major nuisance. But robocalls are largely a self inflicted wound. How many time do we go on line to order something from pizza to an InstantPot? How many time do we sign up for information os some sort? And how many of those 'contacts' request a phone number that we reluctantly but must provide? Quite often. And thus the companies we deal with sell the phone number as well as the email address to anyone with money. The government should step in and declare that the information we provide to one specific company or entity is privileged and cannot be sold to a third party. And that includes robocalls during election season.
3
These illegal foreign-based boiler room robodialers are calling a range of numbers, usually in a sequence. It has nothing to do with any database from U.S. retailers. Legitimate retailers based in the states will usually adhere to the DNC list. Criminal telemarketers from foreign countries never do. BTW, charity, political, and survey calls are not bound to the DNC list rules.
2
I have somehow become targeted by the "Chinese Consulate" scam even though I don't have a Chinese name. They recording has gone to voicemail. I don't speak Mandarin, so my understanding ends after "ni hao,"
6
I refuse to answer most numbers that I don't recognize and my message says so. But hubby sometimes does, so since Do Not Call doesn't always work,we auto reject on our phone "vacation time share", "credit card offer" and the annoying "Aetna Wellness Checkup" which often calls on or before 6am several days a week. Since we walk more than 5 miles a day and barely have a 20 bmi, we are probably in better shape than the person who would evaluate us. But Aetna is our best choice in health insurance and they have farmed out their wellness visits to another company that they have "no control over"! What irritates me is being woke up, running for the phone, only to find it is a call from one of my auto rejects using a new number. I should not have to turn off my phone to not be subjected to this.
3
NYT front page digital reporting has become an online People magazine - this article tells us nothing we don't already know and offers zero advice on how to address the problem. All it does is raise a huge number of totally frustrating issues that are plaguing all of us. Why can't NYT address this elephant with practical advice instead of dancing around the edges?
What I am currently doing to avoid marketing and robocalls is:
1. not answering any unrecognized numbers. Legitimate callers can always leave VM. I turn my phone off when I hear these calls come in.
2. However, I wonder if sending the call to VM merely validates that this is a working number. I wonder if the program, recognizing VM, then forwards my number to the mindless robot to keep trying, or then sells it to other bots.
3. Would it be better to select "decline call" when I see an unrecognized number?
4. What about the "block contact" option on iPhone? I've blocked a lot of these unrecognized numbers, and it doesn't stop other unrecognized numbers from coming.
5. How hard can it be to trace the origin of these calls? It seems to me that a relatively small investment in training a dispersed group of people to collect data on the robocallers (by talking to them or buying their products in a reverse scam paradigm) would be a good government investment!
NYT, can you please get a recent marketing graduate and iPhone expert to advise your readers on what, if anything, can be done to reduce these calls?
3
The legislators and regulators are ignoring a key part of the problem: companies that sell targeted lists (e.g., of owners of real property) of phone numbers without first scrubbing them to remove people on the do not call registry. These companies advise their customers to scrub the lists themselves. Focusing on regulating telemarketers and requiring them to scrub their lists and to pay to register with the FTC is like asking the street-corner drug dealer to register with the local police. A simple practical solution would be to require the list-sellers to sell only scrubbed lists.
3
I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize. If it is someone I know, they will leave a message. Otw, I block the number.
I hope something can be done legislatively and properly enforced. Meanwhile - and just as with email spam - each of us must be vigilant and help others do likewise.
2
Mine seem to come in waves. For a long time I had none, now I have maybe two or three a week, which I do not answer.
I must also be one of the very few people who has never, ever, had a call from a political candidate. I guess that's the good news.
1
I'm not even a citizen yet (cant vote) and I get calls from political candidates! :S
I get 4-5 robocalls a day, they are spoofed to look like they are from people from similar phone numbers (family numbers are usually consecutive), local agencies,FBI,...!
Telecom industry must the very least make spoofing difficult!
15
I highly recommend the app Call Control which I use to block all incoming calls that aren't in my contacts (some days I get up to 12 robocalls!). I'm fortunate to not have lived in my cell phone's home area code in years so I can create an allowed list for the area codes where I live and still get calls from my doctor, mechanic, etc. This is incentive to keep my Georgia area code even though I'll probably never move back!
1
I know with iPhones you can use the "Do not disturb" setting to allow only calls from your contacts list. Not the most elegant solution, but there are some days when I use it because I am receiving a large number of these kinds of calls. There are also phone apps you can use that supposedly screen incoming calls, finds realtime information on the caller and can then block calls--TrueCaller, RoboKiller, etc. Unsure how well they work.
I also think it is best not to answer any calls from an unknown number whenever possible. As one person below has suggested, often better to check them later. Answering and arguing with the callers--if you even get a real person on the line--is futile unless it makes you feel better. I find that even answering one of these calls often results in more calls.
A shame that we need to deal with this at all.
5
This problem can't be that hard to solve. The fact that it is tells me somebody is making too much money to step in and help. Perhaps the people in charge of solving this problem are the board of directors of Wells Fargo.
8
I kept my land line which has a phone machine. And turned off the ringer. I only use that phone number for those websites that require a phone number. I only give out my cell phone number to friends or local contacts. It's not perfect. But the only way it might change is if those who have the ability to change it are inundated with robo calls like the rest of us.
3
The states attorney generals should together should go to the phone companies and demand action. And isn't there some NSA technology that could help stop this awful practice.
2
Yes, the technology is there but the big telecom companies can't be bothered, it would cost money.
Plus they make money off of robocallers. So they're not interested in changing it. And thin dime to be made.
1
I am sure that the current snake oil administration - will get right on it.
2
Oh really! The republicans will do something against business interests. Not to mention the fact the republicans do NOTHING for the people of this country. They have all Congress and the WH and here we sit. Why would they break tradition by doing anything.
5
Switch off your ringer and tell people to text you instead of calling...or give up on the phone entireley and just use the internet, messenger, skype, what’s up etc. If the phone companies can’t get those unwanted calls under control they will shoot themselves in their own foot.
3
If you give up all phones--even cell--how do you expect to call police, fire, in an emergency? What are you going to do--log in to call for help? Also, don't count on the internet to always be up and working.
1
While visiting friends on Long Island,New York I opted to take my iPhone into a local Apple Store for a tuneup. Since that visit I’ve been receiving many robo calls but only from the same 516 area code as the Apple Store. I remain suspicious that my iPhone number was sold by an Apple Store employee. I live in Bethesda Maryland & don’t receive robo calls from my home area code, only from 516.
3
The same thing happened to me when I canceled my Verizon land line account and had my old land line number put on a Verizon cell phone (and it's still happening.) When I complained to Verizon, their customer service people denied listing my cell number anywhere, but it was so obvious. As a land line, that number got a maximum of one or two robocalls per week. The day after the number was assigned to a new cell phone account, WHAMO! Several robocalls per day. Got any new lies for me, Verizon? (When I was trying to have my land line repaired, eventually I reported Verizon to the FCC for lying to me - their tech and customer service people did not even try to keep their "stories straight.")
1
I get at least 2 a day now....in Chinese, yay! I dumped my cable phone about 2 years ago because I was getting 5 - 6 calls a day and their was no way to block them. Then I read that Time Warner was selling their cable phone customers numbers to telemarketers. It seems cable phones are the worst.
2
Like many people, I have an app which blocks robocalls (Nomorobo). Unfortunately. some of the scammers have figured out a way around Nomorobo. What happens is that my phone rings once then stops (indicating a robocall). Within a minute or two, my phone rings again and the caller ID shows the Nomorobo number. The caller, of course, is a very unwelcome solicitor!
And I wish I had a dollar for every call I've gotten on both my landline and my cell phone from a number with the same area code and first three digits as my phone numbers. With that money, I could take an around-the-world- cruise and be away from these nuisances!
4
I changed my landline to the $4.50 per month Ooma service, turn off the ringer and let it go straight to the answering machine. This is the number I give out publicly when I don’t need or expect a call back. I check and clear the spam monthly. I’m now getting some spoofed calls and some in Chinese and Vietnamese on my cellphone but nowhere near the volume of my home line.
5
If the "person" calling cannot leave a message they are not a person. I NEVER answer my "land line" phone for just that reason. Robocalls are being left on it now in Chinese and Spanish regularly which of course I do not speak. Tons of our calls are from "legitimate" charity organizations who apparently have mistaken us for people who don't work for a living or have to feed their own kids. Don't have a "smart" phone either - just one of those cheesy little "drop" phones from twenty years ago which I use for all my personal phoning and turn off when I am not. Wanna talk to me? Leave me a message on my land line. Otherwise - you won't.
8
If so many people didn't answer these calls, and if so many didn't fall for the scams, these companies wouldn't bother us this way. They use robocalling because it works. Everyone who answers the phone and initiates a call with these scammers just perpetuates the scams. If the hundreds of calls they make every day went unanswered, it wouldn't take long for them to stop. Use caller ID. Don't feel you have to answer every call you get. Don't answer calls from unfamiliar numbers. A simple method that works pretty well.
7
The US Chamber of Commerce recently joined ranks with the telemarketing industry and other business interests petitioning the FCC to limit the legal definition of “automated dialer.” If they are successful, they will limit the scope of existing protections and open the floodgates to even greater numbers of these spam calls. To see who, including the mortgage and debt collection businesses, backs this petition:
https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/...
7
I almost missed reading the chart in this article because I assumed it was an ad and automatically flicked past it. Ironic.
3
If I don’t know the number I pick up but say nothing, 95% of those calls drop if you say nothing, usually in 8–11 seconds. That’s the least amount of time I can get to handle each one.
Utterly disgusting.
6
The DNC list is a scam in itself. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this administration gives the DNC list to known spammers so they have a never ending list of people to harass!
I've tried a few methods - my provider allows me to create a white list of callers that only allows their calls through and stops the robocallers- I'm allowed 100 so its more than enough for friends and family. The only problem is that occasionally legitimate business or contractor calls are screened out too, but they can leave a message if its important.
Before that I used a service called NoMoRobo - it's free but you have to allow their servers to access your phone. When a robocaller calls, it will detect whether its a known robocaller number, then block it after 1 ring. It's very simple to set up, but not all phone services provide it. They have a website - nomorobo.com, so try it and see if your phone service uses it.
4
I received a call on a Sunday last year from an unknown number. I answered it and the caller was unintelligble. THinking it was another robocall I hung up. A few days later I received a call from a client asking what the problem with my phone is. She referred a client to me and said that I hung up on him. It turns out that the Sunday caller was an inquiry from what potentially was a very very large client. They thought I was rude for hanging up and I never reconnected with them. Now I answer each and every call: "Hello, how can I help you?"
63
And, of course, the problem isn't with the "legitimate business-people" that are making our phone numbers useless to us. All we have to do is take it on the chin and everything will be fine.
4
You said that the caller was unintelligible - why is this a robot-call issue? I would have been more annoyed with my client for not having the courtesy to give me a heads up that they had referred someone who might be calling. Perhaps if you had this heads up you might have probed further when you got this call.
11
If the person was unintelligible, I doubt you would have been able to establish a good working relationship.
9
Private phones are just that — Private — and solicitors should not be allowed to invade our privacy without our permission. ‘Do Not Call Lists’ don’t work. The policy should be explicit ‘Opt In’ for those seeking such solicitations.
32
Only a cannibal capitalist society would permit robocalls by default.
The elites who rule the U.S.A. view the American population as nothing more than a profit center,
4
They’re just now “noticing”? It’s been a personal privacy scandal that the U.S. gov’t. and States have ignored for 10-15 years! There should have been privacy legislation in place that would have prevented the industry from ever forming. But it has to get beyond insane for lawmakers to “take notice”???
149
Really they (the politicians) don't care, they just pretend that they do. Big telecom corps are their bread and butter.
And they know who butters their bread.
9
Another annoyance - Making us wait to hear the pitch. Calls are not assigned to agents until the system thinks someone is on the line. Having determined that 10-12 seconds is the most people will tolerate waiting, if the agent doesn't pick up they disconnect, calling back later, usually with a different fake number. For a brief time, some even tried to explain the delay, apologizing with an explanation about adjusting a headset.
Idea - I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but if deterrence is the objective, here's a crime that might be deterred...
33
"Please hold for a very important call/message..."? That one drives me nuts, though I seldom answer calls unless I recognize the name or number.
2
This would solve the problem of robo-dialed calls from the call centers in Mumbai which are then completed by a real person. Some clever techie needs to invent an app or a landline phone that has a button which, when pushed, cuts off your phone's speaker and sends an ear-splitting 5 second long shriek down the line to the caller. Talk about making those folks in the call center jumpy... never knowing when they are going to get a headache inducing, mind-melting blast of noise in their ear. At least they'd have to pay them a more decent wage to keep working.
26
Keep a very loud whistle beside your phone and blow it hard into their headset. It is very satisfying to do so.
2
Also hard on your own ears. My proposal allows the caller to have ALL the fun.
just hit *69 and the hacker Fraudsters have even hijacked someone elses Phone number.
2
All my numbers regularly get illegal calls. I'm guessing this is Trump making America great again.
55
It’s destroying our telephone service. People no longer pick up, even it might be an emergency. And the scam artists grow more brazen and ruthless - preying on the most vulnerable. Let your congress person know this is a critical issue!
52
It’s not just sales calls. Now that we are in midterm election season, I am inundated with unwanted calls from various political campaigns. I tell them to give me their personal number and I’ll call them back at my convenience.
8
These calls are the worst. One "survey" caller gives the name of the company conducting the survey, calling their offices to ask to have my number removed ends up with me being immediately hung up on.
Seriously, if a candidate pesters me with annoying phone calls that candidate will NOT get my vote.
3
Argh. The DNC is arguably the worst at this sort of thing. They call constantly, pretty much harangue you, and will not take no for an answer—they start negotiating how much you should contribute. They make it a pleasure to hang up on them flat.
1
This could be stopped immediately, with enforcement of the rules and FINES. It's almost like these scammers are paying someone off............
17
The companies are paying off Congress to ensure weak laws and underfunded enforcement.
1
You are not kidding. Robocalls are the order of the day, a nuisance driving some of us to get rid of our phone line, let alone stop listening to the ring. This may end up being a calamity if we stop answering an urgent call...just to avoid the pesky silence and then a shrieking voice to sell us the Brooklyn's bridge.
14
If you happen to (still) have the need for a landline like I do, AT&T makes an incredible phone (model CL82207) that will block all robo/unknown calls from even ringing. It is very easy to program/work with and costs less than $50. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to not have to endure the ringing of those calls daily. Apparently the robo callers are able to detect I have that kind of phone and now they don't bother making further attempts. The number of calls has decreased dramatically.
6
In countries where the party making a call to a mobile device pays the full cost of the call they don't seem to have this problem of robocalls. Shouldn't lawmakers seriously consider that here? Add in even a ten cent per robocall mandatory charge for those calling landlines and that problem would be fixed too wouldn't it?
10
You need to call the police right now at this number, you are facing criminal charges.
The IRS is going to garnish your wages, contact the IRS immediately at this number.
This is your credit union, all of your direct deposits have been suspended, contact us at this number.
- just a sampling of robocalls through my phone in the past week
Newest one is text with a link to verify my bitcoin reward.
I’m getting calls like this every day now. Sigh.
22
How hard would it be for the NSA to pinpoint a location that makes a million calls a day? They're already monitoring every call made in the U.S. Do something useful with it.
268
When I get the "Windows technical dept" call I used to use key words that the NSA's AI system looks for in all foreign calls. "Are you telling me that there is a bomb planted in the White House?" "Did you say that the plot to kill the President will commence at 7:30 tonight?" The caller will be quite flustered by this which is fun in and of itself but they generally hang up pretty quickly. So far no armada of black SUVs has shown up at my house but at least that would tell me someone is paying attention.
8