Americans received 26.3 billion robocalls in 2018

[Shawn Knight]

A hot potato: Wireless carriers, regulators and consumers are seemingly powerless in their fight against unwanted robocalls. Part of the issue has to do with the fact that not all robocalls are nefarious - some are used by businesses for legitimate purposes such as package delivery notices, bank calls and technicians.

Measures taken by the FCC and wireless carriers to fight robocalls have come up short according to data from Hiya.

The Seattle-based spam monitoring service in its Robocall Radar report found that 26.3 billion robocalls were placed in the US in 2018. That’s up a staggering 46 percent year-over-year with the average caller receiving 10 spam calls per month.

Of note is that these are only verified spam calls.

According to Hiya, the average person receives 114 incoming calls per month yet only 46 percent of them are from numbers already stored in their contact list. Unsurprisingly, only 52 percent of total calls received are even answered.

Verizon earlier this month announced it would be bringing free spam alerting and call blocking features to its wireless customers in the coming months. AT&T and T-Mobile already offer similar solutions although in light of Hiya’s report, it’s clear that carriers and consumers are fighting a losing battle.

My philosophy with the phone is simple: if you don’t recognize the number, don’t answer. If it’s important enough, they’ll leave a voicemail. Otherwise, block the caller afterwards and carry on.

Lead photo courtesy Charles Taylor via Getty Images

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78504-americans-received-263-billion-robocalls-2018.html

 

[Jeff Re]

That math doesn't add up. I received at least 1.3 billion spam calls last year. And since every one I know receives many spam calls...

 

[yRaz]

I receive about 5 a day. It's really annoying because I can't NOT answer my phone because of work

 

[toooooot]

I could swear that the schemes they use include disposable numbers and/or equipment because I receive some calls for a while then they stop all together as if all their system was gone or down.
And then they come back with more great offers.

 

[wiyosaya]

I receive about 5 a day. It's really annoying because I can't NOT answer my phone because of work

From my experience, any call worth answering will leave a message. Most do not. Consider yourself privileged your employer has blessed you with that policy!

Heck, I don't even answer calls coming in on my work phone unless I recognize the number. This because when I first started as a software engineer, I went looking for software toolkits and was immediately place on an IT spam list. Typically, anyone worth answering leaves a message, but most don't.

Only a few spammers have left messages - which I subsequently ignore. I just love those messages "Hi, my name is so and so and I have been the account representative for your company for years. If you are not the right person to talk to, could you let me know who is?"

 

[Duke9192]

The problem I've noticed lately is that these spam/scam callers spoof legitimate local numbers. I have answered these calls several times to be greeted by the lady who wants to save me money on my credit card. I immediately hang up and call the number back only to have a legit person answer and have no idea what I'm talking about. If you block the number, you're just blocking legit numbers that have been spoofed and the scammers can just spoof another number. I get these calls atleast twice a day. They need to be traced, tracked, hunted down, sent to guantanomo and whipped with telephone cords about their legs atleast twice a day until the robo calls cease.

 

[VitalyT]

Love those.... Hello! This is Lenny!

 

[Reachable]

One way to possibly deal with this is to have all numbers non-ringing by default, and then you add numbers to an allowable ring list. Calls from non-ringing numbers will be directed to Voicemail B and calls from ringing numbers that you don't answer will be directed to Voicemail A. If this becomes a common system then municipal alert and civil defense numbers as well as numbers of businesses from whom notifications are wanted will be widely publicized.

A call blocking feature would still be available, too.