Yes, It's Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging.

[n2doc]

By Tara Siegel Bernard
May 6, 2018
It’s not just you.

Those pesky robocalls — at best annoying disturbances and at worst costly financial scams — are getting worse.

In an age when cellphones have become extensions of our bodies, robocallers now follow people wherever they go, disrupting business meetings, church services and bedtime stories with their children.

Though automated calls have long plagued consumers, the volume has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an estimated 3.4 billion in April, according to YouMail, which collects and analyzes calls through its robocall blocking service. That’s an increase of almost 900 million a month compared with a year ago.

Federal lawmakers have noticed the surge. 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. Federal regulators have also noticed, issuing new rules in November that give phone companies the authority to block certain robocalls.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/06/your-money/robocalls-rise-illegal.html

[dalton99a]

1. Yep, most of them pretend to be local by spoofing your cellphone prefix.

[CrispyQ]

2. A few weeks ago I got five calls in a few hours saying there was an arrest warrant for me

or someone with my name down in Texas & to call "this number" immediately. Here's what I did:

But the message did sound "official." And slightly alarming. If you had any kind of questionable history with the law, it might freak you out a bit.

[Ernesto]

3. Land lines are "over"

For private citizens!

[GoCubsGo]

4. I'll bet it's far worse than that.

A lot of people, especially the elderly, likely don't even know that their provider even offers those call block services, so a bunch are not even being detected.

[superpatriotman]

5. I guess the Do Not Call registry isn't working as planned

Why not?

[hunter]

6. If I answer one scam call in the morning it seems I get five more that day.

There's probably some database scammers can subscribe to, keeping records of calls answered. The multi-level-marketing scammers seem to have a similar database. It's best not to engage them in any way.

Automation filled my mailbox with crap and now it's polluted my phones. Nine calls out of ten are garbage.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

7. Is anyone getting robotexts too?

I had a really creepy one I woke up to a few weeks ago.

“I had a really good time tonight. Next time how about my place?”

Didn’t recognize the number and sure as hell had not gone anywhere the previous evening. I couldn’t hit block caller fast enough. Ugh, I feel grossed out just typing that.