Almost half of US cellphone calls will be scams by next year, says report

[sl8]

From https://www.cnet.com/news/almost-half-of-us-cell-phone-calls-will-be-scams-by-next-year-says-report/

Almost half of US cellphone calls will be scams by next year, says report
Fraudsters most often use local prefixes to trick people.

BY MARRIAN ZHOU
SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 12:37 PM PDT

Many of us are already conditioned to ignore phone calls from unknown numbers. A new study seems to validate that M.O.

By next year, nearly half of the mobile phone calls we get will be scams, according to a new report from First Orion, a company that provides calls management and protection for T-Mobile, MetroPCs, Virgin Mobile and others.

The percentage of scam calls in US mobile traffic increased from 3.7 percent last year to 29.2 percent this year, and it's predicted to rise to 44.6 percent in 2019, First Orion said in a press release Wednesday.

The most popular method scammers use to try to get people to pick up the phone is called "neighborhood spoofing," where they disguise their numbers with a local prefix so people presume the calls are safe to pick up, First Onion said. Third-party call blocking apps may help protect consumers from known scam numbers, but they can't tell if a scammer hijacks someone's number and uses it for scam calls.

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More at link.

[Squinch]

1. I find it so sad that there are so many people out there just trying to screw the rest of us.

[LuckyCharms]

2. If they are not in my contacts, they go to voice mail. n/t

[flibbitygiblets]

3. Google is one of them

My husband owms a small business. Google refuses to let us decline to use their services. They call us EVERY DAY despite repeated opt-out attempts and angry phone calls. They use a local number to fool us into answering the phone. I yell at the caller. They hang up on me. They call again tomorrow. I fucking hate them.

[hunter]

13. That's not Google. It's a scam.

I get those calls too.

Just as the Microsoft calls are not Microsoft.

[Sherman A1]

4. I simply don't answer the phone unless it's a number in my contacts or

A number I recognize. Any call from the same prefix as mine is automatically ignored and will be blocked and deleted.

[Historic NY]

5. Once again the Do not call list is all government bullshit...

the FCC twiddles their thumbs, your own major providers like Verizion charge extra and the calls continue. The consumer is made to spend extra for app's when this is protection we should for free. Companies rake it in at the expense of the consumer.

[JonLP24]

6. I'm getting a lot of spam calls from 480 area numbers

[WePurrsevere]

7. Not surprised. It's mostly scammers, spammer's and 'naggers'...

On our cells. I'd say 98% of my one-on-one interactions with my friends and family are now done online via email, site inboxes, text or messenger. If I don't know the phone number it goes to voicemail. I Google numbers and use an app to preemptive block and I report known scammers, etc to help others. I'm also on the gov registry but I'm not finding that helpful anymore.

I truly hate that it's become like this.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. They shouldn't be allowed to call

Telemarketing to cell phones used to be illegal. What happened?

And you can bet the Republicans will pass nothing to help consumers.

[LakeSuperiorView]

9. The NSA could stop this in a heartbeat.

They got permission to track call info to stop terrorists. The pattern for call spammers should be blazingly obvious. Personally, I wouldn't mind if they used call spammer location info to provide training to drone pilots for strikes. I would pay to see them launch a missile at Ann, who calls me 4 times a day, 3 days a week to offer me health insurance plans...

[SharonAnn]

10. 90% of mine are scam calls.

Admittedly, I get few legit calls on my cell phone.

[NurseJackie]

11. My phone's default ringtone is complete silence. ONLY people in my contact list cause it to ring.

Everyone else can leave a message... or go fuck themselves.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. The problem with ignoring calls

Are numerous, but as an example, I was selling a truck last year. Obviously, I did not know the number of every prospective buyer. Nor do I have the number of every old friend that got a new number.

Putting the burden on the consumer to filter these calls is unreasonable and ineffective.


Telcoms have the technology to stop or at least drastically reduce these calls but until they are forced to, have no financial incentive to do so.