By: Bryce Steiner
“Do not hang up. This is not a sales call.” is a familiar sound and Is something many Americans deal with everyday. But what is it really? The opportunity presented itself, of course, through a robocall, to speak with ‘Brett’ when I pressed 1 instead of 9.
Pressing “9” is supposed to remove you from their call list as required by federal and state laws. Over the last few months, I have pressed “9” many times and yet my number is still on this list for these daily annoyances, just like my friend, Stan Jordan.
It has gotten to the point were people don’t answer their phones anymore because more often than not they are likely a fake call.
This would be equivalent to email spam! If you don’t have an email account, you have no idea what you are missing! (note the tone of sarcasm there?)
Whether it was a government funded back brace, car warranty extensions, your favorite politician telling you how to vote, or getting that free trip to the Bahamas – the robocalls know you need something! Even though you have told them many times you do not!
Some are also not easy to detect and that is because they are doing something called “spoofing”. What that means is it is spam calls from who-knows-where acting like it’s a local number. If that was all it did it wouldn’t be so bad, but what they do is make sure to change the Caller ID every time they call so you really can’t block them. You end up with a huge long list of blocked calls and many of them are legitimate numbers and might be people you know. Spoofing is a real problem for tech support these days.
What is the purpose and why do they not follow the rules? Robocalls are cheap and easy compared to paying live people to call and blanket areas. It’s just a computer making thousands of calls per day. Even if it gets 2% of people to press ‘1’ it was a success! Not only that, but for everyone who answered it’s now on a live number list with the enemy now knowing you do answer!
Not only is this annoying but it harms legitimate local business and calls because people don’t want to answer any calls anymore.
It has been illegal for quite some time for companies/institutions to spam your cell phone and if you are on the national ‘Do Not Call’ list then you shouldn’t get any, but it shows that just because there is a law doesn’t mean it is being obeyed. The national ‘Do Not Call’ list is equivalent to using a tennis net to stop a flood! It’s not going to happen! There are plenty of rules made by Congress concerning robocalls, but enforcing those rules is a whole ‘nother challenge on its own. It’s nearly impossible and probably won’t get cracked down on because politicians use these same methods regularly during election season. Instead, the attorney generals of each state give you advice on how to handle them yourself because it’s the only way to actually help.
In mid 2018, Congress passed a law that would allow phone companies to use methods to identify and stop calls at the request of users. Several phone companies that do this now include: T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon; although Verizon charges for this service – the others do not. You can search on the internet for your provider’s method to activate this option.
Along with activating services from your cell provider, you can also do some things on your own:
*Setup a call service – this makes the call press a number to get someone. It can filter out robocalls much easier, at least for now.
*Install apps like TrueCaller, and Should I Answer: that blocks unwanted calls
If you have some time on your hands, you can also play with the people on the other end! For instance, you get a spam call that claims to be Microsoft tech support and that your computer is having problems. They will tell you to click the Start menu on the bottom left. You can ask questions like, “Is that my left or your left?”, or “how do you spell ‘start’ in Spanish?”, and then after about half hour of wasting their time you say “I don’t have a Start menu on the Mac”.
The FCC says, “If you own a vehicle and a phone, you may receive calls from scammers posing as representatives of a car dealer, manufacturer or insurer telling you that your auto warranty or insurance is about to expire. The call will include some sort of pitch for renewing your warranty or policy.” Even though it sounds like it’s being helpful, it’s not. “During the call – which often begins automated or pre-recorded – you may be instructed to press a certain number or stay on the line, then asked to provide personal information, which potentially can be used to defraud you.”
Scammers are basically hackers using social engineering to get knowledge from you that makes it sound like they know information about you. The IRS has also had scammers act as if they were from the government. They have a page dedicated to detecting those who are trying to defraud you. “The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never:
1. Call to demand immediate payment, nor will we call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
2. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe
3. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
5. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.”
You can report scams here: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=39744 of course, you probably won’t get satisfaction. The best thing that we all as individuals can do is realize that the government cannot protect us from these robocalls and scams. You therefore need to become somewhat skeptical and become knowledgeable on these subjects.
While writing this article I got another robocall even though I have it setup on my phone to block suspected robocalls. It showed it was from Toledo on the caller id. It was calling my phone for my vehicle warranty, saying I should have already received paperwork in the mail letting me know my warranty was nearly up. Yes, this was a scam. I have had no car that had a warranty in years, so how could it be nearly up? The new technology may help, but the important thing to keep in mind is to keep your guard up even if it sounds legit. Things may not always be as it seems. With appropriate action you can educate yourself, slow down the calls, and not get scammed!
