ROBO CALLS Increase in Use

Robocalls are automated, computer-generated phone calls. Their mass-conveyed messages are played automatically whenever a phone user takes the call. Robocall messages are of various kinds, including appointment reminders and political messages. In the current era of extensive mobile phone usage, where mobile phones are deemed indispensable and virtually every individual possesses one, robocallers follow individuals everywhere, interrupting activities like church service, important business meets, and dinner, to name a few (Kefford & Power 2014).

While automated phone calls are no new menace, of late, the quantity of such calls has risen steeply. YouMail, a robocall blocking company that also analyzes phone calls, claims approximately 3.4 billion such unwanted calls harassed users in April 2017 – a growth of nearly 900 million, monthly, as compared to the previous year (Pal, 2017). This escalation has been noted by federal policymakers, with Senate as well as House members convening to investigate the matter, and both chambers passing or introducing laws for curbing abuses.

Furthermore, federal regulatory bodies have issued fresh rules authorizing phone companies to block particular robocalls (Kefford & Power 2014). In spite of the above efforts, robocalls prove challenging to tackle as they are able to travel via diverse networks and carriers, rendering it difficult to trace them and facilitating rule evasion by callers. Regulators collaborate with telecommunications sector members to ascertain means of authenticating calls and identifying callers. Meanwhile, fraudulent measures have grown in sophistication.

Take, for instance, the “neighborhood spoofing” ploy, where robocallers employ local numbers, hoping recipients will more likely take the call (Kefford & Power 2014). Consumer Bankers Association and other business groups argue that an overly broad definition of auto-dialers would prove injurious to legitimate businesses which attempt at reaching their clients. The information outlined below depicts phone users’ robocall-related complaints. Rising Complaints Of late, complaints pertaining to scammers and telemarketers have grown at a steady rate, with robocalls detected in most instances.

year Robocaller Live caller 2013 2.2 M 1.5 M 2014 1.7 M 1.4 M 2015 2.1 M 1.4 M 2016 3.4 M 1.9 M 2017 4.5 M 2.6 M In addition, federal regulators have also been receiving an ever-growing number of complaints. The Federal Trade Commission, tasked with oversight of the Do Not Call Registry, claims 4.5 million robocall-related complaints were lodged in the year 2017, which is over twice the amount lodged four years previously (i.e., 2.18 million) (Hibbard, 2014) How Robocallers Try to Defraud You Estimations of top telephone scams in the month of March 2018.

Category Type Volume Interest rates “Zero percent interest rates” 122.9m Credit cards “Credit card-related issues” 82.5m Student loans “Exempt/decrease student debt” 71.0m Business loans “Preapproved for business loans” 53.4m I.R.S.

“Owe some amount to the I.R.S.” 43.4m Search listings “Listing issues” 31.0m Travel “Discounted/free trip” 27.0m Preapproved loans “Ready to wire – only seeking some info” 26.2m Home security “Free installation/service” 26.1m Utilities “Save money – only require some info” 19.2m The above data sets clearly reveal that robocalls fleece and extort considerable public money, indicating the dire need for an effective solution to the issue.

Moreover, clearly, several public domains’ efforts to effectively control the growth in robocall frequency has proven ineffective (Hibbard, 2014). For tackling this issue, the following recommended solutions may be adopted by society:  Blocking individual phone numbers. Android phones and Apple’s iPhone allow the blocking of certain phone numbers. Though this will not prevent all spam and robocall attempts, at the very least, the ones that frequently bother one may be blocked. This strategy helps decrease untrustworthy call frequency (Pal, 2017).

Utilizing the ‘Do Not Disturb’ Play Store app. This app aims at blocking all numbers, with the exception of a user’s favorites or most trusted numbers. The feature comes in-built in Android phones and the iPhone, with unknown callers being allowed to leave voice messages. Numbers a user desires to allow in future have to be added to their contact list (Pal, 2017). Employing carrier tools. Big carriers normally have certain tools that aid users in identifying, filtering, and blocking suspected bothersome callers and ‘texters’.

While the majority of them charge an additional monthly fee for caller ID feature activation, every career offers network-level number blockage for free (Hibbard, 2014). Utilizing third-party applications. Third-party call blocking applications help identify callers and block unwelcome calls revealed on robocaller and crowd-sourced spam lists (Kefford & Power 2014). The Nomorobo app for Android phones and the iPhone provides real-time protection against innumerable robocallers, scammers and telemarketers. It allows the phone to ring once, followed by attempting to detect the caller. Numbers already on Nomorobo’s list are automatically blocked.

After a free 30-day trial period, users have to pay $1.99 monthly or $19.99 yearly for the service. However, every major cell carrier does not support the app. Utilizing phones having robocall filtering and auto-spam features. Smartphones like the Samsung Note and Galaxy series have in-built Smart Call features which automatically screen and flag suspicious calls.