How to Stop Annoying Telemarketers, Scammers, and Robocalls

By Mike DuBose and Blake DuBose

 

Telemarketers, scam artists, and automated “robocalls” are a growing frustration for many Americans. How many times have you seen an unfamiliar number pop up on your caller ID and answered, only to be greeted by silence, then a pre-recorded message claiming you’ve won a prize or owe money to the IRS? These calls are frequently fraudulent, often break federal laws, and at the very least, they’re a waste of time. Along with spam texts, solicitation faxes, and illegal telemarketing communications, these robocalls are not only annoying, but also costly!

As Nick Bilton explained in a recent New York Times article, “According to reports from industry groups and companies trying to thwart telemarketers, the telemarketing industry wastes tens of billions of dollars a year in time. The Federal Trade Commission said that in 2015 it received 3.6 million complaints about unwanted telemarketer calls. And the National Association of Attorneys General says that millions of Americans are defrauded by illicit telemarketers every year.”

Telemarketers are increasingly using automated systems and prerecorded messages to perform their dirty work, meaning that their potential for disruption is skyrocketing. Fortunately, the US government is beginning to crack down on these “robocalls,” but individuals can implement the following tips to protect themselves and others. First, it helps to better understand this growing menace.

What are robocalls? According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), “Robocalls are unsolicited prerecorded telemarketing calls to landline home telephones, and all autodialed or prerecorded calls or text messages to wireless numbers, emergency numbers, and patient rooms at health care facilities.” They’re a way for a person or organization (typically, a telemarketing firm or a scammer) to reach a huge number of people in the least amount of time. One robocaller device can easily reach up to 10,000 families each day! Those funding robocalls know that most recipients will hang up or avoid answering, but they’re banking on making so many calls that even the small percentage of people who engage with them will make their investment worthwhile. As Joanna Stern noted in a 2016 Wall Street Journal article, “It’s so easy—and cheap—for scammers to dial thousands of numbers that they’re simply hitting more of us.”

As time passes and technology advances, robocalls are also becoming more sophisticated. Often, robocallers will “spoof” their number, making it appear as if you are receiving a call from your own area code (which, of course, makes it more likely that you will pick up). Some even use advanced technology called “imitation of life” software, which “sounds like a live person, complete with coughing, laughing and background noise,” according to a 2017 New York Times article by Christopher Mele.

What’s the point? Many organizations that use autodialers or prerecorded messages are trying to sell you something, and others have an even more nefarious objective—to steal your money. Robocalls are often used in IRS scams, where individuals receive recorded messages telling them they will be sued unless they pay the taxes they “owe” the government (they’re not real agents, of course; the money goes to the scammers’ pockets). Most people know by now that these messages are fake, as the IRS doesn’t conduct such business over the phone. However, some people fall for them, and according Stern, they “have netted the bad guys over $40 million since October 2013.” The elderly are often particularly vulnerable. Some scammers even conduct research on Facebook to secure personal information about their targets and the names of their family and friends!

With more scammers recognizing the potential for profit, robocalls have steadily grown in frequency in recent years. In fact, the FCC estimates that a whopping 2.4 billion robocalls are received in the US every month! The agency also reported that robocalls represent the #1 source of consumer complaints.

Are robocalls legal? In many cases, the robocalls you receive are violating federal regulations. The FCC has enacted a number of rules aimed at allowing citizens to dodge frustrating robocalls that are somewhat stricter than those for live telemarketers. According to the FCC’s website: “FCC rules require a business to obtain your written consent – on paper or through electronic means, including website forms, a telephone keypress – or a recording of your oral consent before it may make a prerecorded telemarketing call to your residential phone number or make an autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing call or text to your wireless number.” Even if you have given consent to receive calls or messages from a business in the past, the law says you are allowed to take back that permission at any time.

The rules differ slightly between cell and landline phones. While it is illegal to make any non-emergency robocalls to a mobile phone without written or verbal permission, informational robocalls such as school closing or flight cancellation notifications can be made to a landline phone without prior consent. Prerecorded calls from charities, polling organizations, politicians, and market researchers are not restricted by the FCC when made to landlines (as long as they identify who they are and give a contact phone number), but are not allowed when made to mobile phones.

Since most robocalls people receive are from scammers or companies trying to solicit business, however, they’re usually in clear violation of FCC regulations for any phone type! Although violators are subject to large fines, it’s often difficult to catch them, so individuals shouldn’t rely solely on that as a deterrent. You’ll need to take steps on your own to stop illegal robocalls whenever you can.

First, ensure your number is on the government’s Do Not Call Registry. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) created the Do Not Call Registry in 2003 to give consumers the choice to limit the amount of telemarketing calls they receive. Placing your landline or cell phone number on the Do Not Call Registry can help screen out some of the annoying pre-recorded sales messages you might receive. (Business-to-business calls are not covered by the Do Not Call Registry.) If your phone number is not already on the Do Not Call Registry, go to www.donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 to register. You can use the website or phone number to check your information if you are unsure.

There is no deadline to register a number on the Do Not Call Registry; you can add your number at any time. Both cell phones and landlines are eligible. Registrations never expire, but if you move or change numbers, be sure to add the new one to the list! (Old, disconnected numbers are automatically removed.)

Most telemarketers must cease calling you 31 days after your registration date. If they get through to you, ask them to remove your name from their calling lists and they must comply. Under law, organizations which violate the rules and call numbers that are listed on the registry may be fined $40,000! This is enough to prevent most legitimate businesses from risking it by calling registered numbers. However, there are some large telemarketing “farms” in other countries that place so many calls that it’s more profitable for them to just ignore the fines. It’s also difficult to enforce American laws in other countries. Fortunately, there are other tactics you can take into your own hands to fight robocallers.

Install a robocall-blocking app. The FCC has given legal approval for phone companies to offer robocall-blocking technologies to their customers; in fact, the commission has encouraged it! In March 2017, the FCC approved a proposal that would allow carriers to block calls from numbers that are unassigned or obviously invalid. Since many robocalls “spoof” numbers to appear they’re coming from another source, this could keep many of these frustrating calls from reaching your ears.

Several services exist that can alert you when you’re being contacted by a robocaller so that you can block or ignore the call. One of the most highly recommended is called Nomorobo, which actually won a “Robocall Challenge” held by the FTC! Once you have downloaded and activated Nomorobo on your smartphone, it will show a large red dot and the words “Robocaller” on the caller ID when you are receiving a call from a telemarketer or auto dialer. You can even opt to block them or send to your voicemail without the call showing up on your screen at all! (The app’s creators say that it will let through important, legal robocalls such as medical notifications, however). Nomorobo costs $1.99 per month for smartphones (with a free 30-day trial).

Some home telephone companies, like Spectrum (formerly known as Time Warner), also offer a landline version of Nomorobo free to their customers. To find out if yours does, call your phone company and select the “telephone technical support” option. Then, once you connect with a customer service representative, ask to activate all available robocall and telemarketer blocking options, especially the free Nomorobo subscription, if offered (Spectrum’s blocking plan carries the humorous name “Peace and Quiet Plan!”). Most carriers will also allow you to log in to your online account to block 30 additional numbers from calling your home phone.

We use Nomorobo on our Apple iPhones and home phone lines and have been pleased with its performance. Users must refresh the smartphone app’s link that updates its registry of bogus callers every few days, which takes about a minute. However, it’s worthwhile to have the most up-to-date information. Since implementing these strategies, our cell phones and landlines have pretty much gone silent of any telemarketers!

Another popular robocall blocking app is Truecaller, which is free and available for both iPhone and Android. When a known spammer or telemarketer calls your number, your phone screen’s background will turn red and alert you. From there, you can swipe up to block the caller from contacting you in the future. The app also has a search feature where you can enter in a number and see who it is, drawn from Truecaller’s database of 1.6 billion numbers.

Avoid providing your cell and home phone numbers to vendors. Most businesses have extensive written privacy policies that spell out what they do with your information…but few people actually read them. Organizations often insert language in these lengthy documents allowing them to sell or share your number with other vendors. Eventually, your private information could move from the hands of a trustworthy business to those of a telemarketer, as happened to Mike when he gave his cell phone number to the dealership where he bought a car. It didn’t take long for telemarketers to obtain his number from the dealership and begin calling him about buying an extended warranty!

Ignore calls from numbers you don’t know. One of the simplest ways to avoid picking up a robocall is to simply refrain from answering calls from unknown numbers. In some cases, answering a robocall alerts the system that there is a real human on the line (making repeat communications more likely), so try not to answer if you don’t know the number that is calling you.

This strategy has some limitations, of course. Many telemarketers are relentless, so you’ll have to ignore them over and over again. Also, if you’re waiting to hear from a person or organization you haven’t spoken to before, or if an individual you know calls from an unknown number, you might miss a call you actually want to accept. However, most relevant callers will leave a voice message if the matter is important, allowing you to call back only those with whom you truly desire to communicate.

Block offenders. If your cell phone receives a robocall, you can simply block that number from being able to call you in the future. To activate this feature on an Apple iPhone, go to your Recent Calls section and identify the problem caller. Then, press the blue “i” in a circle that brings you to a menu with more information about the call. Scroll down until you see the Block This Caller option, then confirm that you do not want to receive any more calls from that number. On an Android phone, go to your call log and hold down the number you want to block until a menu pops up, then select Block Number. Make sure to keep your smartphone’s operating system updated so that your call-blocking capabilities are current as well.

Unfortunately, many robocallers have already found a loophole to avoid being blocked in this manner. They are notorious for making it appear as if they are originating from one number, when the calls are actually coming from another (usually a high-volume call center). Although it may be annoying, continue blocking the “new” numbers as they arrive.

Have some fun. In Bilton’s New York Times article, he featured the Jolly Roger Telephone Company, a service created by a consultant named Roger Anderson who was tired of telemarketers. Anderson created responsive robots to which frustrated humans can transfer unwanted telemarketing calls, and the robots will “talk” with the telemarketers! Visit www.jollyrogertelco.com to listen to humorous recorded exchanges between telemarketers and the robotic software designed by Anderson.

Report scammers to the Federal Trade Commission. Although it can often be hard for the government to enforce laws against illegal robocalls, it’s still worth reporting to the FTC. The agency reports that it has sued hundreds of companies and individuals for violating the Do Not Call Registry, resulting in more than a billion dollars in fines. Even if they can’t catch the particular caller bothering you, your report could help identify patterns and trends that will help identify and punish others! If you receive an illegal robocall, note the date, time, and organization or person making the call (if that information is given). Despite the fact that many phone numbers may be “spoofed,” you should still record the number as well. Then, submit this information to the FTC at 1-888-382-1222 or www.donotcall.gov.

The bottom line: Robocalls from telemarketers—or even worse, scammers—are booming in popularity, with billions of these calls being placed every month. Fortunately, the FCC, phone companies, and app developers are taking steps to allow consumers to block these frustrating communications. In the meantime, follow our research-based tips to reduce the number of robocalls you receive!

 

About the Authors: Our corporate and personal purpose is to “create opportunities to improve lives” by sharing our knowledge, research, experiences, successes, and mistakes. You can e-mail us at [email protected].

Mike DuBose received his graduate degree from the University of South Carolina and is the author of The Art of Building a Great Business. He has been in business since 1981 and is the owner of Research Associates, The Evaluation Group, Columbia Conference Center, and DuBose Fitness Center. Visit his nonprofit website www.mikedubose.com for a free copy of his book and additional business, travel, and personal articles, as well as health articles written with Dr. Surb Guram, MD.

Blake DuBose graduated from Newberry College’s Schools of Business and Psychology and is president of DuBose Web Group (www.duboseweb.com).

Katie Beck serves as Director of Communications for the DuBose Family of Companies. She graduated from the USC School of Journalism and Honors College.

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