The fraud brought by robocalls is astronomical. Nearly 59.4 million Americans have lost $29.8 billion to phone scams in 2021, which is alarming. The latest data shows that the situation has yet to take a turn for the better. According to the Q3 report on scam calls released by RealCall, there is a constant growth of scam calls and texts from January to September 2022. In the third quarter, the number of scam calls blocked by RealCall rose from 19.6 million to 30.6 million, and scam texts rose from 9.8 billion to 11.6 billion, respectively 56.12% and 18.37% higher than the previous quarter. And the trend is going to increase in Q4. Among all scam types, cryptocurrency, online shopping, and job-hunting scams have become the leading scam types in the US.
- About 23.6 million robocalls related to health insurance were carried out daily across the four largest wireless carriers.
- Almost 9 billion robocalls about auto warranties last year.
- Millions of political robocalls were ahead before the Mid-term Elections.
The shocking data is not a new curse but has become so common that it penetrates almost every aspect of our lives. The complaints against scam calls and texts have peaked and will become uncontrollable unless sensible and measurable steps are taken.
Top 5 Areas with Serious Fraud
RealCall collected analytics from victims about scam calls and texts. According to the report, the top 5 area code scams include 530 from California, 502 from Kentucky, 626 from California, 915 from Texas, and 315 from New York. These are the worst-hit areas in the US. Remember that all calls coming from these codes are not scam calls, but it is recommended to stay alert to attend unknown number calls starting with these codes.
Never assume you’re too smart to fall for a scam. Almost one out of three Americans become victims of robocalls. To counter robocalls and robotexts, government officials and leading spam call-blocking companies are committed to educating people on protecting themselves from robocalls, spam calls, and scam calls. “We’re not going to stop until we get robocalls, spoofers, and scammers off the line,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
Prevention and Strategies to counter scam robocalls
Firstly, the government is the primary driver. The government should establish a “National Anti-fraud Center”. It is not a new idea. Some Asian and European countries have established a relatively complete national anti-fraud system and can make intelligent identification and comparison with a high success rate. Because each country has different degrees of supervision over numbers, it is difficult for many countries to establish such a system. Fortunately, the FCC is committed to using every tool at its disposal and working closely with private, public, and international partners to combat unlawful robocalls and spoofing. Now what people can do in the US is register their phone numbers at the National Not-to-Call Registry. They only received calls that were registered with verified accounts and helped to filter between the scammers and real company representatives.
Secondly, measures are taken by carriers and related enterprises. In countries with Nation-based Anti-fraud Centers, the data of carriers and related enterprises are mostly expropriated or cooperated by the government to help the government better improve relevant databases to combat fraud calls and crimes at the national level. In the United States, telecommunication, mobile operating companies, third-party cybersecurity companies, and other related enterprises need to take on more social responsibilities to protect users from scam texts and calls. Despite a series of measures taken to combat robocalls and robotexts, there’s still far to go.
Thirdly, the self-protection of the people. A bunch of scam messages often result in the exhaustion of consumers. Choose and download a spam-blocking app like RealCall to protect yourself. RealCall could automatically block unwanted calls like robocalls, scam calls, telemarketer calls, neighbor-spoofed calls, and other fraudulent calls. The detection system filters the verified and scam calls with machine learning innovation technology so that you can always avoid spammers before answering unknown calls. Feature of Answer Bots is also available, which are pre-recorded audio files played back to spam and robocallers to trick them into thinking that they are speaking to someone on the other side of the call. Besides, users can directly convert unverified, unknown number calls into voicemails. Furthermore, users can customize their blocking rules based on call types, like calls except for contacts, VoIP calls, anonymous calls, international calls, area codes, etc.
Conclusion:
As we all praise the technology era, there are too many benefits, but some are significant disadvantages that people use for their notorious business. Robocalls and robotexts are significant problems in society. Whether cryptocurrency, online shopping, remote jobs, or other activities are worth vigilance.
