Lexington Park, MD – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) receive more complaints about robo or spam calls than any other grievances every year. The problem seems to only be getting worse, and a new report from the Seattle based caller ID company Hiya supports that feeling.
Hiya’s “State of the Phone Call Report” came out late last month and the findings show that the frequency of “robocalls” was up 46 percent in 2018 over the previous year. With 26.3 billion robocalls coming in last year it isn’t hard to believe that “only 52 percent of calls Americans receive on their phones are picked up.”
The sheer number of spam calls averages out to around 10 calls a month per person in the U.S. according to Hiya’s other 2018 report – “Robocall Radar.” That report also found that “people not only spend more time on the phone with calls from numbers saved to their contacts but also have a tendency to stay on the line when a call is identified as a business, confirming how call identification can impact the phone call.”
Even St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron has been the victim to fraudulent calls on his office-issued cell phone when someone spoofed the Montgomery County chief of Police’s number.
Right before the government shut down in January the FCC announced that it would be amending the Truth in Caller ID rules so that they would extend to communications originating from outside of the United States. The commission will also be expanding the definitions to include text messages and additional voice services. The “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” released Jan. 3 states that “Congress has recognized the billions of dollars of harm to millions of American consumers from fraudulent spoofing activity, some of which is occurring through means other than traditional phone calls made within the United States.”
Cell phone users can take actions against fraudulent callers through functions on their phones and through third-party apps like Hiya. The Google Pixel has the option of allowing Google Assistant to screen calls for you. Other apps like Hiya, Nomorobo, and Truecaller vet your calls before they reach your ears, weeding out any malicious callers.
Call protection company First Orion has predicted that half of all mobile calls will be spam in 2019, so if all else fails just remember to never provide personal information to anyone over the phone.
Contact Jerold at staffwriter@thebaynet.com.