Consumer Fraud Reporting.org

 

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Consumer Fraud Reporting.org

Robocalls and other forms of unwanted telemarketing calls have reach insane levels.  Current estimates are 5 billion calls per month (May 2019) and almost 50 billion robocalls in 2018. Most people receive3 to 6 such unwanted calls every day.  Some are scams like the IRS scam, others are telemarketing from sleezy companies like those selling extended automobile warranties (and yes, we are calling ALL companies who sell extended automobile warranties via telemarketing sleezy - they are simply scum.)

Nothing seems to be changing, little is being done to stop it.  The phone companies simply do not care that their customers are being harrased; after all, they make money from those calls!

Here's what IS being done:

In November 2017, the FCC adopted new rules allowing phone companies to proactively block calls that appear to be from telephone numbers that do not or cannot make outgoing calls, without running afoul of the FCC's call completion policies (meaning the phone companies must complete calls without exception).  For example, the new rules allow phone companies to block calls purporting to be from numbers of trusted entities that do not actually make calls from those numbers (e.g., the IRS scam), from invalid numbers (like those with area codes that don't exist), from numbers that have not been assigned to a provider, and from numbers allocated to a provider but not currently in use.

June 2019 - The FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed and the committee passed (June 6, 2019) a measure allowing phone companies to block unwanted "robocalls" by default.  "By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them," Pai said in a CNBC interview . "Recently I told the industry, 'Look, we need to adopt call authentication, essentially a digital fingerprint, for every single phone call this year. We need to have it now or otherwise it's going to be regulatory intervention,'"

Next steps

It is up to the phone companies, the carriers.  Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. need to get off their collective, butts and take action.  The phone companies could  implement "call authentication systems" aimed at ending the use of illegitimate spoofed numbers from the telephone system, if they wanted to.  The head of FCC even urged them to! .Obviously, they are more interested in making money off the business they get from the robocallers and telemarketers, than they are in serving and protecting their own customers.

What you can do now!

Don't wait for your greedy, self-interested phone provider to block the calls!

1. Do not answer calls from unknown numbers or numbers you do not recognize. 
   They can leave a message!  Any reputable person or business would leave a message!
2. Use your phone's  "auto reject"app to verify calls before you answer them:
   On Android phones, after receiving  a call from a telemarketer, select the number in your recent calls list, as if you are going to dial it, then press the three vertical dots in the top right part of the screen. You should see "Add to Auto reject list". Press it.  To remove a number from the reject list, just repeat the process.
   For more detailed instructions and other options for your Android phone, see this page.
   On iPhones,
   See this page for iPhone call blocking directions
3. Install a free spam call blocker app:  There are free apps you can download to help filter and block known scammers and telemarketers: None of them are perfect, in fact none of them block even most, let alone, all robocalls and spammers. But they help. See this page for reviews and links to these free apps.  Here are the top 3 free apps:
   
   1. CallApp Caller ID and Block - on Android, Some features of CallApp include:
      Caller ID: Automatically identifies calls from unknown, unwanted, and telemarketing numbers
      Call Blocker: Allows users to add numbers to a blacklist
      Call Recorder: Records all calls
      Video Ringtones: Provides video ringtones
      Whatsapp to non-contacts: Allows users to send WhatsApp messages to non-contacts
      To block a caller, users can:
      Click on the contact's name
      Click the three dots in the top right corner
      Select Block
      Confirm
      CallApp is available on Google Play
   2. TrueCaller is good at  identifying the real caller.  It doesn't block any calls, though, and our testing shows it actually seems to be getting worse, as scammers are changing numbers faster than the app can keep up. But, we like TrueCaller; a free app for both iPhones and Android phones (like Samsung Galaxy phones) because it providers the name of the caller plus consumer reports like "5,564 people have reported this as spam". so with a glance you know that the call from an unknown number is a spammer or telemarketer.

Further information:

1. Reuters news story May 15, 2019 - FCC set to let phone companies block more robocalls
2. The FCC - The FCC's Push to Combat Robocalls and Spoofing. The FCC is working to, as Chairman Pai says, "stop the scourge of illegal robocalls." He has made combatting unlawful robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing his top consumer protection priority.
3. 42-State Coalition Urge FCC to Take Action Against Robocalls, Caller ID Spoofing May 8, 2019 - ATLANTA, GA - Attorney General Chris Carr recently joined a coalition of 42 attorneys general in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt rules that aim to stop the proliferation of illegal robocalls and spoofing.

4. FCC Video - Chairman Ajit Pai explains how voice service providers may now aggressively block by default unwanted and illegal robocallsOpens a New Window. before they reach consumers and offer customers opt-in tools to block callsOpens a New Window. based on their contact lists.

   Consumer Video: Don't Hang On, Hang Up! - Learn how to avoid spoofing scams. To watch this video with captionsOpens a New Window., click on the play button, then the "CC" icon.

   FCC Blog - Beating Back Unwanted Robocalls

   FCC 2018 Enforcement Action - FCC Fines Robocaller $82M | FCC Proposes $37.5M Spoofing Fine | FCC Issues $120M Neighbor Spoofing Fine