Annoying Robocalls Now A Bigger Problem Than Ever Despite an endless ocean of promises by carriers and regulators to help tackle the problem, robocalling is annoying more American consumers than ever. New data released by the FTC indicates that there were 4.5 million consumer complaints about robocalls in 2017, a dramatic increase from the 3.4 million consumer complaints government received the year before. Many robocalls are coming from cable TV and broadband ISPs themselves (Charter is facing two different lawsuits) for calling customers who didn't want to be sold to.

Meanwhile, mobile and VOIP carriers have faced consistent criticism for not doing enough to help consumers avoid the annoying calls. In late 2016 AT&T falsely tried to blame the FCC for its own failure to police the problem. After some negative public PR, AT&T ultimately was forced to spearhead an anti-robo-calling task force -- the benefits of yet have not been made clear. Most carriers now offer some kind of tool to help users manage the problem, though occassionally you'll see companies like Verizon trying to charge users another $3 per month for the option. Congress passed the Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act in 2007, which required that the FTC release a biennial report on the state of the problem. The latest report indicates the problem is worse than ever. "In the fourth quarter of 2009, the FTC received approximately 63,000 complaints about illegal robocalls each month," notes the report. "That number has more than quintupled--in FY 2017, the FTC received an average of more than 375,000 robocall complaints per month. In the year since August 1, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission, which also regulates telemarketing and robocalls, received nearly 185,000 complaints about calls that consumers did not want." While carriers need to do more, the onus remains on the consumer to protect themselves from such annoyances, whether than means signing up for robocall-blocking services that are either free ( While carriers need to do more, the onus remains on the consumer to protect themselves from such annoyances, whether than means signing up for robocall-blocking services that are either free ( Hiya ) or have a smaller monthly charge (Robokiller). If you've got a favored robocall-blocking app that you've had good luck with, please recommend it in the comment section below.







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Most recommended from 50 comments



battleop

join:2005-09-28

00000 28 recommendations battleop Member Calls from ISPs? I have never once had a robocall from an ISP, Cable Company, or any other legitimate business. I have had plenty of calls from the whore Allison at card holder services, free cruises, and low life politicians from the DNC...

Nezmo

The name's Bond. James Bond.

MVM

join:2004-11-10

Coppell, TX 12 recommendations Nezmo MVM Out of Control And this is just what is reported.



It's out of control. And with companies spoofing and changing numbers constantly (often to numbers similar to yours and/or to make it look local) blocking is not particularly effective.

Anon75d0d

@suddenlink.net 8 recommendations Anon75d0d Anon what robocalls have wrought ...is the end of decades of telephone social norms and and the relegation of land-lines as the phone equivalent of a spam bucket email account.



When this garbage started back in the 90s and people weren't so used to this outrageous and intrusive behavior they would actually answer the phone. The would say hello, they would talk to the jerk at the end of the line, and they would even waste their time politely extricating themselves from the unwanted conversation before they hung up. Over the years with persistent abuse people would gradually just curse at or hang up on these creeps. Now the phones go unanswered and on mobile particularly they will be routinely blocked. Basically the smart people refuse to even answer the phone unless they recognize the Caller ID or its in their address book. Communicating with them at all is a fool's errand. If its a legit call but you don't recognize the number now they often have to leave a message the first time because people have good reason not to answer. The sleazebags have even taken to spoofing the Caller ID with a very local numbers (but never a name), as if you're a complete moron. As if a Caller ID with nothing but the name of a local city is supposed to be normal and I'm supposed to think its someone I want to speak with. snic

join:2009-10-14

usa 2 edits 8 recommendations snic Member CallCentric and Jolly Roger Telephone Co.



CallCentric also identifies likely spam callers, and allows you to route them automatically to a specific number. I route them to the Jolly Roger Telephone Co. Look them up. The call is answered by a robot that does its best to pretend it's a human and keep the spammer on the line for as long as possible. Jolly Roger then emails you an audio recording of the call. Let's just say that after 11 minutes of trying to get a robot to try a timeshare, Hilton vacation club doesn't call me anymore. And those guys who try to convince you that you have a virus on your computer and you should send them money to fix it get really mad at robots. I haven't heard from them in a while, either. I kind of miss them.



EDITED TO ADD: Here's an audio recording of a call that Jolly Roger handled for me just today. It wasted a telemarketer's time for two and a half minutes, and is pretty entertaining... although not so much for the telemarketer: » The VOIP service CallCentric has a great feature that has eliminated robocalls. All calls from numbers not in my white list are answered with a robot that asks the caller to press a number to be connected. Spam callers never press a number. One problem is that sometimes I get legitimate robocalls (e.g., from delivery services or doctors' offices) that don't get through, but at least I can see when they called in the online call log and then figure out what's going on. Also, some legitimate callers are unwilling to press a number to continue. Finally, this service is only available for landlines; I've never heard of a similar service for cell phones. (Basically, it's like asking the caller to solve a captcha to prove they're human - seems like it should be easy to implement in cell phones.)CallCentric also identifies likely spam callers, and allows you to route them automatically to a specific number. I route them to the Jolly Roger Telephone Co. Look them up. The call is answered by a robot that does its best to pretend it's a human and keep the spammer on the line for as long as possible. Jolly Roger then emails you an audio recording of the call. Let's just say that after 11 minutes of trying to get a robot to try a timeshare, Hilton vacation club doesn't call me anymore. And those guys who try to convince you that you have a virus on your computer and you should send them money to fix it get really mad at robots. I haven't heard from them in a while, either. I kind of miss them.EDITED TO ADD: Here's an audio recording of a call that Jolly Roger handled for me just today. It wasted a telemarketer's time for two and a half minutes, and is pretty entertaining... although not so much for the telemarketer: » ufile.io/5gf88 (click the "slow download" button). rradina

join:2000-08-08

Chesterfield, MO ·Charter

8 recommendations rradina Member NoMoRobo Except for the fact that I get a lot of "1 ring" calls, this service has eliminated almost ALL robo-calls. Plus if it rings once and then shortly after, rings multiple times...I know it's likely a human telemarketer because someone listened to the NoMoRobo message and asked to be connected.



It's free for landlines (so far) but it costs for mobile. So far mobile is still tolerable. T4K

join:2002-03-13

Fort Lauderdale, FL 6 recommendations T4K Member Super annoying Yea I've been getting them constantly on my cell phone. Caller ID even shows it as spammer. If you register a domain name for example and you don't make your information private you get a shit storm of phone calls.

WHT

join:2010-03-26

Rosston, TX 4 recommendations WHT Member Texas State Trooper scam Robo Ray: Hi, this is Ray. How are you.

Me: (never saying ok, or anything in the affirmative) I'm sooo stoned.

Robo Ray: That's great.

Me: You got bud?

Robo Ray: Great. Let me transfer you to someone that can help you....

Tomek

Premium Member

join:2002-01-30

Valley Stream, NY 3 recommendations Tomek Premium Member Google Voice I am pleased that google voice is actually fitlering those calls so I don't get them. But I started receiving calls on my primary number that I never use. I simply muted it all. Still annoying to see that DoNotCall registry doesn't really work. Skippy25

join:2000-09-13

Hazelwood, MO 3 recommendations Skippy25 Member Card Services I have been getting many calls from Card Services and every time I ask how it is I am getting a robo call when it is 1.) Illegal and 2.) I have been on the No Call List ever since it started.



They immediately hang up. Once I had some $%@$%@ argue with me and then continue to call me for about 2 hours.



If I ever find out who this company is, I have over 30 call records showing them calling and at $1500 a pop, plus the extra fines assess to them for blatantly and willfully calling me it should be a good day in court.

pjsutton

join:2013-06-25

Kempton, PA 5.1 1.0

3 recommendations pjsutton Member Verizon POTS caller ID Since Verizon updated their POTS caller ID to show "spam" before spam calls, there has been a HUGE reduction in the number of calls we get a day. Our phone now goes multiple days without even ringing. I have yet to even see one number marked as "spam" because they don't even seem to get through.



On the other hand, the past few months have seen a huge increase in robocalls on my cell phone. That I find way more annoying than on a landline.