Robocall Madness

[REWahoo]

I've experienced more telemarketing, scam, and fraud calls in the past four hours than I normally do in a week. It's nuts.

The tally so far...

20 total calls from nine different numbers
Mr Number blocked 12 of the calls
Two of the numbers called four times each
One number called three times
Four numbers called twice

None left a voice mail message

Oh, and I also got a spam text message.

 

[38Chevy454]

Agree that it is getting out of hand. I get numerous spam calls and texts per day, never answer any of them. The funny thing is they are almost none on weekends. Guess they think I need a break for 2 days.

 

[Walt34]

We consistently get them too. The call blocker I bought was one of the best investments ever. One caller shows Nashville, TN where we don't know a soul. The call blocker hangs up (sometimes the phone rings once) and then they call back. Slow learners I guess.

 

[braumeister]

The only ones I've been having a problem with are those with the same first six digits (area code and prefix) of my own phone number.

Nomorobo now lets me block those on my Ooma home line, and I recently put the WideProtect app on my cell phone (thanks to someone here for the tip). I haven't had an unwanted call since.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I quit answering the phone a couple years ago, unless I know the caller..... If someone wants to talk to me, they can leave a message on the answering machine. Or if they really want to communicate with me, they'll send me an e-mail. I turned the ringer off the phone at home... And I never give out my Cell phone number...

 

[kgtest]

This has been happening more and more on my cell phone. I heard somewhere some robocalling legislation was relaxed but have no affirmative on that beyond everyone I know is getting really annoyed by it.

 

[Alan]

I get zero robo calls in the UK.

I have a US Skype number for incoming calls, registered with my US bank and Vanguard (Vanguard use it from time to time for 2nd level verification). I do get some spam on that US number, however it is always targeted in the evening in the USA which is after 11pm here and my iPhone and iPad go into “Do Not Disturb” mode between 11pm and 7:30am so when I do get robo calls it doesn’t disturb me and the next day I see a missed call and add the number to the blocked list.

 

[Cobra9777]

We use a free Google Voice number for our home phone, along with an Obi-200 VoIP device. Prior to that, we had the same home number for 35+ years. It was so widely disseminated amongst the robocallers that I honestly feel bad that someone else was probably issued that number.

Same for my cell number. On Ting's device set-up menu, I purposefully disabled all voice calling and text using the actual Ting phone number. Instead, I use a free Google Voice number with the Hangouts app. It works great for voice and text and uses WiFi most of the time. Only rarely do I pay Ting for incremental mobile data usage.

I don't know what it is about the Google Voice numbers, but we have never once received an unsolicited call. I think in part it's because the numbers are relatively new, and partially because Google has really good spam calling filters. In any case, this setup works great for us and it's totally free. We are pretty careful about not providing these numbers on most websites, but if required, we will input them to trustworthy sites. So both numbers have been "out in the wild" for 5-6 years now.

 

[easysurfer]

Wasn't there a mention in the news or something that pretty soon half the calls will be robocalls?

Can I hear a grrr!

For sanity, I receive calls only list based.

 

[W2R]

I've experienced more telemarketing, scam, and fraud calls in the past four hours than I normally do in a week. It's nuts.

The tally so far...

20 total calls from nine different numbers
Mr Number blocked 12 of the calls
Two of the numbers called four times each
One number called three times
Four numbers called twice

None left a voice mail message

Oh, and I also got a spam text message.

Good gosh!!! That's awful!

I thought I was getting bombarded when I got 4 robo-calls yesterday. So far, only 1 today. I don't have anything like Mr Number, but I have been pretty lucky in the past. Usually I get about one every two weeks or so.

Frank got one every hour from 9AM to 1 PM yesterday. How annoying (especially if one is retired and wants to sleep late). He got all of them on his landline, though. I don't have a landline any more.

 

[scrabbler1]

REWahoo, that is a lot of junk calls to get in such a short time. Last Thursday, I got 3 junk calls on my cell phone in 30 minutes, probably the quickest I ever got that many calls. My land line has gotten multiple calls from the same number over a few hours, but nothing like yours.


And on my cell I have gotten calls from about 45 different "neighbor" numbers (area code+3 digits) in the last year. I, too, saw an article about how nearly half the calls on cell phones are junk calls this year.


And don't forget all the spam emails. I get 15-25 per day the last 2 years. Those are easier to filter out into junk mail but I still have to check the junk mail folder for legit emails every day.

 

[Walt34]

Frank got one every hour from 9AM to 1 PM yesterday. How annoying (especially if one is retired and wants to sleep late). He got all of them on his landline, though. I don't have a landline any more.

Does he have caller ID on the landline? If so, he'll love this call blocker. We bought one a bit over a year ago and it's been wonderful, and made a difference immediately after plugging it in. We're now up to 102 additional numbers blocked in addition to the ones it comes with. Yes, the robocallers do periodically change the originating number that is shown on caller ID but evidently not all that often. Yet.

https://www.amazon.com/CPR-V5000-Ca...pID=41j66wWoJDL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[Fedup]

They can call but they get to talk to my answering machine.

 

[REWahoo]

Update:

In the past 6 hours,

27 total calls from nine different numbers
Mr Number blocked 12 of the calls
One number called 6 times
One number called 5 times
Two of the numbers called 4 times each
One number called three times
Two numbers called twice

I've never had this many calls in a week, much less in a few hours.

I gave up and blocked all calls not on my contact list.

 

[MichaelB]

Update:

In the past 6 hours,

27 total calls from nine different numbers
Mr Number blocked 12 of the calls
One number called 6 times
One number called 5 times
Two of the numbers called 4 times each
One number called three times
Two numbers called twice

I've never had this many calls in a week, much less in a few hours.

I gave up and blocked all calls not on my contact list.

This is crazy. Any idea what's going on? How does one even complain about this?

 

[REWahoo]

This is crazy. Any idea what's going on?

No clue.

How does one even complain about this?

Start your own thread, this is my bitch session.

 

[Dawg52]

I quit answering the phone a couple years ago, unless I know the caller..... If someone wants to talk to me, they can leave a message on the answering machine. Or if they really want to communicate with me, they'll send me an e-mail.

Luckily Mr Number blocks most of my spam calls. And I too don't answer callers I'm unfamiliar with. At this time I don't get anywhere near the volume of bogus calls Rewahoo does.

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

The FCC says controlling robocalls is a "top priority", but it appears there's not much they can do, other than their "bold stand" of levying fines. Many spammers call from outside the US, so good luck with that. They estimate 16 billion robocalls so far this year in the US, which is double last year's amount, and appears to be unstoppable going forward.

It will be interesting to watch, but I only allow calls from numbers on my contact list now- the rest get the answering machine.

 

[REWahoo]

At this time I don't get anywhere near the volume of bogus calls Rewahoo does.

I didn't either, at least not until today - although I did get 8 yesterday. My phone log says I only got four all last week.

Just cannot imagine what caused the sudden dramatic increase...now up to 30.

 

[HFWR]

Been relatively quiet lately, but for a while over the summer it was several calls a day, for extended warranties and other crap. No real way to complain, as the caller ID is spoofed... So much for the No-Call List...

Talk to my voice mailbox...

 

[braumeister]

The FCC says controlling robocalls is a "top priority"

I seem to remember Congress saying a long time ago that balancing the budget was a top priority, too. One of these days I should check on how well they did on that.

Seriously, there are some excellent software solutions to blocking these calls. Well worth your time to look into them.

 

[GrayHare]

Might be time for a tariff on all calls coming from outside the country. A few cents won't bother real callers, but will add up for the robocallers.

 

[W2R]

Does he have caller ID on the landline? If so, he'll love this call blocker. We bought one a bit over a year ago and it's been wonderful, and made a difference immediately after plugging it in. We're now up to 102 additional numbers blocked in addition to the ones it comes with. Yes, the robocallers do periodically change the originating number that is shown on caller ID but evidently not all that often. Yet.

https://www.amazon.com/CPR-V5000-Ca...pID=41j66wWoJDL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Thanks! I'll let him know. That said, I'm trying to persuade him to ditch the landline entirely. He is paying over $40/month for it, and gets virtually nothing on it but junk phone calls. I just don't see the point.

 

[scrabbler1]

I always wonder if anyone who gets one of these calls actually moves forward with obtaining any of the services offered by the robocallers. How miniscule does a positive response rate have to be in order to make any money? One in 100,000? That means 99,999 people become annoyed to some degree for every sucker who engages with them. And I don't mean the IRS scammers or any of those live caller scams, just the pure robocallers.


What a business model, annoying thousands and thousands of people every day in order to find the one sucker who will engage with them.

 

[REWahoo]

Maybe I found a smoking gun.

An hour or so before all these calls started I enrolled in Walmart Pay, which included providing my cell phone number. No way to know if that is the source of the sudden explosion of robocalls, but the timing is suspicious.

I'm going to try to cancel the account but I think Pandora's box is already open.