Smartphones have undoubtedly given us the freedom to connect with friends and family via texting, social media, and (duh) talking on the phone. The only problem with that freedom of connection is that scammers think they can leverage that as well.
Photo Credit: Unsplash, Ehimetalor Unuabona
Landlines used to be the only way to telemarket, but now that cell phone usage has taken over the market, telemarketers have access to you no matter where you are.
In 2004 almost 93% of homes had landlines, but now? It’s just shy of 42%. So it’s no wonder cell phone spamming has increased.
And forget about the National Do Not Call List. I swear, that doesn’t do a darn thing.
But there might be another way for you to limit or possibly stop robocalls all together.
Reach out to your carrier
Many carriers are offering ways to eliminate spammers. Thanks to a recent ruling by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), phone service providers can now offer tools to protect their consumers. Says the FCC:
“This item provides clarification voice service providers may use now to block illegal and unwanted calls before they reach consumers’ phones, and proposes additional means providers may use in the future to block those calls.”
So what are phone carriers offering?
AT&T has an automatic call blocker on IOS and Android phones. All you need to do is download the AT&T Call Protect app.
“AT&T* will add automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam-call alerts to millions of AT&T consumer lines at no charge.”
For a while now, T-Mobile has had a feature in place for its consumers called Scam ID. When a fishy number comes through, the caller ID will read: SCAM LIKELY. This way you can simply ignore the calls—though since it doesn’t actually stop the calls, they were still a distraction. So T-Mobile has opted to add Scam Block (a free service) that will take it a step further and block suspicious calls entirely.
If you want more protection, they have a $4/mo subscription plan called Name ID. It supposedly can “Identify, screen, reverse search, and block calls.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash, Dimitri Karastelev
Sprint, as far as we can find, does offer scam protection but only at a subscription price. For $2.99/mo, “Premium Caller ID identifies callers who are not already in your contacts. Some devices will provide enhanced Spam identification features.”
Finally, Verizon. Verizon has a free option for consumers looking to kill the scam calls for good. Their Call Filter app will alert you of incoming spam calls and even offers a filter for those pesky calls. For a small price upgrade, you can try Call Filter Plus which states it will provide Caller ID, Spam Look Up, Personal Block List, and Spam Risk Meter.
So no matter how aggressive you want to be against robocalls, you’ve got some choices.
In a perfect world, someone would stop the calls at the source…but we’re all still waiting for a perfect world, aren’t we?
