When my phone rings these days, many of the callers come up as “Spam Risk” or “Telemarketer,” thanks to my cell provider. Other providers are also following suit. But, I’ve always wondered how those automatic phone calls that drive me nuts ever make any money. But apparently, they do – and a lot of it is based on fraudulent sales schemes. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) statistics indicate that just two of these companies in Texas were making billions of calls just in 2019.
The two telemarketing companies based in Texas, Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, were fined $225 million by the FCC on 3/17 for making these “robocalls” in 2019 selling fraudulent short-term health insurance. This fine is the largest in the history of the FCC.
Who knows if they'll pay it? But knowing this makes me happy. I do a LOT of my business on the phone and Zoom. When these jerks call, they screw up my train of thought. And if I am watching a movie on Netflix or another streaming service on my computer, the calls interrupt my movie by taking away the screen so I can see who's calling and choose to accept or reject that call.
I know - first world problem - but I guess that's really what we're discussing here. We all depend on cell phones for business and/or personal use these days, and someone throwing a wrench into the process sometimes goes beyond inconvenient into perhaps losing a customer or a job or even losing money if the scammers are good. And some of them are really good. They can make you believe that an Eskimo child is in deperate need of a freezer. So, if you've been taken in by one or more of these jerks, don't blame yourself.
According to USA Today, three out of four Americans said they were targeted by phone scammers over the past year. Some callers claimed to be with legitimate businesses, such as Amazon. The article also claimed that folks who do fall for the scams lose $182 on average, with some people losing $500 or more.
Fortunately, the fines are just the first step in the FCC ‘s plan to do away with these annoying calls.
A “Robocall Response Team” was also announced on 3/17, which consists of 51 FCC employees. Their purpose is to make sure this anti-automated call effort it efficiently coordinated. The FCC has also contacted the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the attorneys general of most states for help with this endeavor.
The best way to avoid being victim to these buzzards are to just not answer the phone if you don’t recognize the number, as well as paying attention if your cell provider has automatic warnings such as “Spam Risk,” etc. Certain cell phone companies are even going further than the warnings, automatically sending callers that look suspicious or fraudulent straight to voicemail.
I’ve always wondered how these companies make so many calls with fake names and where they get the phone numbers to call, besides buying phone lists. Apparently there is something called “legacy technology,” which basically means that it is an old method or technology that is still in use, in the existing phone system that allows them to fake phone numbers on their end.
The most common scams, according to the FCC, are “IRS imposter calls, calls that pretend to be from Apple, false COVID-hardship programs, and fictional refunds from Amazon.”
The COVID stuff really makes me mad. People are sick and dying and these jerks are making a profit off of it. It's disgusting, in my opinion.
The government has been combating this annoyance as well, passing the TRACED Act in December of 2019, which makes it possible to up the fine for a single robocall to $10,000.
Hopefully, these efforts by the “powers that be” plus us, as citizens ignoring unknown callers, will start the extinction of this annoying, and sometimes costly, practice.
Be well, be smart and thank you for reading!