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from the http://www.archersecuritygroup.com/dont-fall-double-digit-phone-scam/ dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
By next year, nearly half of the mobile phone calls we get will be scams, according to a new report from First Orion, a company that provides calls management and protection for T-Mobile, MetroPCs, Virgin Mobile and others.
The percentage of scam calls in US mobile traffic increased from 3.7 percent last year to 29.2 percent this year, and it's predicted to rise to 44.6 percent in 2019, First Orion said in a press release Wednesday.
The most popular method scammers use to try to get people to pick up the phone is called "neighborhood spoofing," where they disguise their numbers with a local prefix so people presume the calls are safe to pick up, First Onion said. Third-party call blocking apps may help protect consumers from known scam numbers, but they can't tell if a scammer hijacks someone's number and uses it for scam calls.
"Year after year, the scam call epidemic bombards consumers at record-breaking levels, surpassing the previous year and scammers increasingly invade our privacy at new extremes," First Orion CEO Charles Morgan said in the press release.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/almost-half-of-us-cell-phone-calls-will-be-scams-by-next-year-says-report/
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:41PM (4 children)
For me it's more like 80%, the other 20% being automated "you have an appointment at" messages. Can't remember the last time I actually used my phone as a phone. Everything is via text nowdays.
The phone companies are making money off this. The phone companies control the networks. The phone companies are the only ones that can stop it.
So. Every time I get a scam phone call my phone company pays me $1. I promise you, within a month the problem will go away.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:56PM
Same here, I already get more junk calls than real ones.
I'm using Mr. Number now, which has cut down a bit on it. If the number doesn't show an ID, it gets ended after 1 ring. I can limit the calls that do ring through to ones that are in my contacts list if I wish.
I suspect that given the amount of foot dragging going on with the telecoms that get paid to connect these calls, or worse provide directory service, that the only way this is going to stop is if people develop more efficient means of ignoring the calls and not paying them.
(Score: 1) by XivLacuna on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:28PM
Phone calls are just one vector for scammers to scam people. How about we make it harder for scammers to actually do anything with any information they scam out of people? As in go after the banks and other institutions who'll gladly transfer money from the victim's account into another.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday September 16 2018, @01:10AM
Say "Hi!" to Varya for me [earn.com].
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday September 17 2018, @12:48AM
Can't remember the last time I actually used my phone as a phone. Everything is via text nowdays.
Do you not have any family or friends or girlfriend? I talk to my family on the phone all the time. Of course, it's pretty easy to recognize them as legitimate callers for obvious reasons. I will say, however, my last girlfriend only liked to text, which I thought was weird for a while, but when she finally dumped me by text, I realized there was something seriously wrong with her (and all the other women I talked to afterwards and told them about this said, "what a bitch!!", so I don't think I'm alone in thinking that dumping-by-text is not OK). I won't be dating anyone else who can't be bothered to talk on the phone.
Now, if you exclude family and friends, I'll agree: I don't like to talk on the phone at all, and almost all calls are either some kind of BS, or something annoying, like some behind-the-times doctor's office that insists on robocall reminders instead of a text reminder.