Google the term “robocall,” and you’ll find an FCC webpage that begins, “Unwanted calls – including illegal and spoofed robocalls – are the FCC’s top consumer complaint and our top consumer protection priority.” There is also a link to the FCC’s post on “Call blocking services,” that advises users to “Contact your phone
company to learn more about the blocking and labeling solutions that may be available to protect you from unwanted and illegal calls.” It’s worth using whatever tools your phone company offers, but they may not block all unwanted calls.
Most robocalls are also against the law. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 and subsequent rulings by the FCC ban commercial entities from engaging in this annoying behavior. But, despite that, we’ve seen an increase in the number of these types of calls. In December 2021, the FCC reported, “The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a sharp spike in impersonation fraud, as scammers capitalize on confusion and concerns around shifts in the economy stemming from the pandemic. Incorporating new data from the Social Security Administration, reported costs have increased an alarming 85 percent year-over-year, with $2 billion in total losses between October 2020 and September 2021.”
I still get robocalls on my cellphone, but we got so many on our landline that we finally disconnected it. For some, that’s a hard decision, especially if they have no or…
