It all starts with a ring, ring or a zing, zing or whatever tone you have on your phone. You look at your screen and see a number that looks familiar from the local area. Do you answer it or ignore it?
You may be waiting on a call from someone whose number you do not have. So, you go for it. You say, “Hello.” You then hear, “Press 2 for…” or maybe, “…inform you that the IRS has you under investigation for…” or “your account at XYZ has just been compromised.” Maybe something about jury duty, the local police department is after you, and on and on. What do you do?
First, do not panic, they are all “robocalls.” Secondly, do not say anything else, especially not, “Yes?” More about that later. Third, HANG UP IMMEDIATELY! Do not worry about being rude since it is a machine and the owner is only after your money, identification information or a scam to get you to reveal something to them that you should not. Even it is not a recording HANG UP they are scamming you. Your bank, the IRS or anyone else who needs your financial info should not be calling asking you questions. If you think it really is your bank, after you HANG UP, call them back. They will not be angry if it was a real call.
So far, according to the Robocall Index (robocallindex.com) for January here are some statistics that may surprise you. Total calls placed: 4.7 billion, 153 million per day, per hour 6.4 million, 1.8 thousand per second. This yields an average of 14.4 calls per phone in the US…again just for January, 2020. You can visit that site and enter your Area Code to see how many it received. By the way, Virginia averaged 17.4 per phone in January; we must be very fortunate!?
At this time all phone service providers offer free ways to stop, or slowdown these calls, except one. They ALL also allow you to upgrade to a paid service for better blocking. The one that does not even have a freebie is Sprint. Thanks! That is my provider. I have not tried these so I cannot comment on how good or bad they are. If you have tried them out, or use them, let me know what you have found out about them.
You can also enter your number at the Federal Trade Commission’s, “National Do Not Call Registry” at donotcall.gov. I hope it works better for you than it has for me. I personally think it is worthless. It may have started out with good intentions, but it plainly does not work for me and millions of others who used it in the beginning.
I have found no app nor guaranteed way to rid you of these calls. But here is what I do-which has been pretty useful so far.
If you call me and I do not answer you will get my voicemail message which is simple. “Please leave a message. If you are not in my address book and I do not recognize your number leave a message and I will call you back. If you do not leave a message, I will block your number from my phone. I will receive no future calls from you. Have a great day!” I then block the number, done.
Simple and sweet. I personally consider it a bit rude but I am tired of getting 17.4 calls a month which are just junk.
Oh, and why not say, “Yes?” when you answer the phone. Some nefarious individuals are calling you to sell you something. If you answer, “Yes” you may have just “legally” signed up for something – even before hearing an offer. Oops, be careful out there.