Spam Calls Jumped Over 300% Globally in 2018 (venturebeat.com) 80
An anonymous reader shares a report: According to the yearly report published by Stockholm-based phone number-identification service Truecaller, spam calls grew by 300 percent year-over-year in 2018. The report also found that telecom operators themselves are much to blame. Between January and October of this year, Truecaller said, users worldwide received about 17.7 billion spam calls. That's up from some 5.5 billion spam calls they received last year.
One of the most interesting takeaways from the report is a sharp surge in spam calls users received in Brazil this year, making it the most spammed country in the world. According to Truecaller, an average user in Brazil received over 37 spam calls in a month, up from some 20 spam calls during the same period last year. According to the report, telecom operators (at 32 percent) remained the biggest spammers in Brazil. The report also acknowledged the general election as an event that drove up spam calls in the country. As in Brazil, Indians were bombarded by telecom operators (a whopping 91 percent of all spam calls came from them) and service providers trying to sell them expensive plans and other offerings.
Spam calls received by users in the U.S. were down from 20.7 calls in a month to 16.9, while users in the U.K. saw a drop in their monthly dose of spam calls from 9.2 to 8.9. [...] Truecaller also reported that scam calls subjecting victims to fraud attempts and money swindling are still a prevalent issue. One in every 10 American adults lost money from a phone scam, according to a yearly report the firm published in April this year.
One of the most interesting takeaways from the report is a sharp surge in spam calls users received in Brazil this year, making it the most spammed country in the world. According to Truecaller, an average user in Brazil received over 37 spam calls in a month, up from some 20 spam calls during the same period last year. According to the report, telecom operators (at 32 percent) remained the biggest spammers in Brazil. The report also acknowledged the general election as an event that drove up spam calls in the country. As in Brazil, Indians were bombarded by telecom operators (a whopping 91 percent of all spam calls came from them) and service providers trying to sell them expensive plans and other offerings.
Spam calls received by users in the U.S. were down from 20.7 calls in a month to 16.9, while users in the U.K. saw a drop in their monthly dose of spam calls from 9.2 to 8.9. [...] Truecaller also reported that scam calls subjecting victims to fraud attempts and money swindling are still a prevalent issue. One in every 10 American adults lost money from a phone scam, according to a yearly report the firm published in April this year.
Unknown Callers to Voice Mail (Score:5, Interesting)
A simple Android App sends all calls not in my contacts list to voice mail. Voice Mail is a 90 second screed on all the reasons I WON'T call them back and 90 seconds seems to exceed the time limit on most automated systems.
Only people who really need to talk to me wait through all of that.
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I don't have a fancy app or anything, but if I see an incoming call I don't recognize from my contacts list, I just don't answer it.
If they aren't spam, they'll leave a message and I can call them back.
I thought most everyone was doing pretty much that these days....?
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I have my phone in Do Not Disturb mode 24/7 and the 'phone rings if they immediately call back' option flipped on. While, if the phone is face up on my desk, I can see the call pop up on the display, there's no ringing or other notification.
[John]
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I don't have a fancy app or anything, but if I see an incoming call I don't recognize from my contacts list, I just don't answer it.
I've been answering them. I put it on speaker phone, wait for the spiel, then I troll them in front of my coworkers. They will usually hang up after a minute or so, particularly when I tell them my name is Donald Trump. That seems to really enrage them. It's good for a few laughs, and if I've wasted their time and money, then it's worthwhile. On a side note, I was just talking with one of my coworkers, mentioning how I haven't received any of those calls for the past few weeks. Maybe it worked, because aski
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Pretty much the same here, but I also created a special contact ("Spammers") that I add all the spam numbers into, and assigned it a silent ringtone (easy enough to make yourself); later I also started blocking that contact list as well when I saw I could do that.
Admittedly it's not a terribly effective strategy because they rotate random numbers all the time, but at least in the past I'd knew it worked because I'd see that I had missed a call from "Spammers" (before I added the block) and they can never re
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There's a simple way to stop spam calls instantly (Score:4, Funny)
Get a premium number.
And if they still want to call, I'm more than willing to take that call and talk with them about whatever insurance they want to sell, about whatever problem my PC has and even about anything else that could trouble them.
For hours, if necessary.
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My latest trick is to ask them to send round a sales representative (or equivalent).
When they arrive I tell them I'm deliberately wasting their time, I have no intention of buying anything and they can just fuck off. Repeat until they eventually leave.
It really works. I've got rid of some really troublesome companies. One that called me nearly every day for five years hasn't called once since I did it.
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Helps if you point your phone at them the whole time, too. As "evidence".
Re: There's a simple way to stop spam calls instan (Score:1, Funny)
I'll take Things That Never Happened for $1000, Alex
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Depends on the company, I guess. And/or if you live out in the boonies.
eg. I did it to a telephone operator/ISP. I told them we'd need to switch three mobile phones plus Internet, needed to talk in person to work out the details, they came around next day.
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Exactly. Spam companies do it all online.
What sort of calls do you get? There must be a way to get them to do something that costs them real money.
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Exactly. Spam companies do it all online. There is no in person "appointment".
I don't know, one particularly noxious spam call I got for a while was for air duct cleaning services (they never said the company name in the call, different number every call). Eventually someone would have to come out? Unless it was a scam that just collected credit card info and then did nothing I suppose...
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Yup, get those pretty regularly, it's a common scam.
Several years ago I saw a story about this that the CBC [www.cbc.ca] ran.
Basically they cleaned the ducts and put in a bunch of hidden cameras. When the company
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I did this: They we calling selling air duct cleaning. So I booked an appointment and when he arrived I told him to get lost and never call me again. I filmed it.
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One in every 10 American adults lost money from a phone scam, according to a yearly report the firm published in April this year.
I find that figure amazingly high. If I'd guessed I would have thought only 1 in 50 would take the call seriously, and only 1 in 1000 hand over money. , With that figure I'm surprised the calls are not continuous. Are they sure of their data?
I am in the UK and get a scam call on average once a year by landline and once a day if I switch on my mobile (it's usually off). If I answer the mobile there is usually silence anyway - presumably the scammer found another mark while my phone was ringing. If they do
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One in every 10 American adults lost money from a phone scam, according to a yearly report the firm published in April this year.
I find that figure amazingly high. If I'd guessed I would have thought only 1 in 50 would take the call seriously, and only 1 in 1000 hand over money. , With that figure I'm surprised the calls are not continuous. Are they sure of their data?
Could be true. There's been a few junk mailings in my neighborhood posing as the gas company, selling insurance on the 50ft of pipe from the curb to the house, and the interior gas lines. Total garbage, borderline scam if it isn't an actual scam. There was a Nextdoor thread yesterday on my local neighborhood where several people admitted to paying it. My neighborhood has a higher % of old people than most, but it isn't a retirement community.
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I just ignore them (Score:2)
I've had some fun with my Lennybot (Score:1)
Lenny vs Tech Support [youtube.com]
Lenny on a 16 minute call with Visa/Mastercard Services [youtube.com]
Lenny taking a survey [youtube.com]
Lately they seem to generate random CIDs and are getting past my CID checks.
Really? (Score:2)
One in every 10 American adults lost money from a phone scam
Now imagine walking down a sidewalk, and every 10th adult you pass being that stupid... :(
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Fundmental Problems. (Score:3)
Scam Artists thrive in an environment where there are fundamental problems in the economy.
People are suffering, so offer them false hope.
People are scared, so offer them protection.
Life is complex, so give them easy solutions.
We have a fundamental failure in our safety net and support systems. So we can't trust our neighbors, government, religion, companies, families, and friends. So we are fighting for ourselves, and desperate for any sort of tool to help.
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That should have been in place and operating 25 years ago. Better late than never I suppose.
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Right now, the economy is doing pretty well overall, despite some recent Wall St. jitters, but certainly better than it was 10 years ago. Unemployment is the lowest it's been for decades. Scammers thrive in any environment. Sometimes people are just too happy to come across any deal that's basically too good to be true. There's always that "better deal" right around the corner.
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A good economy doesn't mean there isn't a fundamental problem.
Poor fundamentals can be compensated to a point, then when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong.
This is why when a lot of High School Sports Stars, or Musicians to be successful would go to college, or at least get personal trainers, where they may work on the issues that may temporary put them behind, but once fixed can put them in a better place.
A better stance for the Athlete, practicing different scales for the Musician.
Look at that Program, See
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Similar problem to snail mail, but that has a monopoly and certain legal requirements protecting it. Many people would tear out their mail boxes if not for a few legally required things
Tear out their mail boxes when on-line shopping has taken off? A great deal of stuff I order comes through my mail box, up to a size of about a 10" cube.
Junk mail is only a small problem and a diminishing one. Some has pre-paid return envelopes which I return giving the name and details of a known spammer and asking for more info, rep to call, email newsletter, etc. Otherwise it's useful kindling for the fire.
More like 30000000% (Score:2)
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Anecdotally, of course... (Score:3)
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Worst traits of humanity like... not paying people what you owe them, AKA stealing?
One thing I'd like to see on cell phones (Score:3)
I'd like to have a way to explicitly reject an incoming call so that it does NOT go to voice mail. While I'm (cross my fingers) lucky that my cell phone doesn't get many spam calls, I don't want to waste my time even deleting their inevitable voice mail.
For my home phone, things got bad enough long ago that I put it behind Asterisk. Checking my CDR, the spam call situation is worse than ever, but they never get past my CAPTCHA, so the phone stays quiet. Some numbers are whitelisted to bypass the CAPTCHA, but anything unknown has to key in a randomly-assigned digit before the call goes through.
I also ended up ditching the landline in favor of VoIP; the VoIP service costs me less per month than what AT&T charged for Caller ID alone.
Way more than 300% increase (Score:2)
According to the yearly report published by Stockholm-based phone number-identification service Truecaller, spam calls grew by 300 percent year-over-year in 2018.
I think it was a LOT more than 300%. I didn't used to get any. Now I get them almost daily. I have taken measures to block as many as I can but really the problem won't be solved unless there is legislation forcing the phone companies to take active measures. I almost never answer any call that isn't from someone in my address book anymore and then they have to go through a voicemail and spam filtering service.
Whitelist only is NOT a solution (Score:3)
Yeah sure, and if the phone number being spammed is for your business which depends on new people calling it, like for reservations? What if you're a freelancer?
basic math lacking (Score:2)
Uh, must mean "jumped by over 200% in 2018".
100% = 11
200% = 16.5
300% = 22