Often or not we all come across calls from mobile phones, landlines or business phones which appear to be legitimate but when you pick up the call you are met only with silence. This is called spoofing. These spoofing calls are meant to look like a familiar or local number. Before we learn how to Block Unwanted Calls let’s discuss what robocalls are.
What exactly are Robocalls?
If you have ever picked up a call where you hear a pre-recorded message rather than a real person, then it is called a robocall. The name was given because these calls are managed through a computer. These computerised calls are made using software that plays a pre-recorded message the instant someone picks up the call. The automatic call is a helpful feature and it is employed by a lot of entities like telemarketers and political campaigns. There are government agencies which also use automatic calling to send public service notices or for emergency broadcasts. But, the majority of the robocalls are a scam or illegitimate telemarketing messages.
Robocalls with VoIP technology
In recent times, the robocalls have become prevalent. The robocalls are now outnumbered calls which are placed by people and the phone numbers continue to increase. The governing agencies attribute this rise to the increasing use of VoIP phone technology. The scam callers can use the VoIP phone technology to call the UK-based phone numbers from outside the state. As these spam calls don’t originate from inside the boundaries of the UK the authorities have no control. It is tough to track the basis of robocalls and it is absolutely impossible to bring them to justice.
How do RoboCallers get your number?
This is the era of internet and supercomputers. Whenever you register an account online for reward cards it means you give your personal information there. Sometimes, unfortunately, hackers steal this information from the co-operate services and sell it in the market. On the internet, privacy cannot be guaranteed, and all your information and number become available to thousands of websites and servers. Further, there is no way for you to wipe out all your information from these services completely. However, if you use VoIP phone services then there are a few things which you can do to stop spam or Robocalls.
The VoIP technology has made Robocalling Efficient
The VoIP phone system has made robocalls cheaper and more efficient than using humans. Most companies do not need to pay people to come into the office in order to make calls for 8 hours. A computer can automatically dial hundreds or thousands of phone numbers and can play a pre-recorded message for 24 hours a day. In addition, computers don’t need to take any breaks or go home.
However, criminals are also using similar tools as the businessman to make their processes more effective. Since Virtual Landline allows more than one operator to share a single number, employees have to be capable of setting their own caller ID. Most scammers use automatic calling feature to call unwary victims with their local area code, which increases the odds of those calls being answered.
In the same way, companies have the means to contact a huge group of clients. They might try to reach every current consumer of a certain product or calling potential customers to pitch new services and products. VoIP service offers these features and unlimited calls to a lot of customers. They have no means of knowing if a specific customer is running a fraud business. Hence, a scammer from Europe can buy VoIP phone services and influence thousands of UK consumers with no worry for the law.
Customers always have the choice as they can sign up for the national Do not call registry. However, as you may expect, this choice just works with a legitimate business. It doesn’t prevent criminals from committing their scams. The robocalls have been illegitimate since the year 2009 and if these scammers are caught the caller would need to pay hefty fines. However, that has not stopped robocalls.
How you can tackle Robocalls
The most significant part of tackling robocalls is quite simple which is that you never interact with a robocall in any way. A number of people attempt to reach an individual by following the call directory option. This is counterproductive since it shows the scam caller that there is a real individual at this phone number. In most cases, your phone number will be placed on a hotlist and are sold to telemarketers. The greatest thing which you can do is just hang up the call. This also had a bonus which you will never fall prey to any fraud or scam.
However, what will happen after that?
You might think that a Do not call registry is impractical since it does not stop scammers. But, that enables you to report these kinds of numbers to the authorities. When you have specified that you don’t want to be contacted then any business which tries to do so can get caught and charged.
When the legislation can’t protect customers then the technology is the answer. Majority of modern smartphones are call blocking phones and provide some kind of call block services. Block Suspected Scam Calls are flagged so you do not need to answer them. Also, you can add phone numbers to a blacklist or just answer calls from the phone numbers you can recognize. There are numerous call blocking applications available which work on the main mobile operating system. Whilst a number of them are paid applications there are some which are free.
Further, a number of telephone service providers provide similar services, however not all do. Even though workers have come under pressure from customers to take some action against the issue, they have been hesitant to act. Deceitful outfits which make such phone calls are capable of spoofing caller ID phone numbers. This means that any type of action taken by the service provider might accidentally harm innocent consumers. Service providers and Authorities are trying to fight in the fight against such robocalls. In the meantime, the best you can do is to not answer them.
