The scam calls keep on coming. They look more realistic, now with an area code that matches your own, maybe a similar exchange. Often with people’s names. You know, you get them.
Scam Calls on Our Landline and Cell Phone
I have counted them. On our landline (which is still useful because of sketchy cell service where we live), 19 out of 20 voicemails are reliably pitching tax refund scams, Medicare-paid braces, or similar garbage. The frequency of scam calls on my cell phone is not so high, but it is increasing regularly, usually from area codes in the 800 series reserved for toll-free. All of these calls are supposed to be impossible if the federal DO NOT CALL list meant anything. It doesn’t.
Originating Numbers Are Fake
Have you ever called any of the numbers back? They virtually all are not functional numbers. They are somehow spoofed by software to disguise the originating number. You get an error message if you dial them.
Why Aren’t Incoming Call Numbers AI Screened?
It should be technically easy for the phone network providers to screen the listed number, using AI and available large databases of real phone numbers, before allowing that fake call to reach your phone. Then you’d never see it or be disturbed or scammed. I thought that screening was supposed to be done by the carriers a few years ago, but it hasn’t happened.
Vignette: While I was typing the prior paragraph, a phone call appeared on my landline from “Waltham, MA, 781-996-2246.” I let it go to voicemail, then dialed it back. “The number you dialed is not in service” was proclaimed by the cheery network announcer.
Call the FCC and Your Congressman and Senator
We have to pressure the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to require that spoofed phone calls be screened out by the carriers. You can contact them online or call them at (888) 225-5322. Also contact your Congressional representative or senator. This problem can be fixed. AI and large databases should make it easy. I personally would like to retrieve the use of my family phone from “Mary from Medicare” and her crowd.
2 comments
Tom Myers
“Why?” Perhaps for the same reason that some important emails are delivered to “Junk” folder and have to be retrieved.
AI is in its infancy and it has a lot of errors–both “facts” that aren’t facts aren’t facts and important facts that i doesn’t think are important.
When i got my smartphone and dropped my landline, started letting any call that didn’t have a caller’s name go to email. Then I was able to use my LI (limited intelligence) to decide whether to return the call or not. Even landlines have had a “*69” feature that allows us to get the phone number of the twerp that called and asked “Is your refrigerator running?”
DrKanner
Tom, I agree with your comment. However, I may not have been clear enough myself. I think this is simply a database problem, AI not required. The universe of real phone numbers is known. It is a straightforward database problem to check the incoming phone number label that will appear on your phone screen against the database of all numbers within the stated area code. If they don’t match, the call is not forwarded by the carrier. The Do Not Call registry is long dead, but the principle is the same. Happy New Year.