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Overwhelmed by Scam Callers? Here's a Low-Effort Fix for Unwanted Calls
Most of us carry mobile phones wherever we go. But we use our phones for almost everything but calls. Scammers have ruined that. We may be just a few taps away from being connected with anyone anywhere, but so are scammers, using our phones to swindle a seemingly bottomless amount of money.
We don't have to accept this as the new telephone reality, though. In fact, the best solution is the simplest one to preventing scammers and unwanted called from wasting your time -- or worse, getting to your money.
Here's an easy way to deflect those unwanted calls. For more, here are five signs your information is on the dark web and seven tips to keep your phone secure.
The number of scam calls can't be that bad, can it?
It sounds like I'm being overly dramatic, but everyone I know is dealing with scam calls. And it's not just anecdotal: Voice security company Hiya has numbers to back it up.
Based on an analysis of 221 billion phone calls made during 2023 and surveys of thousands of people, US consumers received an average of eight spam calls per week, Hiya found. Of those who reported falling for scams, the average amount of money lost was $2,257, a 527% increase over the previous year.
Money-grabbing schemes aren't the only issue. AI is being used to impersonate influential people on calls to sway behavior. In this US election year, the Federal Communications Commission has already banned AI-powered robocalls following an incident where a Texas company created a robocall impersonating President Joe Biden telling Democrats not to vote in the New Hampshire primary; the FCC proposed a $6 million fine for the incident.
So what's being done to reduce scam calls?
In 2021, the FCC mandated that a technology called Stir/Shaken be adopted by every major voice provider in the US. It requires them to verify where calls originate to accurately identify them for Caller ID. Congress has also passed legislation aimed at making the carriers track their anti-robocall efforts.
And then in December 2023, the FCC adopted new rules to add teeth to its existing policies by making it more difficult for telemarketers to blast unwanted calls and texts to consumers.
The problem is, these technologies and regulations designed to mitigate scam calls are not adequate.
Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, reiterated this fact. "We have been maintaining for some time that Stir/Shaken is not working to ensure accurate caller ID (which is all it is designed to do), because voice service providers are able to rent thousands of phone numbers to telemarketers and scammers that allow the callers to technically comply with Stir/Shaken without revealing meaningful or accurate caller ID," Saunders said. "The numbers of unwanted calls are about the same as they have been for years."
And although Saunders believes the FCC's December 2023 change will make a big difference in the number of telemarketing calls, "it does not go into effect until early 2025, and it will take a while for the litigation to have a beneficial impact," she said. "Most telemarketing calls are made on behalf of US corporations, and only the threat of costly litigation is likely to reduce these calls."
You know where this is going with unwanted calls
You can do all sorts of things to try to reduce spam calls, from installing third-party call screening apps to activating scam blocking services offered by your phone's maker or wireless carriers -- some of which require an extra fee, making that "solution" even more painful.
The FCC takes a different approach to dealing with spam calls. It relies more on what you shouldn't do and less on what scam-blocking services may be able to do.
- Don't assume that a Caller ID number shown with a local prefix is actually coming from your area.
- Don't reply to a caller or recording asking you to press a button or answer questions. And definitely don't answer "Yes."
- Never believe someone from an unknown number who claims to represent a company or government agency -- hang up and call a publicly accessible number to verify the request is legitimate. The IRS, for example, said it usually contacts taxpayers through regular mail and not through a phone call or text message.
Don't answer your phone. That's it. That's the answer.
So how do you know that a call is suspicious? Easy: Assume they all are.
Unless the Caller ID identifies a person in your phone's contacts list, or you recognize the number (does anyone memorize phone numbers anymore?), assume the call is a scammer.
Just answering a suspicious call with "Hello" can open the floodgates for more scam calls because that tells the scammer there's a human behind your number and, even more important, that this human answers their phone. The number may then be sold to other companies.
That's a nihilistic approach to phone calls, I know. But the volume of robocalls is so high that an incoming call is more likely to be spam. Like I said, scammers have ruined phone calls.
Send calls to voicemail
So the solution is to just ignore every call? What about your doctor's office calling you back to schedule a checkup -- do you need to add every phone number and extension they use to your contacts? What if a friend's phone battery dies and they use someone else's phone to call you to get a ride? Won't important calls be ignored?
There's a narrow ray of light in the telephony darkness. Unless the call is from someone you know, let it go straight to voicemail. The best method is to let it ring, since even actively declining the call might be enough to alert scammers they have a live number. On the iPhone and Android, press the Sleep/Wake button once to stop it ringing on your end -- the caller will continue to hear rings until the call is automatically sent to voicemail.
With voicemail on most phones, you can see a list of pending messages, often with a rough voice transcription for each one. I can tell at a glance that the unknown callers leaving 4-second messages are most likely scammers, and anything longer than that I can skim without listening to the full message.
You can even bypass the disruption of getting the call. On the iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers and turn on the Silence Unknown Callers switch. Anyone not in your contacts, list of outgoing calls or Siri Suggestions goes to voicemail without ringing the phone. Android phones have a similar feature called Filter Spam Calls located in the Phone app's settings, or a Call Screen feature, depending on the device.
You can also screen a call without picking up on some devices. With Apple's Live Voicemail feature in iOS 17 and later, ignore the incoming call and then tap the Voicemail button on the lock screen if the caller hasn't hung up. While they leave their message, iOS transcribes it in real time, and you can break in and talk to the person if it's a call you need to take.
On Android, Google Call Screen uses Google Assistant to answer the call, interact with the caller and create a real time transcript. At Google I/O 2024, the company demonstrated a next-generation variant of this feature, which relies on its AI tool Gemini to listen to a call you're on and pop up alerts if it seems to be a scam call.
Still, these features are unlikely to make a meaningful dent in the overall problem. "We believe these tools are not useful for several reasons," Saunders said, pointing out that only knowledgeable and careful consumers are likely to use them and that the privacy implications of this type of live monitoring are potentially enormous.
"The best way to stop the illegal calls," Saunders said, "is to punish the providers who originate and transmit them. This point has been made time and again to the FCC."
Seriously, stop answering your phone
Look, I want to believe there's a technical way out of this mess. Some conversations really are better over the phone, without the potential for misunderstanding via texting or the need to look half-human on a video call. But as long as scam calls entrap people profitably, scammers will also ratchet up their techniques (like creating AI voices that mimic a friend or family member).
But we can make it harder for the scammers to succeed by doing the simplest thing.
Just don't answer your phone.
