People have been receiving robocalls since the early ‘90s, and with the volume of calls steadily increasing since then, robocalls can be considered a regular phenomenon. But the recent years have seen a spike in these automated calls, that now serve a more sinister purpose.
A robocall is a phone call with a prerecorded message that comes from an automated source. Since it is both prerecorded and automated, a robocall can be easily sent to a large number of people in a short period of time.
Robocalls are used by businesses in selling their products, by political parties during elections, at times by banks to notify their clients of fraud, and by government institutions to issue emergency warnings.
Technological advances, like voice over internet protocol (VoIP) that allows people to make calls from a computer, have made robocalls cheaper, easier, and more accessible to the general public. Enter fraudsters, who have started using robocalls as tools for their crimes.
Youmail, a developer of a robocall-blocking software, reports that as of November 26, 2018, 38.1 billion robocalls have been placed in the United States alone. In Australia, it was reported that 253 people have handed nearly $1 million to scammers in the past four months. Scammers in the Philippines ride the wave of the government’s war on drugs to scare victims and force them to give away personal information.
The only goal of robocalls is to get you to answer the call. If you pick up, you will either be given a number that you need to call back immediately, or you will get rerouted to a call center abroad and given instructions on how to claim a free trip, get a cheaper health insurance, donate to a charity, or settle a debt with the government.
In most cases, the calls are after your personal and banking information. But there are also times when you will be asked upfront to transfer money.
York Dispatch rounded up the most common robocall scams in the United States, which may also be applicable to other countries:
The New York Times also cited a YouMail study on the top phone scams back in March, which proves that the spike in the volume of scam calls have been ongoing for a long time.
The best way to deal with robocalls is not to deal with them at all. The general rule: Do not answer the call if you do not know who is calling.
But what if you have picked up the phone and hear an automated message? The general rule is to hang up immediately. Do not say anything. Simply hang up.
In case the call has progressed – you have been routed to a call center and already speaking to a real person, or you have placed a call as instructed by the automated voice, here are some reminders:
You can also download applications to your phone that can help in identifying robocalls, such as like Hiya and Truecaller.
