5 important facts about robocalls

The Federal Communications Commission has been asked to look into the issue of robocalls. In the spirit of avoiding scammers, here is a list of five things you should know about robocalls.

|
Damian Dovarganes/AP/FILE
Eleanor Blum, 88, solves crossword puzzles, as she lets her phone go unanswered at her in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles.

The Federal Communications Commission has been asked to look into the issue of robocalls, the automated phone messages favored by political campaigns, charities and scammers. At issue is whether phone companies can do more to protect consumers from fraudulent calls.

Here are five things to know about robocalls:

SALES ROBOCALLS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS A SCAM. Robocalls are never allowed on cellphones, unless you give them prior written consent or it's an emergency. Robocalls to your landline are only allowed from political campaigns, charities, debt collectors, survey takers and information services such as your pharmacy or school. So if you get a robocall selling a product or claiming that a product has been purchased for you, hang up immediately.

THE SCAM. Scammers like to pretend they are conducting a survey or representing a charity before connecting you with a live operator who will try to sell you something. That's still illegal. Some also pretend to be from the IRS or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, rambling off fake badge numbers and trying to scare people into thinking they will be audited or deported unless they pay a fee or divulge banking information.

DON'T PRESS "1." Pressing any number, even if it suggests that doing so will take you off their list, only confirms your number is working and that they have reached a live person. Engaging the call in any way will just lead to more calls.

CALLER ID MEANS NOTHING. It's called "spoofing," and it prevents you from knowing where the call is really coming from. You can ask your phone company to block a particular number. But by the time you do that, the same scammers will probably move on to a different number. Your own phone number can even appear on the caller ID, whereas the call might be coming from overseas.

REGISTER YOUR NUMBER ON THE 'DO NOT CALL' LIST. But don't expect much. Scammers ignore the registry so it's unlikely to stop the problem. But at least then you'll know that every time you get a call, and it's not a political campaign, survey or charity, it's a scam. Under the rules, a company can only call you if you have an "established business relationship." Even in that case, it has to be a live sales call and not a robocall.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 5 important facts about robocalls
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0415/5-important-facts-about-robocalls
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe