what to do if you said yes during a robo call

Two robots playing telephone with tin cans.
Charles Taylor/Shutterstock

The robocall trouble keeps getting worse. About half of all calls come from automated systems, and that number is increasing. Tired of answering your phone and talking to robots, scammers, or scammer robots? Just stop answering.

Yes, the FCC is trying to stop robocalls by encouraging adoption of solutions like STIR/SHAKEN. But, while the government and telephone carriers slowly put together a solution, nosotros're stuck in robocall hell.

The Example for Ignoring Your Phone

If the idea of ignoring your telephone sends you into a fit of cerebral dissonance, so congratulations, you're a well-adapted human being and a perfect target for robocallers.

Phones accept been around for well over 100 years, and we've spent that fourth dimension developing a circuitous and universal organisation of phone etiquette. Yous answer a call with "hello," you lot end a call with "goodbye," and you politely spend the concluding three or 4 minutes of a call repeating "okay, yeah, correct, uh-huh."

Just it's the very first footstep of phone etiquette that robocallers use to take advantage of usa. When you lot get a telephone call, you answer it. Why? Well, according to Book 5 of the American Telephone Periodical—published in 1902—ignoring a phone phone call is rude and wastes "some seconds or minutes" of the caller'due south "valuable time."

If only nosotros could bring those 20th-century knuckleheads into modern times, they would know how the tables have turned. Today, nearly half of the calls we receive are from robocallers. Answering the phone is actually a waste of your time.

An angry businessman throwing away his phone.
Minerva Studio/Shutterstock

Phone etiquette needs to evolve to accommodate modern times. Wasting "seconds or minutes" of a person's fourth dimension was just as annoying in 1902 every bit information technology is at present. So if you get a call from a number that you don't recognize, ignore it. You lot're practicing proper phone etiquette.

You wouldn't be the first person to kickoff ignoring calls. As The Atlantic put it, "telephone culture is disappearing."

Are we oversimplifying things? Perhaps. But consider this: Ignoring robocalls reduces the number of robocalls you lot receive, other anti-robocall methods don't work at all, and there are plenty of ways to ensure that you don't miss important calls from friends, family, or trusted businesses.

Yes, Ignoring Robocalls Leads to Fewer Robocalls

According to the FTC, answering a robocall or interacting with a robocaller by answering questions simply leads to more robocalls. Why? Because people who actually respond their phones are more likely to fall for telephone scams.

Let's pretend that you're a robocall scammer (hopefully, you aren't). At the stop of your long and automated workday, you separate each robocall into three separate categories: "people who ignored the calls," "people who answered and hung up," and "people who brutal for the scam."

Who are you lot going to recall tomorrow? You're going to call the people that brutal for your scam. But you should also telephone call everyone who answered and hung up considering every answered phone call is an opportunity to scam some poor sap.

Some robocall scammers fifty-fifty make money when you lot don't ignore their calls. They phone call and hope you'll call up. Then, surprise: Y'all've called the international equivalent of a 900 number. These scammers essentially get a kickback from international calling fees, then they focus their robots on people that answer or call back unknown numbers.

Will every robocaller leave you alone in one case y'all start ignoring their calls? No, robocalling is an automated creature-strength scamming method, so scammers take nothing to lose by calling non-answering phones. Merely, by answering the phone, you're giving scammers a legitimate reason to robocall you as much every bit possible.

Other Methods Don't Work

Ignoring robocalls sounds boring and ineffective, but until the FCC and phone carriers get their acts together, the patented ignore method is our only promise. And while some blogs and major publications like to suggest some "easier" solutions to avoiding robocalls, these methods don't do anything to mitigate the problem.

The most common solution for catastrophe robocalls is the famous Do Not Telephone call list. Just, in the words of the FCC, just "legitimate telemarketers" (an oxymoron) consult the list before making calls. Robocallers always ignore the Do Not Telephone call list. Why? Considering they can spoof their identities and phone call from any phone number that they desire. Why would they worry about the law?

FTC

Speaking of the law, another popular robocall solution is to report scammers and unsolicited callers to the FTC. The thing is, reporting a robocall to the FTC is only a useful practice if you've fallen for a scam. Robocallers tend to mask their identities with faux phone numbers, and the FTC (or whatever other co-operative of government) doesn't accept the resources to investigate every little robocaller on the planet.

If your service provider or some other website suggests you pay to block private numbers, endeavour to ignore that proposition. Again, robocallers can telephone call from any phone number. They tin change their telephone number at whatsoever time. Unless you're paying your service provider to block an ex'south number, you're simply wasting your coin.

What If Yous're Expecting an Of import Telephone call?

In some situations, ignoring your phone is easier said than done. If you're continually expecting calls from doctors, customers, lawyers, or anyone else that doesn't know how to ship a text bulletin, ignoring calls can practice more damage than expert. (The IRS almost certainly won't call you, though—if you lot get a phone call from "the IRS," it'southward probably a scam.)

In this situation, the all-time thing that yous can do is endeavour to minimize risk. Add together trusted businesses, customers, and professionals to your contact listing. Feel free to inquire companies for their outgoing phone number, and be sure to bank check if they use multiple approachable numbers. And of form, know when you should expect a call from a concern or customer. If your physician's office is closed on Sundays, then you probably don't take to worry near missing an urgent call on Sundays.

If You're an iPhone User, Enable Do Not Disturb

Apple tree

Although carriers and phone manufacturers haven't come up up with a comprehensive anti-robocall solution, Apple has added a Do Not Disturb to iPhones and iPads. The Do Not Disturb feature allows yous to choose which numbers can call you. If yous've gear up upwards a detailed contact list, this feature can help you block out scammers without missing out on important calls from your family unit or your medico. If you're always expecting a call from an unknown number, you can quickly turn off the Do Non Disturb feature until you receive the call that you're waiting for.

Android also offers a Practise Non Disturb mode, of form. You tin have your phone not band for incoming calls and let specific numbers you lot intendance about bypass the cake.

If You lot're Desperate, Download an Anti-Robocall App

Nosotros normally don't endorse extensions or apps that collect a lot of your personal data. These services are typically fabricated by small teams or businesses so they can be a privacy nightmare. Only if you're bad at ignoring the phone, then an anti-robocalling app may exist worth the privacy risk.

There are a ton of anti-robocalling apps on Google Play and Apple'due south App Shop, from Hiya to Robokiller, but they all tend to piece of work the same style. When a user gets a robocall, they marker the call equally spam in their anti-robocall app. Once that number is marked equally spam by enough users, the app will automatically deny all calls from that number or notify users when an incoming telephone phone call might be a robocall.

Sounds good, right? Well, these apps should only exist used as a supplement to ignoring unknown calls. As we've mentioned multiple times, robocallers can spoof whatever number that they wish. They can spoof made upwardly numbers, or they can spoof legitimate numbers. They tin even spoof your phone number.

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Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/413873/tired-of-robocalls-stop-answering-your-phone/

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