There is little less unifying than our collective hate of robocalls. It’s a bipartisan issue, and unwanted calls, by far, elicit the most complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. I often receive as many robocalls over the course of a day as regular calls. And, in recent months, it has only gotten worse. For everyone.
First Orion, a provider of phone call and data solutions, predicts that “nearly half of all calls to mobile phones will be fraudulent in 2019.” Anymore, it’s a gamble to answer any unrecognizable phone call and, if you do, chances are the caller is a solicitor or, worse, a scammer.
In March alone, the call-blocking service YouMail estimated that 5.2 billion robocalls were placed in the U.S., which is more than twice the number for the same month just three years ago. The so-called “Do Not Call” list is basically useless. Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said as much during a committee hearing last month: “I’m on a ‘Do Not Call’ list, but I still get the damn calls.”