• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Compliance

Robocalls Are At an All-Time High

Americans are receiving more automated telemarketer calls than ever, and these robocalls can cause more harm than just wasting your time.

November 6, 2018 Sam Harton Leave a Comment

NBC News reports that robocalls are at an all-time high, with some people receiving as many as six calls a day from automated callers. At some point over the last few years, you’ve probably felt your phone buzz and pulled it out of your pocket, only to find an unsaved number calling from some city you’ve never been to. If you’re curious enough to answer, you’ll find the voice on the line to be a recorded message trying to sell you something, warn you of an expiring warranty you don’t have, or offering some sort of debt relief.

From February to July, robocalls in America increased by 50 percent, with automated and telemarketer calls being the number one consumer complaint to the Federal Communications Commission for the past two years.

Robo-calls can be more than just a nuisance, serving valuable purposes like reminding us of upcoming appointments. But they can also be directly harmful. For example, about 30 people in the Chinese community in New York City were scammed out of an estimated $3 million after receiving  automated messages claiming to be from the Chinese consulate and demanding money to settle a criminal matter. Of the 4.4 billion robocalls received by Americans in September, about 40% were scams.

RoboKiller is a call-blocking app made by TelTech, whose vice president of product, Ethan Garr, said, “It’s definitely been building within the past five years, but it’s gotten especially bad this year.” The worst area code to have when it comes to robocalls is Atlanta’s 404.

“The carriers started to identify the bad guys,” said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. “Call-blocking apps started to scale up and get publicity. What we figure is that bad guys started having to call more to get through.”

In May, Adrian Abramovich was fined $120 million by the FCC for placing almost 100 million robocalls within 3 months. When he testified a month earlier in front of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Senate learned just how easy robocalling and spoofing, the practice of making a call look like it’s coming from your area code, is.

“Voice calls are so cheap, they cost only a penny a minute and [robocallers] pay for the calls that pick up,” Garr said. “You’re not limited by the number of calls you can make. You’re limited by the number of people that can answer the calls.”

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint all offer filtering services to keep robocalls at bay. “It’s actually true of email,” Quilici said. “We still get a ton of spam, but Google and everyone has gotten so good at filtering email that you don’t notice. The phone network hasn’t gotten as sophisticated in the filtering.”

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!

Tagged With: Robotics

Related Content:

  • White House AI Regulations, ChatGPT, Generative AI 5 Things You Need to Know About the…
  • DDoS, NETSCOUT Arbor Insight 7 Layers of DDoS Attacks and How To…
  • cyber-attack-skull Spike in Cyberattacks Exposes Vulnerabilities in University Security…
  • Google, Bard Google: Bard Now 30% Better at Computation-Based Problems

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • ChatGPT, generative AI, enterprise, workplaceBlueprint Series: ChatGPT and Generative AI in the Workplace

    This latest release of the TechDecisions Blueprint Series explores the new phenomenon of tools such as ChatGPT and how IT leaders should go about deploying generative AI in their organizations.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Downloads

Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces
Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces

Recent Gartner research shows that workers prefer to return to the office for in-person meetings for relevant milestones, as well as for face-to-fa...

New Camera Can Transform Your Live Production Workflow
New Camera System Can Transform Your Live Production Workflow

Sony's HXC-FZ90 studio camera system combines flexibility and exceptional image quality with entry-level pricing.

Creating Great User Experience and Ultimate Flexibility with Clickshare

Working and collaborating in any office environment today should be meaningful, as workers today go to office for very specific reasons. When desig...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Contact Us
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSYour Privacy ChoicesTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2025 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.