Since the introduction of the robocall in the 1980’s many Americans have been plagued at home by both legitimate and illegitimate calls. The automated messages, usually from businesses, began over three decades ago and the problem continues to grow year on year.
Earlier this year research from YouMail showed that there were a record 5.1 billion robocalls across the country in October alone, with the average American receiving 16 calls over the course of the month.
The top five areas that received the most calls during the latest surge were Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles and Houston with all five areas showing over a 15% increase on the number of calls received in comparison to the previous month.
So what has been done in the past to try and tackle this issue?
Since 2003 people have been able to sign up to the Do Not Call registry which allows them to opt out from receiving telemarketing calls. This list has proved to be a popular choice amongst Americans and now has over 200 million telephone numbers on it.
Taking it a step further, n 2009 the Federal Trade Commission put new rules in to placei that prohibited most robocalls, other than in situations whereby the telemarketer had pre-authorised consent that allowed them to transmit such calls.
However, despite these efforts and many more the statistics show that robocalls are now a bigger problem than ever before. Some of the most common robocall scams this year have included healthcare scams, IRS scams and Chinese consulate scams with Americans still losing millions of dollars every year.
Similar to the rise in robocalls at the time of the midterm elections, December is expected to be an extremely busy month for scammers as they attempt to hijack the Christmas period for their own benefit and greed.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to avoid the risk of becoming a victim of a scam robocall this Christmas is to purchase a call blocker and say goodbye to them with the touch of a button.
For more information on our range of call blockers click here.