Tara Siegel Bernard, New York Times:
Though automated calls have long plagued consumers, the volume has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an estimated 3.4 billion in April, according to YouMail, which collects and analyzes calls through its robocall blocking service. That’s an increase of almost 900 million a month compared with a year ago.
It’s not just your imagination. There is, indeed, a surge.
In one tactic, known as “neighborhood spoofing,” robocallers use local numbers in the hope that recipients will be more likely to pick up.
I’ve noticed this a lot. My general habit is to not pick up calls from numbers I don’t recognize. But what if the auto-shop calls to tell me my car is ready? Or any local business that doesn’t have a branded caller-id? This just plain sucks.
As Ben Bajarin noted on Twitter, “There is a special place in hell reserved for those who sell our cell phone numbers.”
“Real people leave a message.”
I’m getting a lot more local-number spoofing calls on my mobile. Our landline is getting credit pitches and slightly more specific “tech support expiring” robocalls. The latter used to be about our “Microsoft account”, but has largely switched to our “iCloud account.”
Speaking of selling our information, how many folks have seen the new, friendly Facebook tv commercial that passive-voices the problems they’ve refused to take responsibility for? Nice.
Once I even got a call from my own number.
THE VERY FIRST CALL we got on our new landline number after we moved, the same day we were hooked up, was a robocall.
Comcast had sold us the moment they assigned a number to us.
We’re seeing this all the time. I get them at work, at home, and on my cell. The latter is, of course, still illegal, but who cares, it’s not like the law is being enforced…
And this doesn’t include the calls from ‘He-llo my name is Beel from the Veendows Department’ calls proclaiming that my PC is spewing viruses or something.
or not. it’s possible that these services are just using a computer program to generate numbers. pretty easy to utilize when it’s a computer message being fed to you. and probably cheaper than buying numbers of anyone. just possibly dumb luck that it was the day after the number was activated
exactly. I only have a land line because it was required for my DSL package. only number I pick up is the intercom at my building’s gate. I have no answering machine cause everyone I know and do business with has my cell phone. and I don’t pick that up if there’s no name. if you are my dentist etc you will leave a message
Certainly possible. But the calls started POURING in, before I started sharing the number with anyone. So it can’t all be random dailers, Comcast absolutely sold our number. Other local folk – Comcast is the ONLY broadband provider in my county – have similar complaints.
I have my mechanics numbers in my phone, along with everyone else that is important to me. If it doesn’t show as name from my contact list, it goes unanswered. Like someone else said, “real people leave a message.”
If they do and they are not in my contacts and I recognize them, I call them back and add them.