Attack of the Robocalls!

Source: Internet

In Malaysia, we get phone calls that say “Ini adalah Mahkamah Tinggi... or Pos Laju... or Polis Diraja Malaysia...” All of them are likely to be phone scams.

Robocalls and phone scams have exploded in the last few years. According to First Orion, more than one in every four calls (29.2%) in 2018 were spam. And some robocallers today can even mask their spams with local, genuine-looking phone numbers. Some were spammy telemarketing messages while some were straight-up scams. Why are we getting so many spam calls?

Voice-over IP (VoIP) is the "culprit”. Telemarketers are no longer bound by traditional landlines. VoIP allows traditional telephony services to operate over computer networks by converting your voice into digital. This is fairly legitimate when they are used by political campaigners, telemarketers, or government agencies wishing to send out public service announcements.

Also, VoIP enables caller to show their number differently on caller ID. This process is called “spoofing”. Again, the technology itself is legal, and has legitimate uses (for instance, you make a business call on a personal phone and want your office number to show up on the other end). However, with its ability to imitate different numbers, also lower cost with higher efficiency, the systems are widely used by scammers. According to the FTC, scammers averaged $430 per successful call last year in the U.S. Whereas in Malaysia, PDRM reported that the country loses an average of RM2bil every year to scammers (The Star, 2019).

What can we do?

By simply blocking numbers is not an effective way. Spammers can switch phone numbers frequently. The best thing we can do is to avoid picking up unknown numbers. Both Android and iOS users can switch to ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode to allow only phone calls from people in our contacts list to reach us. The con is we might be blocking important phone calls as well. Another option is to rely on third-party apps. These robocalls blocker apps update their robocallers or spammers list constantly. If they find the numbers match, they will block the number to reach your phone.

Remember that if a government or law enforcement agency needs to contact you, they’ll send you notice in writing, or show up at your door. Therefore, if you do answer a call from a scammer, do not give up any personal information, even if they already seem to know a lot about you.

Reference:

1. Will Nicol, Robocalls and phone scams are on the rise. Here’s how to avoid being a victim  www.digitaltrends.com

2. Brooke Crothers, Google Expert Explains Why You Get So Many Robocalls -- And Future Tech To Stop Spam Calls www.forbes.com

3. Phone scammers target the gullible, 9 Aug 2019, The Star

4. Chris Welch, How to stop annoying robocalls on your iPhone or Android phone www.theverge.com