Robocalls – The Good & the Bad

Have you received a call today where someone is trying to sell you an extended car warranty on your 10- year-old car or an agency trying to give you a last courtesy call on your deferred student loan payment/tax payment that you never owed, or any calls that seem to help you with information you don’t need or did not subscribe for? Well, your telephone number has been infected with Robocalls! Robocalls are calls generated by an auto-dialer and play a recorded message instead of an actual live person speaking when you answer. Unlike the popular assumption, not all robocalls are scams or illegal. They could be legit election campaign calls, appointment reminder calls, or information update calls such as a delayed flight, healthcare updates, or pharmacy notifications. Making the differentiation between scam calls versus necessary informational calls can be challenging. Scam robocalls are not only a nuisance but also fraudulent, often tricking users into providing sensitive information or money.

Statistics point out that there have been over 100 billion scam robocalls that were received over the last two years within U.S. alone! Though the anti-robocall bill was passed by Congress and signed by the President on December 31, 2019, the illegal robocalls continue to frustrate U.S. citizens, and negatively impacting the economy and business productivity, but continue to show year-over-year growth of over 22% (usatoday.com).  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cited that over 60 percent of all the consumer complaints received are robocall-related.

There have been several measures approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the FCC to counter scam robocalls such as adding numbers to a Do Not Call Registry; use of call-blocking solutions; and imposing heavy fines for identified scammers. There have been several free and paid robocall blocking services offered by many telecom service providers. AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile and US Cellular all offer default robocall-blocking service to all their subscribers. From a consumer perspective, there are several third-party applications that can aid in blocking Robocalls on iOS and Android devices. Make sure to research an app’s reputation (reviews and download numbers) before giving it access to sensitive phone permissions. However, not all solutions have been 100% effective as scammers are using smarter and technically evolving ways to override the blocks. Caller ID spoofing is one such smart way to fake a legit caller ID to override the robocall blocks in place.  The FCC has proposed to mandate implementation of STIR/SHAKEN based caller ID authentication to telecom service providers that can tackle illegal caller ID spoofing. However, the widespread incorporation of this requires extensive time and technology resources for end to end compliance.

While carriers are implementing the necessary telecom infrastructure to block robocalls, it becomes essential for Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) to employ their individual strategies as well. Filtering all inbound calls to their voice backbone network to prevent spammers is one direct method that telecom service providers can adapt. Additionally, implementing call analytics to proactively identify, report, and block robocalls can make this more efficient. BullsEye is keeping a close watch on the FCC’s initiatives and ensuring we are well-informed on our incumbent partner strategies on implementing STIR/SHAKEN and timelines associated with that. We have not only taken appropriate measures to remain abreast with federal requirements for robocall mitigation, but also working with our partners to empower our clients with additional tools to dictate call treatment, and assist in consumer training initiatives and unique call audits to mitigate scamming.