Do Not Call List Doesn’t Work Anymore

I think that most of us have noticed that the amount of annoying spam phone calls has gone up over the last couple of months.

At my house we get the "This is the IRS" phone call almost every day. Each time they call, the call comes from a different phone number and most of the time we let it go straight to voicemail and yes they do leave a message.

After receiving a ton of these calls, my wife says to me didn't you sign us up for the "Do Not Call List?" So I went and checked and I did sign us up for it a long time ago but for some reason it was no longer working.

According to WFLA, here is why its no longer working. It’s become really easy for criminal telephone spammers, like the IRS callers, to avoid U.S. law enforcement, thanks to a gaping hole in the Do Not Call list.

Attorney Bill Howard told WFLA that the people behind these scams get away with it by sending fake numbers to caller IDs, known as spoofing, and hiding the real place the call is coming from.

He also went on to say that it is really easy for people to get away with this today. All they need is a laptop and an automatic dialing machine to make the scam work. He says “I can literally call one million people a day using an auto dialer that costs me about $900.”

What should you do if you answer one of these calls?

Howard says:

1. Threaten them, tell them you’re calling the FBI and then do it.

2. The FCC says don’t answer a call from a number you don’t know. If you accidentally answer, don’t hit numbers. That lets the robot know a human answered.

3. There are a number of apps that you can download to your phone to help you avoid these calls.