June 1, 2018 • 4 mins
An expert explains why we are getting so many robocalls and the latest tactic they're using to get us to pick up the phone. Plus, your best defense against getting more calls in the future.See how easy it is for a Robocaller to spoof your Caller ID:http://richontech.tv/2018/05/apps/watch-how-easy-it-is-for-a-robocaller-to-spoof-a-number-similar-to-yours/Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechEasy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Your best protection against robocalls? What's going on? I'm rich Demiro,
This is rich on Tech. Daily robocalls. We can't live
with them, We can't live well, yeah, we can live
without them, but it's kind of tough to imagine a
world without robocalls because they're so prevalent these days. The
worst part the calls are getting more frequent and scammers
(00:25):
are getting better and better at trying to make us
pick up the phone. So how can we stop this madness?
Recently I had a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Nelson. He's
the director of product management at Haya. This is a
technology company that creates software and solutions to help us
combat robocalls.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So we have our own algorithms, the machine learning algorithms
that look at call patterns that we see and can
pick out when particular scammer numbers come online. We also
get reports from users and work with the FCC and
the FTC.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
HYA used to be whitepages dot com, one of my
favorite Android apps which would id all callers on my phone.
So why does it seem like we're getting so many
robo calls these days?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
For robo calls to be successful, they really need three things.
They need to be able to make calls an extreme
high volume for cheap, which you can do now thanks
to voiceover IP or VOIPE technology. They need to be
able to do so without getting caught, which is easy
to do with the way the phone industry works these days.
And then they need victims who will fall for it,
which unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
We still have now. There are several reasons for these
robo calls. Many of them are selling products and services.
Others are just outright scams, but mainly they just want
us to pick up the phone so they can hook
us in some way. And one of the newest tactics
is called the neighbor scam. This is where the phone
number displayed on your caller ID looks a lot like
your phone number.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
This voiceover IP software that they have makes it very
easy for them to impersonate a phone number that's similar
to yours automatically, so it's not done manually at all.
They're able to just do.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
It in bulk. Nelson showed me a demo tool high
A built that does basically what the robo callers do.
I made up a phone number, he typed it into
the website in seconds, My phone rang and the number
that popped up on my caller ID was the number
I just made up. While robo callers use tools like
this in bulk, he says, there are lots of websites
available to even the everyday person where they can do
(02:21):
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
The way the phone system works makes it very difficult
for the government agencies to track down who created the calls.
It's a very, very long process. It has been ruled
that all robo calls are illegal unless you specifically requested it,
like a prescription reminder. So if you answer it no,
you were talking to someone committing a crime. So do
(02:42):
not trust anything you hear. If it's intimidating or encouraging,
you should not take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So how do you stop the calls? Well, you can
grab an app like Hyas of course, to help you
identify and block these spam calls. AT and T has
their own app called call Protect, which you can download
for free, and that's basically a white label version of
highest software. And T Mobile offers free spam call protection.
Sometimes it's already activated on your account depending on your plan.
(03:12):
Others you might have to just tell them you want it.
Other carriers might charge you a small monthly fee for
the protection, but your absolute best defense just don't pick
up the phone.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
If you've phoned your phone number for a long time,
if you'll applied for a lot of mortgages or payday loans,
that gets your number out into databases that these scammers
can buy. But a lot of it is just simply
they are trying numbers to see if anyone picks up,
and if you do answer the phone, you are known
to be a valid number and you will get more calls.
(03:43):
Answering the phone tells the scammer that the phone number
is active and so they will more than likely call
more frequently.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You can watch my video on how easy it is
for robo callers to spoof your caller ID. That's on
my website. Just go to richon tech dot tv to
watch it. And thanks for listening. If you like what
I'm doing here with the daily podcast, please rate and
review it in the Apple podcast app. Just hit that
link where it says write a review. I'm Rich Demiro.
Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you real soon.
Your best protection against robocalls? What's going on? I'm rich Demiro,
This is rich on Tech. Daily robocalls. We can't live
with them, We can't live well, yeah, we can live
without them, but it's kind of tough to imagine a
world without robocalls because they're so prevalent these days. The
worst part the calls are getting more frequent and scammers
(00:25):
are getting better and better at trying to make us
pick up the phone. So how can we stop this madness?
Recently I had a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Nelson. He's
the director of product management at Haya. This is a
technology company that creates software and solutions to help us
combat robocalls.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So we have our own algorithms, the machine learning algorithms
that look at call patterns that we see and can
pick out when particular scammer numbers come online. We also
get reports from users and work with the FCC and
the FTC.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
HYA used to be whitepages dot com, one of my
favorite Android apps which would id all callers on my phone.
So why does it seem like we're getting so many
robo calls these days?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
For robo calls to be successful, they really need three things.
They need to be able to make calls an extreme
high volume for cheap, which you can do now thanks
to voiceover IP or VOIPE technology. They need to be
able to do so without getting caught, which is easy
to do with the way the phone industry works these days.
And then they need victims who will fall for it,
which unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
We still have now. There are several reasons for these
robo calls. Many of them are selling products and services.
Others are just outright scams, but mainly they just want
us to pick up the phone so they can hook
us in some way. And one of the newest tactics
is called the neighbor scam. This is where the phone
number displayed on your caller ID looks a lot like
your phone number.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
This voiceover IP software that they have makes it very
easy for them to impersonate a phone number that's similar
to yours automatically, so it's not done manually at all.
They're able to just do.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
It in bulk. Nelson showed me a demo tool high
A built that does basically what the robo callers do.
I made up a phone number, he typed it into
the website in seconds, My phone rang and the number
that popped up on my caller ID was the number
I just made up. While robo callers use tools like
this in bulk, he says, there are lots of websites
available to even the everyday person where they can do
(02:21):
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
The way the phone system works makes it very difficult
for the government agencies to track down who created the calls.
It's a very, very long process. It has been ruled
that all robo calls are illegal unless you specifically requested it,
like a prescription reminder. So if you answer it no,
you were talking to someone committing a crime. So do
(02:42):
not trust anything you hear. If it's intimidating or encouraging,
you should not take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So how do you stop the calls? Well, you can
grab an app like Hyas of course, to help you
identify and block these spam calls. AT and T has
their own app called call Protect, which you can download
for free, and that's basically a white label version of
highest software. And T Mobile offers free spam call protection.
Sometimes it's already activated on your account depending on your plan.
(03:12):
Others you might have to just tell them you want it.
Other carriers might charge you a small monthly fee for
the protection, but your absolute best defense just don't pick
up the phone.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
If you've phoned your phone number for a long time,
if you'll applied for a lot of mortgages or payday loans,
that gets your number out into databases that these scammers
can buy. But a lot of it is just simply
they are trying numbers to see if anyone picks up,
and if you do answer the phone, you are known
to be a valid number and you will get more calls.
(03:43):
Answering the phone tells the scammer that the phone number
is active and so they will more than likely call
more frequently.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You can watch my video on how easy it is
for robo callers to spoof your caller ID. That's on
my website. Just go to richon tech dot tv to
watch it. And thanks for listening. If you like what
I'm doing here with the daily podcast, please rate and
review it in the Apple podcast app. Just hit that
link where it says write a review. I'm Rich Demiro.
Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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