If you own a phone or smart watch, you’ve probably received a spam call or text at least once throughout your lifetime. Just people in the US alone receive billions of robocalls per month. Because of the technology we have today, hiding your true identity online has been made cheap and easy, especially through calls. On the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) website, a list of “Consumer Tips” has been released to avoid getting these calls. This list includes suggestions from talking to your phone company to see if they offer a robocall blocking service to simply not answering calls from unknown numbers.
Over time, the FCC has implemented new laws and regulations to act against robocalls. These rules require all providers to either install a new technology created by the FCC or to institute a program for minimizing spam calls. It has been found that almost 2,000 companies have the new technology installed, more than 1,500 have partially adopted it, and a little more than 1,000 claim that they are excluded from the requirements “because they’re intermediate providers that don’t originate or complete calls.”
In result, the number of monthly spam calls has split almost in half; it’s dropped from 2.1 billion to 1.1 billion in the year since the law has been passed. However, with spammers' calls being limited, a new problem has risen: spam texts. Spam texts have gone from 1 billion a month to 12 billion, according to a leading robocall-filtering company. These texts can be very dangerous; they can lead to your devices being hacked, your personal information being stolen, and more. Although calls from unknown numbers have decreased recently, the texts have drastically increased to the point where there are more spam texts than there were calls before the new laws were passed, making it an even bigger problem than the calls were.
Questions
- Have you ever received a robocall or text message?
- Do you think that more regulations should be set to limit spam texts as well as calls?
- Should phone companies be held responsible for limiting robocalls?
Sources
Replies
Good topic choice and well done overall Alexa! I would like to see more of your personal thoughts within your summary next time.
I've gotten alot of robocall and text messages. They should be regulated because many of them want you to click links and they can track you and do other stuff. That type of stuff shoudn't be allowed. I don't think its the phone companies fault for robocalls/texts but they should have some sort of filter to automaticly delete them. My old phone used to automatically block spam calls but it didn't work all the time.
I also receive a lot of spam calls and texts. Many of these messages can be very dangerous and should definitely be regulated. Hopefully in the future there will be more setting available to prevent this from happening.
I get a lot of robocalls and or text messages. I think that these should call should be dealt with. Phone companies have little to do with it, but I think it should be handled. People receiving the calls could do things about it, but they chose to ignore them. Letting other people receive the calls and get annoyed more.
I also get a lot of spam calls and messages. I think that many people choose to ignore the calls because they are annoying to recieve, but there isn't a lot you can do about it.
I have received a robocall or a text message. Yes, I think that there are to many calls and texts that should and could be controlled and the people that can do something about are not doing anything about it. I think that the phone companies have a small part in it but not all phone companys can control stuff like that.
I agree, many providers choose not to prevent spam calls and messages because it'll cost more money to do so. Not all phone companies are to blame, but more should still be done.
Yes, I have received a robocall or text message. Since I'm in the U.S., I have received more of them - I also heard that from other exchange students. Back in Germany, I haven't received so many spam messages. Furthermore, I think that more regulations should be set because these spam texts and calls can become pretty dangerous, if you aren't careful enough.
I agree with you! That's very interesting to hear that the US more commonly has spam calls and messages. Lots of people are taken advantage of through these texts and calls.
I have received multiple robocalls and text messages. I think that there should definitely be more regulations set in place to prevent people from getting scammed by robocalls 24-7. I think that phone companies should be held accountable because they are how the scammer gets peoples phone numbers.
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