The recent global health crisis has changed our lives completely. One of the few good changes was that the incessant robocalls stopped for a while - but sadly, these telemarketing demons came back with what seems to be a double force. Scam text messages are also on the rise in many parts of the world.
What Caused The Hiatus Of Robo-Calls?
People around the world receive a couple of billion robotic calls every month. However, at the beginning of this year, the number of robocalls was cut in half. The reason was really simple. Even though the phone call starts with a robot - when you pick up, in a minute you are redirected to a human being. In other words: empty call centers (which was caused by lockdowns during the first wave of health crisis) were the reason for a short stop in the calls.
However, the robocalling companies adjusted quickly and made some organizational changes, which helped their employees move to home offices. In the following months, the situation pretty much came back to normality. What is more - not only the number of phone calls came back to normality, but also - the quantity of bugging text messages and e-mails seems to be higher than ever.
Change Of Telemarketing Strategy
While before the pandemic, many of the calls based on other types of situations (i.e. asking you to go and buy gift cards), now - they moved to other activities. Many people stopped leaving the houses unless necessary and started shopping online. Thus - the robocalling scammers have rethought their strategies. Then, a series of scams pretending to be existing companies such as couriers or even government agencies. Other times these scammers are acting as banks or lenders.
Perhaps you have heard about the message "You will receive the pickup code after downloading our new mobile app". Only a really perceptive person will notice, that a minimal change to an app or website name was applied. As a result - scammers will have access to the sensitive data information from the mobile device that you opened the message on. People are adjusting and so are the telemarketing and robocall scammers. The increasing digitization of many processes doesn't help, especially to those, who are not fluent in internet matters. Text message from office or courier company seems to be legitimate and because of that - many people fall for the scam.
How To Protect Yourself From Robocall Scammers And Fight Back
Be careful When talking with someone on the phone, always try to catch their name and company, on behalf of which they are calling. If you have enough time before answering or you missed the call and wonder whether you should call back or not - try a free reverse phone lookup page. If you answered and you think something is not right - type down all the information you received (such as company name and caller name), tell your interlocutor you have to hang up for a minute and call the company's hotline. If they will confirm everything your caller said, it is alright. If not - inform them about the scam.
Research The Call And Message Details
If you received a phone call you find suspicious, you can also browse the company name plus keywords like scam, robocalls, telemarketing, phishing etc. When the scam is reported, institutions usually inform about it. Also, keep in mind, that the reverse phone lookup pages can give you details about the caller. Usually, the scammers are getting reported quickly on pages such as free reverse phone lookup and with a few clicks you can find out whether the phone was real.
Calls Conclusion
With enough people smartening up and fighting back, hopefully the damage done from robocalls, phishing text, and telemarketer scams can be minimized. Now we just need more help from the government and big tech to realistically reduce robocalling.
