American families under siege from billions of robocalls

The Federal Communications Commission is pushing a new proposal that would force phone companies to stop unwanted robocalls before they get to your phone.

It is called the Robocop Act and if passed it would force phone companies to do more and better protect American families from the tens of billions of scam phone calls that are made each year.

However, until that passes, the people are largely on their own.

One issue is that many of these calls are actually being made by foreign entities operating outside the United States, making them very difficult for our law enforcement to bring to justice.

According to tech experts, one of your best protections against phone scams is a healthy sense of skepticism.

Experts say you should hang up as soon as your pressured to give any personal info, even if you’re hearing from a familiar voice on the other end of the line.

Many companies have stopped respecting do not call lists and millions of Americans are repeatedly targeted after their phone numbers are illegally sold on the black market of the so called dark web.

“Even if it is people that you know, you really shouldn’t initially trust that what they are saying is coming from that particular person,” said CEO of Makios Technology Nils Desmet. “When you are behind a computer, it is much easier to impersonate someone than actually in person.”

Social security numbers, addresses and banking information are all on the line during these calls.

Fortunately, there are some defensive measures that can be taken, such as downloading the Robokiller or Mister Number app which has been proven capable of helping to stop scammers from finding your phone again after their first attempt.

As a matter of fact, millions of American phone numbers may have already been targeted and bought by scammers thanks to the so called dark web.

“There are lists that have been compromised so if a business has been hacked such as Home Depot or Target, they’ve obtained a lot of records and information and most of this stuff is coming from the dark web so you buy a list on the dark web for pennies and you use that list to start running your robocall scheme,” said Desmet.

The elderly and very young are especially vulnerable but in recent years, people from all walks of life have had their money taken and once that happens, it can be very difficult to get it all back.