Almost 50% Of All Phone Calls Will Be Scams By Next Year And That Makes Me Not Want To Have a Phone
Many of us are already conditioned to ignore phone calls from unknown numbers. A new study seems to validate that M.O.
By next year, nearly half of the mobile phone calls we get will be scams, according to a new report from First Orion, a company that provides calls management and protection for T-Mobile, MetroPCs, Virgin Mobile and others.
The percentage of scam calls in US mobile traffic increased from 3.7 percent last year to 29.2 percent this year, and it’s predicted to rise to 44.6 percent in 2019, First Orion said in a press release Wednesday.
The most popular method scammers use to try to get people to pick up the phone is called “neighborhood spoofing,” where they disguise their numbers with a local prefix so people presume the calls are safe to pick up, First Orion said. Third-party call blocking apps may help protect consumers from known scam numbers, but they can’t tell if a scammer hijacks someone’s number and uses it for scam calls.
This story made me want to throw my phone out. I’ve been going through a two month battle with a random company that continues to call my cellphone trying to sell health insurance to a woman named Doris. Contrary to popular belief, I am not named Doris, nor have I ever been. There was one day about two months ago when I got 20 phone calls from 20 different numbers with the same area code as mine before I even got to work. I eventually found myself begging with one of them to take me off their list. That’s when they use one of their scripted responses to say there is no list sir. I pleaded once again only for the guy to say, “I do not like your tone of voice I will be calling again and again and again.” He hung up on me and I debated walking into moving traffic. There’s nothing you can even do. They call off of a different number every time so no matter how many times you block them they keep coming. They’re like the army of Anubis in the movie The Mummy and just continue to relentlessly push you until you die.
My first job out of school was in the cold calling business. Now of course that company disguised how things were actually run and tricked me into working into a sweat shop. 300 run phones calls a day, 4 hour daily call times, constant yelling at by your superior, impossible goals, and zero hope for increased pay. I honestly would rather die than go back to that job. Like there’s just no one that can persuade me, no dollar amount, no perks, nothing to get me back in that hell hole. You could not go to the bathroom one hour into the work day, half hour before lunch, half hour after lunch, or an hour before the day ended. When you did go to the bathroom you were judged if you were in there for longer than 7 minutes. You had to take your lunch break at 12:30 and return no later than 1:30. It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
So now we’re getting this news that by next year, 50% of all phone calls will be scams. I mean what the fuck? Can’t we just ban scam phone calls all together? Why do they need to exist in our society? There are two outcomes of a scam phone call: 1) someone gets scammed 2) the person being called becomes irrationally angry and gets their entire day ruined. Sure you can have your number put on a do-not call list, but I am living proof that doesn’t work. Maybe I’ll just take phone calls off my plan and just have internet and texting. I don’t need to talk on the phone with anyone. If you need me text me.
I actually got a scam call while writing this blog. I hate everything.