A report from the Consumer Watchdog office of the nonprofit U.S. PIRG, scam robocalls across the United States have declined by about 47% since last June. It's likely due to the year-old federal law that would reduce scam robocalls.
The number of voice providers that have installed the preferred robocall-blocking technology has nearly quadrupled since last year, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund's new analysis of the Federal Communications Commission's robocall database. And more cellphone and home phone companies are filtering calls and offering customers new services, like flagging suspicious calls to give the receiver the choice to answer, block, or send to voicemail.
But while scam robocalls have declined, robotexts have increased in the past year — from about 1 billion to 12 billion per month, according to RoboKiller.
Con artists and identity thieves are taking advantages of loopholes in the scam robocall law. Robotexts are the next generation of scams — so it's important to be aware of the difference between a real and fake text.
They're pretty much the same as scam robocalls and sent by the thousands or millions at a time.
They try to hide their identity in order to convince you to click on a link or call a phone number. This misstep could lead you to getting defrauded, compromising personal information, buying something you didn't want, or getting some kind of virus on your device.
According to the Consumer Watchdog office of PIRG, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC) submitted a proposal in October 2021 to pass rules to attack robotexts. But the FCC hasn't acted on it yet.
And the watchdog office noted that illegal robocalls and texts will likely never go away.
"But they'll continue to plague us as long as enforcement is lax, phone companies don't try harder and enough consumers fall for scams to make it worthwhile for thieves," it said. "According to one study, roughly one in four adults was the victim of a phone scam in some way last year. Even if that's high, just consider that a con artist needs only one or two victims a day to make it worth it."
Here are some tips for avoiding unwanted texts, according to the FCC.
—Do not respond to unwanted texts from questionable sources. Several mobile service providers allow you to block the sender by forwarding unwanted texts to 7726 (or "SPAM"). Check with your provider about options.
—Be careful about giving out your mobile phone number or any other personal information.
—Read through commercial web forms and check for a privacy policy when submitting your mobile phone number to any customer website. You should be able to opt out of receiving texts — but you may have to check or uncheck a preselected box to do so.
—Find out if any company you do business with has a policy that allows it to sell or share your information.
You should also take action and file a complaint with the FCC if you receive an unwanted commercial text message sent to your mobile phone; an autodialed text message sent to your mobile phone if you didn't consent to the message previously (or it doesn't involve an emergency); or any autodialed text message from a telecommunications company or advertising a telecommunications company's products or services, if sent without your prior consent.
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