Reducing Robocalls

November 2018

What are robocalls?

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot.
Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public-service or emergency announcements.
Some robocalls use personalized audio messages to simulate an actual personal phone call.

A cousin to the autodialer is the predictive dialer.
These use statistical and other algorithms to minimize the time that a live “agent” has to wait to speak to someone on a call.
For example:
- If 1 out of 3 dials are answered, a predictive dialer might dial 3 lines simultaneously every time an agent becomes available.
- Even dials that are answered may take some time before being picked up. So, if it typically takes 10 seconds for someone to pick up, and conversations typically last 90 seconds, a predictive dialer might start dialing at 80 seconds.
- A predictive dialer discards all “tones” (e.g., FAX machines) and only passes “Hellos” from to the agent.
- Further, if the predictive dialer dials 3 lines, it will pass the first “Hello” to the agent, and then pass the other “Hellos” to other available agents; if no agents are available, it may hang up.
Using a predictive dialer, the total time between calls for an agent can drop to as little as 3 seconds, as opposed to nearly a minute if the agent dialed by hand.

Robocalls seem to reach a frenzy level during the weeks leading up to election & voting dates.
While we are past that (for now), we are in another period of high robocall traffic: open-enrollment for health care.

Unfortunately, there are no complete solutions, short of eliminating your telephones.
But, perhaps we can reduce robocall frequency and the time wasted answering these calls.

The Federal Trade Commission maintains a national do not call registry. You can register your phone numbers or verify that your numbers are registered by visiting https://DoNotCall.gov.
While registration can help, such lists in the US and elsewhere have proven to be somewhat ineffective in the battle against robocalls.
For example, the rules state that,

if you receive telemarketing calls after your telephone number has been in the registry for 31 days, you can file a complaint at donotcall.gov or by calling toll-free 1-888-382-1222 (TTY: 1-866-290-4236). You need to know the date of the call and the company's name or phone number to file a do not call complaint.

An answering machine (or voicemail service) can be an effective tool in battling robocalls.
In its most basic use, you can let all calls go to the machine and, when you hear that it is a “real” call, you answer the phone, interrupting the recording by the machine and taking the call.
There are Cloud-based voicemail services, such as those provided by most telephone carriers.
- Such services may be included as part of your telephone service package, or you may have to pay extra for it.
One disadvantage of such a service is that – unlike on an answering machine – you cannot answer the call while the call recording is taking place.
There also are Cloud-based voicemail services that provide robocall blocking.
- One such service is YouMail, which was discussed in a previous session. (They have free and paid levels of service.)
- AT&T offers a more robust version of their voicemail service – for free – that can block robocalls, but the service must be enabled. (Contact AT&T or visit their website to learn more.)
Many of these services let you filter calls based on data that they have collected about specific phone numbers and based on your own personal lists.
- Whitelist – numbers that always are accepted.
- Blacklist – numbers that are never accepted.
- Many of these services can be accessed through apps on your smartphone.
- These services are becoming more robust and capable over time.

Caller ID info can be broken down into a few categories.
Caller ID will be effective only if your phone or answering machine has a way to display information about the incoming call.
Today, most phone plans (land line and cellular) include caller ID.
- If not, it usually can be added to a phone line for a relatively small cost.
  1. Unknown number - caller ID info not available.
  2. A number you don’t recognize – Caller name not available.
  3. Name and/or number you recognize – The caller ID information is spoofed.
  4. Name and/or number you recognize – The call is really from whom the information says.
In fact, many telephone service providers now are rolling out their own, branded caller ID systems that alert you of known or suspected scam calls.
For example, such information is available on my Samsung Galaxy S8 using AT&T.
- If the phone gives me a scam alert, I decline the call.
If the number is not flagged, but I do not recognize it, I do not answer; I figure they will leave a message if the call is important.