Alma Oliphant and her husband like having a landline, or at least they did before all the unwanted calls.
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The phone rang with unwanted calls even while Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke was interviewing her. The Oliphants say many are scams, and many have spoofed numbers. She says -- at one point -- it even looked like the Oliphants were calling themselves.
“I can’t concentrate,” she said.
She says she even kept a tally in a notebook.
“Six days. And we got 250 rings,” she counted.
The company -- LSEG -- describes itself as a company that helps businesses manage risk.
They say they surveyed 21,000 adults about fraud and concluded 26% had been targeted in two years and 10% lost money.
Plus, LSEG says, “Technology is amplifying fraud, with one in five people saying they have encountered AI enabled scams, making fraud harder to detect.” Plus, “the damage goes far beyond financial loss with more than half of victims (52%) reporting anger or frustration, and almost all (97%) change how they behave – from how they pay to what they share online.”
The Oliphants say they haven’t fallen for any cons, but that it’s more than annoying. They say they’d drop the landline, but then they’d have to give all their family, friends, doctors, etc., the new number. Not to mention, “We’re just ornery enough that we don’t like [scammers] telling us what to do.”
So, they recorded this message instead: “If you’re family or friends, will be glad to answer your call. If you are spam, a robocall, we will never answer. Give up.”
There’s not much you can do to avoid unwanted calls and texts, but you can protect yourself.
If you don’t recognize the caller:
- Don’t respond. Block them.
- You can report them to 7726 ... or SPAM. That helps officials keep up with scammers.
- After that, personally, Stoogenke deletes texts so he doesn’t accidentally hit something he shouldn’t.
- Certainly don’t click anything, even if it says “STOP” to end messages. Security analysts say that tells the caller you’re a real person and may invite more spam.
- Make sure your phone has the latest operating system.