In 2019, there will more scam calls coming to your cellphone.

One of the reasons I got rid of my landline was telemarketing calls.

Recently, I've been getting a lot of strange calls on my cellphone. The number is usually pretty similar to mine. I won't answer a call if I don't know the number. If it's something important or they know me, the caller would leave a message. They never do, so it's a scam call.

I'm really getting sick of these calls but it doesn't look like they're going to stop anytime soon.

According to pjstar.com,

"Nearly half of all cellphone calls next year will come from scammers, according to First Orion, a company that provides phone carriers and their customer's caller ID and call blocking technology."

"The Arkansas-based firm projects an explosion of incoming spam calls, marking a massive leap from 3.7 percent of total calls in 2017 to more than 29 percent this year, to a projected 45 percent by early 2019."

"More than half of all complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission - more than 200,000 of them - are about unwanted calls. The FCC said Americans received about 2.4 billion unwanted, automated calls every month, according to 2016 estimates."

The illegal telemarketers are hard to catch because many of them are from out of the country. Even if you're on the "Do Not Call List," these offenders just ignore that.

At this point, technology is the better way to stop these calls than legally. Check out your app store for scam call blocking programs.

Remember, don't give any personal or financial information over the phone. Do some research on it first.

Another way the scammers try to fool you is to manipulate caller ID's to make it seem like they're local.

They target vulnerable people who could be easy victims, so please make sure to educate anyone you know who could be tricked.

Looks like I'll just keep my phone on silent.


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