Since September of last year, YouMail has been recording the number of robocalls made to US citizens and releases the data in a National Robocall Index. Like prior months, the April Robocall Index continues the trend showing robocalls as a formidable nuisance. Nearly 10 billion robocalls have been recorded by YouMail just in the first 4 months of the year. YouMail predicts the year will end with almost 30 billion robocalls made in 2016.
The Big Picture
Robocalls have been a concern to many households, businesses, and even our cell phones have fallen victim. Yes, robocalls are downright annoying but they cause a bigger threat. Our robotic foes have a negative impact on our productivity and expose unsuspecting individuals to scams. To put things into perspective, “Small businesses in the U.S. are wasting an estimated 20 million hours per year answering and dealing with robocalls- this translates to $475 million in lost productivity annually,” notes Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail from a study done in September. This great loss is due to small businesses wasting time answering spam robocalls thinking they are answering the call of a potential client and also getting trapped by scam calls offering fraudulent services. Consumers, like small businesses are also hindered by scam calls. Hint: remember that call from the IRS you got last month saying you still owe a balance? Calls like this one from the IRS and countless others have fooled many individuals. So what can we do about this issue?
The Resolution
You need a service eliminates telemarketers – something like call blocking – that prevents robocalls from reaching you. “With YouMail, you just ignore numbers you don’t know and let them roll to YouMail, and it will get you taken off those call lists,” Quilici says. How does YouMail do it? YouMail’s Smart Blocking detects robocalls based on their call patterns and plays them a “number is disconnected” greeting when they call. By playing this message, YouMail can fool telemarketing companies into thinking your phone is no longer in service and will remove you from their call lists preventing calls from them in the future. Along with Smart Blocking, YouMail releases monthly Robocall Index’s that identifies the numbers belonging to the country’s top robocallers and which cities are most affected. To solve a problem, you first need to identify where it is coming from. The Robocall Index lists what type of robocall it is whether it is a mortgage lender or a student loan collector. View April’s Robocall Index to see last month’s top robocallers and stay tuned for May’s Robocall Index to stay on top of this nuisance.