Scam Cell Phone Calls Expected to Increase in 2019
I just got a call from a number that is similar to mine, it had the same prefix. A call like that is from someone "spoofing" your number. It's just one of the many scam calls we all get that will regrettably increase next year.
Scam calls from last year to this year jumped from 3.7 percent to 29.2 percent. A study from First Orion, a company that makes call blocking and caller ID technology says the number of scam calls heading into 2019 could jump to a little over 44 percent, making one out of two calls a scam.
What can you do about it? Believe it or not, you can still register your cell number with the Do Not Call Registry, however, it will only limit legal telemarketer calls not scam or robo calls.
There are several apps that you can use to limit scam calls. I use Hiya; it will identify a number as a telemarketer, a scam, or a spoof, but it may not catch all of the numbers. What you can do is copy a number you don't know, have Hiya look it up and then proceed or block the number from there. Nomorobo and Robokiller are other popular scam call alert apps. All these apps are free.
Or you can just flat out block any numbers you don't know with the technology already built into your phone.