Dear Dr. Per Cap: I heard one of your presentations where you recommended people add their cell phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry.  I took your advice but still get telemarketing calls.  Most of them are not real people but messages urging me to buy auto warranties, knee braces, and other junk I don’t need.  How can I stop these annoying calls?

Signed, Fed Up in Fort Berthold

Dear Fed Up

In the words of the late great Michael Jackson “You are not alone”.  The pre-recorded phone messages you mention are known as robo-calls.  Some of these automated sales pitches are for legitimate products and services, but many are outright scams with outrageous claims like a person owes back taxes or their social security number has been compromised.  It’s estimated over two billion robo-call solicitations are made each month.  Yikes!

I get robo-calls too and I hate them just as much you.  But before I offer up a solution let’s cover a little background on Voice-over-Internet-Protocol or VoIP, the technology that enables robo-calls to multiply like prairie dogs on the Oklahoma grasslands.  We all know cell phones are wireless but what you might not know is that nowadays most landlines are wireless too.  With VoIP calls are now routed through an internet connection.  The same network used to send emails and monitor the temperature in that fancy new fridge at my aunt Marcella’s house is the way a robo-caller can pitch a Hawaiian time share from a basement in Bangladesh.  So much for all the telephone poles still lining the roadways!

Internet calling is a less expensive alternative to old school copper wires and switchboxes, and using a computer and some automated dialing software a telemarketing company can make thousands of robo-calls in a matter of minutes.

The National Do Not Call Registry was created sixteen years ago to enable folks to opt out of unwanted telephone solicitations.  But it’s nothing high tech.  It’s simply a list of phone numbers that telemarketers are not supposed to call.  And what happens if they call anyway?  Well, you can file a complaint and if enough complaints are filed on a specific number the Federal Trade Commission can step in.  In other words don’t hold your breath.

Obviously, the National Do Not Call Registry doesn’t work very well.  I still encourage people to add their numbers so they have a complaint mechanism, but unfortunately it’s really tough to regulate telemarketers these days.  Many are small operations that can quickly shut down and move, while many aren’t even based in the U.S.

So what’s the best answer?  Call blocking apps that a person can download to a smartphone.  I use one called Hiya.  It’s free and works on both Android and iOS devices.  Bear in mind it’s not perfect but it has drastically reduced the number of unwanted calls I was receiving.  It also provides caller ID so you can screen calls as well as reverse phone lookup capabilities.  There are other call blocking apps with different features so make sure to check around.  Sadly, there isn’t much call blocking tech wizardry for folks that still have copper line phones other than analog boxes in which to manually key in unwanted numbers.   There are actually still over 50 million old school phones in service, many of which are used by the elderly.

Hope this info helps and thanks for calling me out on the Do Not Call Registry – no pun intended! 

Ask Dr. Per Cap is a program funded by First Nations Development Institute with assistance from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org. To send a question to Dr. Per Cap, email askdrpercap@firstnations.org.