YouMail is an app that provides visual voicemail and robocall blocking software for cell phones. The company also compiles data on the most prevalent robocalls each month. Recently they released their data for the most common robocalls for last month. Automated prerecorded robocalls which, for commercial purposes are always illegal, are the number one consumer complaint reported by the public to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and are used to perpetrate a wide variety of frauds at a cost of approximately 9.5 billion dollars annually. The ease by which illegal robocalls may be made by computers accounts for much of the problem.
According to YouMail,a robocall purporting to be from Capital One had the largest number of robocalls at 37 million calls. The prerecorded robocall purports to be from Capital One Bank and indicates that they need to discuss an “important business matter” with you.
Coming in at number two is a robocall that appears to come from Comcast customer service which had 14 million calls in June.
Phony debt collection robocalls purporting to be from Satander Consumer, and Portfolio Recovery accounted for more than 36 million robocalls.
The eighth highest number of robocalls purported to be from Citibank’s debt collection department. These robocalls totaled 7 million robocalls.
TIPS
There are a number of options for preventing robocalls including a number of apps that for free or a small fee will prevent robocalls.
Samsung’s SmartCall informs you if the call you are receiving is from a known robocaller. This feature is available with newer Samsung Galaxy phones. Here is a link to information about SmartCall and instructions as to how to activate this app.
http://www.samsung.com/levant/apps/smart-call/
Google also has a spam blocker that will warn you when you are receiving a robocall and your screen will turn red. Here is a link to information about the app and how to install it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en
AT&T also offers free apps to block robocalls on iPhones and Android phones. Here is a link to information about these apps.
https://www.att.com/features/security-apps.html?partner=LinkShare&siteId=TnL5HPStwNw-yrUS1uDw9WGvN._xt67yew&source=ECay0000000CEL00O
Verizon’s CallerName ID is a free service for iPhones and Android phones that will alert you to suspected robocallers. Here is a link to Verizon’s app.
https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/caller-name-id/
T-Mobile offers a free scam blocker of known robocallers for Android phones which you can activate by merely dialing #662#
Sprint offers a paid service to protect your iPhone or Android phone from robocalls. For more information, use this link
http://explore.t-mobile.com/callprotection
Here is the link for YouMail
https://www.youmail.com/home/apps
For landlines as well as smartphones there are a number of apps such as Nomorobo, Truecaller, Hiya, RoboKiller and YouMail that offer robocall blocking for free or for small monthly charges. Here is a link to those apps. I have used Nomorobo for years and find it to be tremendously useful
https://www.nomorobo.com/
https://www.truecaller.com/
https://hiya.com/
https://www.robokiller.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.youmail.android.vvm&hl=en_US
Finally, you can just choose to ignore any calls that come from numbers you do not recognize.  If they are legitimate calls, they will leave a message and you can call them back.
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