July 19, 2022

Do you pick up the phone when you receive a call from an unknown number? Considering that Americans receive an average of 28 spam calls per month, it would be understandable if you just let the phone ring. On top of all those phony calls, smartphone owners also receive an estimated 42 spam texts each month. And once you start receiving these messages, they’re unlikely to stop anytime soon: numbers that end up in spam databases often get sold and Continue reading

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August 13, 2019

Over the past five years, consumers have sent more than 1.3 million complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about scammers posing as government representatives. Whether they’re pretending to be from the IRS or a local police department, fraudsters like these have cost Americans more than $450 million since 2014. In fact, this year alone the FTC has received more than 200,000 complaints about calls from people claiming to be from agencies like the Social Security Administration. 

In one Continue reading

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April 26, 2019

In 2018 Americans received as many as 48 billion unwanted robocalls from telemarketers and scammers. Although legislators have tried to put a stop to these irritating interruptions, completely stamping out unwanted or fraudulent robocalls appears to be a nearly impossible task. This video shows how the power of the Internet as well as regulatory loopholes allow robocallers to operate without much interference.

Questions:

  1. Why is it often difficult for regulators to collect penalties issued against robocall companies?
  2. Why can’t regulators Continue reading
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July 20, 2018

Back in the pre-Internet days, companies would pay a fortune to set up services that allowed them to limit the number of phone lines used in the office. This meant that a company with 100 employees could use a single number with extensions rather than set up 100 seperate lines. Once caller ID came on the scene, these systems would display the same name to the receiver whether the call was coming from the mailroom or the C-suite.

This pricey Continue reading

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