NEW ORLEANS — The calls are consistent.
“Sometimes it’ll be from someone overseas. Sometimes it would be a recording,” said Chad Joseph of New Orleans, who said he gets robocalls every day.
When we called Joseph, we’re weren’t one of those annoying and often illegal robocalls, but considering how we got his number, we easily could have been.
“It’s almost like, well, if my number is for sale, for one, why am I paying a phone bill and two, where’s my cut?” said Joseph when we told him we bought his number online.
Joseph’s number is one of more than 14,000 we legally bought for $447, no questions asked. We bought them in New Orleans, Denver and Cleveland, which is where Antonia Pace lives.
“That’s crazy,” Pace said. “My only frustration is the fact that my number can be bought and sold like a commodity.”
“That’s crazy. What other information of mine is for sale online?" said Christina Dabney of New Orleans.
Dabney had the same reaction when we told her we not only bought her phone number but also got other information, like her address and age.
“I wouldn’t have known that it was for sale if you wouldn’t have called me. It would be nice to know that these numbers are circulating,” Dabney said.
Circulation means a lot of opportunities for telemarketers and criminals to start calling your phone.
“You want to ignore it, but then you don’t because it could be anything,” said Michelle Morlier, who felt she had to answer our call.
“It’s a 504 number. It didn’t come up under my addresses of people I know, but I have kids at home, I have tenants, I have to answer it,” Morlier said.
That’s exactly what robocalls are banking on, especially when technology can make illegal calls look like they’re coming from your area code, thereby avoiding some call-blocking services.
“I think it’s very important that people get savvy about this and a lot of them have,” said Cynthia Albert with the Better Business Bureau of the Greater New Orleans Area.
Albert said the calls will keep happening because they only need a small percentage of people who answer to give up information.
“You really, the individual, has to take it upon themselves to protect themselves,” Albert said.
Protection includes not answering the phone or simply hanging up. Also, check with your phone service provider about call blocking. There are even apps and online companies to try. Then there is the National Do Not Call Registry and Louisiana’s Do Not Call Program, which Dabney and Morlier are both a part of.
“And I’m still getting calls,” Dabney said. “So that doesn’t make sense.”
“That totally doesn’t work,” Morlier said.
“It doesn’t actually block calls to your house,” said Brandy Frey, executive secretary with the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
Frey says those registries are effective when it comes to legitimate businesses.
“What is happening is illegitimate businesses or, more appropriately, scammers and criminals, are the ones making these calls now,” Frey said.
Frey says many of those are from auto-dialers using numbers gotten the same way we got ours.
Working with phone companies to stop those calls, Congress passed the TRACED Act in 2019. That’s why you now sometimes see “Spam Risk” or “Telemarketer” when your phone rings.
“Is it working? I think it is to some extent but like anything, the criminal guys seem to be one step ahead of the game,” Frey said.
Frey says most of those illegal calls are coming from overseas, putting those callers outside the reach of U.S. authorities. That has the state working with the federal government on ways to stop the calls before they every make it to you and to folks like Chad Joseph.
“It’s frustrating because sometimes you’ll be waiting on a call, especially if you’re in the market for a job, so you have to answer it even though you don’t know,” Joseph said.
All the folks we called just want it to stop, but with numbers for sale and scammers undeterred, the phone will keep ringing.
A lot of folks we called seemed to be protecting themselves, by either not answering the phone or sending us to voicemail. When it comes to those scams, the Better Business Bureau has a scam tracker you can use to look up and report scams. You can also report any illegal robocalls to the Federal Trade Commission.