Idaho Ranks High On List of States Most Bothered By Robocalls
You probably get a handful of these spam calls every week. Imagine adding the number you get together with the number everyone else in the Gem State gets. The sum? A very annoyed population of Idahoans.
Provision Living, a Missouri based senior living community operator, dove into the number of robocalls Americans received last year. Using the data they collected, they ranked each state backed on the number of robocalls received per 100,000 adult residents. When the ranking was complete, Idaho tied Connecticut at #10 on the list of states most bothered by robocalls. In 2019, there were 2,079 robocalls made per capita in Idaho.
According to USA Today, the FCC started requiring providers like T-mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to start using a verification system at a network level that would allow them to prevent spam callers from reaching customers in the first place. With that system in place, they could automatically block the call or label it something like "potential spam" or "spam likely" when the call reached a customer's caller ID display.
Verizon automatically enrolled me in their free spam protection in December. The free version of their Verizon Call Filter app detects and blocks over 100 million spam callers in real time. Should one slip through, you can use the app to report a spam caller to Verizon and get the number added to their list of unwanted callers. A premium version of the app will identify unknown callers by name and allows you to customize your own spam and block list to prevent unwanted callers from reaching you.
BTW, there are people who actually make thousands of dollars off of fighting robocalls. By pursuing legal action against the spam callers, you could make anywhere from $500-$1500 per call. NBC featured this $47 kit from Doc Compton that shows you the best way to go after robocallers during their broadcasts late last year. I can't remember if I saw it on Early Today, a segment on KTVB or on NBC Nightly News but I was blown away by how much money you can make doing this!