Robocall hijacking of mobile numbers has more than doubled since last year, affecting thousands across the country, officials say.
On average, one in 1,700 mobile numbers are being hijacked by robocall spoofers every month, more than double last year’s rate of one in 4,000 mobile numbers, according to a report from Transaction Network Services (TNS), a telecommunications services company.
As a result of these robocall highjacking efforts, up to 2.5 percent of people who have had their number hijacked have disconnected their phone.
In one extreme case of hijacking, a scammer used a legitimate cell phone number to place over 36,000 calls in a three-day period, according to the report. The victim’s number was used by scammers for several fraud schemes, including vacation and IRS scams, TNS said.
The frustrated victim finally set up their voicemail to say, “Sorry, my number has been hijacked,” according to the report.
It is not only hijacking – or number spoofing – calls that are assaulting the public. Americans are being flooded by up to 200 million unwanted nuisance, scam or fraud calls a day, or nearly 30 percent of all calls in the U.S., according to the report from TNS.
“Two hundred million unwanted robocalls per day is a mind-boggling number, but regulatory and policy action… are making it more difficult for bad actors to place scam and fraud robocalls,” said Bill Versen, Chief Product Officer at TNS. “However, with top carriers successfully blocking more robocalls, the report suggests the need for diligence as the battlefront may shift to smaller regional and rural carriers further behind on their path to a call authentication framework and utilizing call data analytics.”
High-risk calls grew 28 percent from the third quarter of last year to the second quarter of this year, while nuisance calls jumped 38 percent, TNS said.
A high-risk call typically involves an attempt of identity theft, which can cause “severe emotional distress,” while nuisance calls are typically not malicious but the result of careless, unintentional calling patterns, TNS said.
Carriers have become more aggressive in blocking robocalls, according to a June 2019 Declaratory Ruling by the FCC. That’s “why subscribers may see high-risk calls not growing as fast as nuisance calls,” TNS said.
The full report can be found here.
Sponsored Articles
KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It would be really helpful if you explained mobile number highjacking in layman’s language. What exactly happens if someone’s number is highjacked?
They use a legitimate number belonging to a real person to make their calls. The numbers are just made up but they can be a real number belonging to a real person. Or they may look up real numbers and use them.i get a lot of call using just the area code and prefix here.
It is current legal to do what is called “spoofing”. That is where you use a website site like, Spoofcard, to fake the display on the Caller ID of the person you are calling to add any number you want. If you put in the phone number to the white house, a person’s phone will actually say you are receiving a call from The White House. However, spoofing a phone number while committing a crime is illegal and is a chargeable offense itself.