Robocalls are Consistently Spamming Hospital Lines

There are currently massive efforts being made on a nationwide scale to completely block robocalls but the process is slow and still has a lot of gaps to fill. 

The biggest telecom providers have stated many times that they are doing their best to implement new methods of blocking the calls or label them as spam but by the looks of it, the fraudsters still manage to somehow outwit even carries like AT&T and Verizon. 

This May, Americans had to deal with robocalls an estimated 4.7 billion times, which is double the number of two years ago. 

For most Americans, the robocalls are just a nuisance they have grown accustomed with, much like bugs during the summer – no use in getting riled up about them, all you can do is try to keep them at bay and ignore the fact they exist as best as you can. 

You’d think larger institutions would be spared of this plight but a report from The Washington Post tells a completely different story: hospitals, such as the Tufts Medical Center in Boston, are not only fighting against measles and cancers but are also putting up a fight against robocalls. 

The report states that thousands of robocalls have been spreading out from one phone line to the other on April 30th, 2018, between the hours of 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. During this time, over 4,500 robocalls were registered, blocking phone lines that might have saved someone’s life. 

The robocalls were similar in nature: someone speaking in Mandarin threatened the recipient with deportation unless they provided them with their personal information. These sort of calls are part of a wider network of documented scams that look to take advantage of foreigners new to the U.S. 

Unfortunately for Tufts, the hospital officials were unable to block the calls during that time period and other hospitals around the country fear a similar situation would find them unable to keep their phone lines free during emergency situations. 

The FCC has doubled up on its efforts to help the customers block suspicious numbers but so far, the agency has not tried to completely re-write anti-robocall rules, which, at the moment, is seen as the only solution to stop the flood. 

Carriers Will Now Block Robocalls By Default

“These calls to health-care institutions and patients are extremely dangerous to the public health and patient privacy,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.), the Democratic chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has told The Washington Post. “The FCC and Justice Department need to go after these criminals with the seriousness and urgency this issue deserves.”