Mature Life Features

There’s still no fool-proof way to eliminate robocallers and scam artists from getting to your phone because robots and crooks never sleep.

The highwater mark for these computer-dialed calls is 190 million in a single day but the daily average is about 1,500 a second offering everything from extending the warranty on your car to lottery winnings for a small up-front handling fee.

Modern technology has made it easy for telephone thieves to amass lists of phone numbers they feed into computers and await results.

The reason some 50 billion calls are made each year is because as many as 5 percent of them are answered and the respondents wind up being bilked out of thousands of dollars.

Simply, this schemers’ system works.

Just picking up the phone and not answering gives the scammers an edge. They know you’re home at that time and that the number is legitimate. And every other robocaller in the neighborhood finds that out, too.

The strong defense is to have caller ID. If you don’t recognize the name or number, just walk away. Legitimate callers, such as a family member or friend, or an important contact such as a doctor’s office, will leave a message and number to call.

If you recognize the caller, you can pick up the phone in mid-message and explain why you waited to answer. Be aware, however, that many crooked callers identify themselves as someone you may be dealing with and you can still become a victim of a scam.

Paranoia pays in these situations.

You can list your number on the national Do Not Call registry but that only bars legitimate marketers. Calls from crooks will keep on coming.

Blocking specific numbers doesn’t help all that much because unethical telemarketers have a way to make it appear that their calls are coming from a different number.

If you do have a conversation with a caller, you can protect yourself by pointing out you’re busy at the moment and ask for a number to call them back. If they won’t give you one, hang up.