CHARLOTTE, N.C. — How many robocalls do you get a day? There's a good chance that number may go up.
Experts said get ready for an explosion of spam calls. Nearly half of all cell phone calls next year will come from scammers, according to a tech company.
"They call again and again," said a Charlotte resident. "They're relentless."
It's not the ring you want, but new reports reveal it's likely the ring you're going to get. Experts predict that by 2019, almost 50 percent of all calls made to cell phones will be some sort of scam call.
Kristie Campochiaro already receives robocalls every day.
"Sometimes I say, 'Gotta go,' and I hang up," said Campochiaro.
However, that's what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said not to do.
Also, "Do not press buttons," said Chuck Howard, a Federal Trade Commission spokesperson. "If you press one, asking for more information, yeah, you''ll get more information and you''ll get a lot more robocalls."
"How did they even get my number?" asked NBC Charlotte's Xavier Walton.
"You gave it to them when you signed up for something online or any type of form," said Tom Bartholomy, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau.
In our area, it's happening at an alarming rate. For people with a 704 area code during April there were 29.4 million robocalls; that's an average of 17 per person. For the 980 area code, there were 4.5 million robocalls which breaks down to a dozen robocalls per person.
To block these robocalls, there are apps you can arm yourself with, like Truecaller, Hiya and Nomorobo. There's also one called Youmail. It's a free service that tricks robocallers into thinking you don't even exist.
"So we play an out of service message, 'This number is out of service' to any number that we recognize is a bad number," said Alex Quilici, a Youmail CEO.
