South Fulton County

Atlanta is the number one target for robocalls right now, study finds

By Dave Huddleston, WSB-TV
By Dave Huddleston, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — A new study found that Atlanta is the number one target for robocalls right now.

According to a study by YouMail, metro Atlanta gets bombarded with almost twice as many robocalls as most U.S. cities.

YouMail reports that Atlanta was inundated with 183 million robocalls in June 2017. Dallas came in second with nearly half that many calls. Miami was third on the list.

Channel 2's Dave Huddleston dug into why Atlanta is the top target for these annoying calls -- and how to stop them.

Huddleston spoke to Ethan Garr, the vice president of Teltech. Garr's company created RoboKiller, an app that blocks unwanted calls.

RoboKiller is free and  automatically blocks over 100,000 spam numbers. You can also employ 'answer bots' to annoy telemarketers right back.

But just why is your phone getting flooded with calls?

Garr told Huddleston that sometimes there is a specific reason one part of the country will often get more robocalls than others.

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"I think you see often areas where people think areas or pockets where people are in need of financial help," Garr told Huddleston. "And they love to target people who are vulnerable.”

Garr said RoboKiller, can prevent some unwanted calls -- but not all of them. Garr said there are a few other things you can do to stop annoying calls.

"If you're getting calls you don't recognize, not answering them is a good idea," Garr said. "And if you do pick up, never give out personal identifying information."

Unfortunately, Huddleston learned that the federal "do not call" list does nothing for illegal robocalls, which make up the majority of unwanted calls.

"They originate from all over the world," Garr said. "They are very hard to track down and they are very dangerous and they are trying to reach into your pocket and steal your identity."

Cox Media Group

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