J.B. Brown says that his grandmother receives lots of robocalls on her telephone, some of which are clearly from scammers trying to get Social Security or other personal information.
“It’s pretty ugly,” said the Fort Oglethorpe man.
Robocalls, the automated calls people can receive on their cellphones and land lines, have exploded in the Chattanooga area in recent years, according to YouMail, a company that tracks such data and sells products blocking the calls.
ROBOCALLS BY AREA CODE
(Through September 2018)Area code 423* Total robocalls: 127 million* Population affected: 1.3 million* Average calls per person: 99.3Area code 706* Total robocalls: 243 million* Population affected: 1.7 million* Average calls per person: 144 millionSource: YouMail
In area code 423, which includes Chattanooga, robocalls last year hit 128.6 million, and the numbers are on track through September to blow past last year’s mark, YouMail figures show. For the first nine months, there were 127 million such calls in the area code.