Robo Calls Getting Worse

Does it seem like we are getting more unwanted calls on smart phones? We are, and they are more and more difficult to stop. We are now in the phase where bad technology leapfrogs good technology and until that changes again, it is something to deal with.

US Federal Trade Commission data released during December 2017 shows a massive 4.5 million consumer complaints about robocalls in 2017, up from 2016's 3.4 million. For every single month of the year, robocalls topped the list of "Do Not Call" violations.
The six most common ones in no particular order include:
Reducing your debt (credit cards, mortgage, student loans)
Dropped call or no message
Vacation and timeshares
Warranties and protection plans
Calls pretending to be government, IRS, businesses, or family and friends
Medical and prescriptions.
In addition to all the complaints, use of the "Do Not Call" registry hosts 226 million active registrations.
The reason for the increase is the cheap new telephony equipment, ease of placing millions of calls without a person needed to do the dialing, and  digital calling systems that make it simple to automatically spoof caller ID numbers. Robo calls are becoming the 'Nigerian Prince' scam for phones.

Incidentally, the worst thing you can do is respond. The bad guys have no do not call list to put you on and no reason to stop calling. Also, once you respond, your number goes into the bank of live persons and your number will be sold to other scammers. Robo call apps help blocking, but cannot keep up with the ever shifting use of numbers used, including what appear to be local numbers.