Your phone rings and it’s from an unknown number – do you answer that call? What if it’s someone that needs to speak with you on the other line? When you answer, you frustratingly find out that it’s just a robot. We’ve all experienced this annoyance. How in the world does this happen, and where did they get your number?
Unfortunately, your mobile service provider could be a source of your headaches. It has been found that many mobile carriers have been selling their customers’ location data along with other personal details like phone numbers and home addresses to third-party companies. No matter what network provider you use, it is likely that they have leaked your data.
Another source of your leaked number could have been due to your own accord. Remember all of the times that you clicked ‘I Agree’ when prompted to do so in the Terms of Service just so you could quickly get to the next page? Well, each and every time that you’ve done that without truly reading the Terms of Service, you could potentially have given the company permission to sell any data that you willing give them as well as data that they collect on you while you use their services. Next time be more cautious of what you click ‘I Agree’ to – you could be giving them permission to share data such as phone number, address, location, gender, and age.
One of the most shocking places that could have leaked your phone number are the credit reporting organizations like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Remember, these are the companies that claim they are here to provide services like fraud prevention and credit monitoring, yet, ironically, they are selling your personal information like your spending habits, debt amounts and type, and detailed financial information to third-party organizations. It might be time to re-evaluate whether you should trust these well-known bureaus.
Although there is nothing you can do to avoid robocallers entirely, there are a few steps that you can take that will limit your interaction with them. The first thing that you need to do is to put yourself on the “Do Not Call Registry” national registry. This will remove your number from any list that are designated for sales. But doing that will not remove you from political, informational, surveys, charitable, or commercial collection agencies.
Now that the national election is upon us, it’s likely that you will receive calls from political parties about voter registration. There is a rule that the political parties cannot call cell phones without prior consent, however this rule does not apply to landlines. It would be wise to review what your voter registration distribution policy says and to attempt to opt out of cell phone number sharing. The last thing you can do in an effort to limit the number of robocalls you receive is to install a robocall blocker which will stop incoming calls from unknown callers. There are plenty of solutions on the market, so search around a bit to find one that best fits your needs.
LibertyID provides expert, full service, fully managed identity theft restoration to individuals, couples, extended families* and businesses. LibertyID has a 100% success rate in resolving all forms of identity fraud on behalf of our subscribers.
*Extended families – primary individual, their spouse/partner, both sets of parents (including those that have been deceased for up to a year), and all children under the age of 25