My phone rang four times before lunch yesterday. Same pitch every time: I’d been “pre-approved” for a loan I never applied for, and I’d better press 1 before the offer expired.
You’re getting them too. So are your friends. So is pretty much everyone with a phone number.
Here’s what makes me crazy. Your phone company can pinpoint your handset to within a few feet. It can fire a text halfway around the world in two seconds. In short, if it’s technology, they’ve got it.
But it can’t stop some robot boiler room from calling me 10 times every day? Come on.
Americans got about 52.5 billion robocalls in 2025 — roughly 140 million a day, or more than 1,600 every second, according to the YouMail Robocall Index. Telemarketing and scam calls made up about 57% of that pile, up from 49% the year before.
And loan offers? They’re the worst of the bunch. Month after month last year, pre-approved loan and debt-relief pitches ranked as the single most problematic robocall campaign in the country.
As you’re probably aware, these aren’t real banks. The recordings name some “specialist” in some “department” but never a real lender. They hammer people who never applied, and they ignore the Do Not Call list and your opt-out requests. YouMail’s own read: Illegal telemarketing in the best case; outright fraud in the worst.
So why can’t — or won’t — the carriers shut them down? Here are five reasons.
1. The fix only works on the new networks, not the old ones
There’s a system built to kill caller-ID spoofing. It stamps a digital “signature” on calls so your carrier can confirm the number is real.
But here’s the catch. It only works on modern internet-based phone networks. A huge chunk of the system still runs on old copper-wire technology that can’t carry that signature all the way to your screen.
So the digital lock exists. It just doesn’t fit half the doors.
2. It’s an American fix for a global problem
The signature system is a U.S. rule. The scammers aren’t in the U.S.
Overseas operations route their calls through foreign carriers and slap a fake American number on top — cheap, easy, and outside the reach of our rules. By the time the call hits your phone, it looks local.
You can’t enforce an American law on a guy with a laptop in another hemisphere.
3. ‘Verified’ doesn’t mean honest
Say the signature system works perfectly on a call. Know what it actually proves? Only that the number on your screen is the number that really placed the call. Nothing more.
The highest “verified” rating just means the carrier knows its own customer — not that it checked whether the caller is telling the truth.
So a scammer who legally controls a throwaway number can pass the test with flying colors. The lock confirms the key fits. It doesn’t ask who’s holding it.
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4. The phone network gets paid to connect calls
Follow the money. Every call that crosses a network earns somebody a fee. The system is built to complete calls, not refuse them.
Shady little “gateway” and wholesale providers are the on-ramp — they pass dodgy traffic onto the bigger networks for a price. The incentive runs exactly backward from what you’d want.
The pipes make money on volume. You’re not the customer here. You’re the product.
5. Carriers are terrified of blocking the wrong call
Aggressive blocking has a downside — it kills legitimate calls too.
Even the carriers’ own tools warn they may accidentally block calls you actually want. Silence the wrong number and your doctor, your pharmacy, or your kid’s school goes straight to voicemail.
So instead of slamming the door, carriers often just slap a “Spam Likely” label on it and let it ring. The loan robots walk right through that.
So how do you make them stop?
The cavalry is coming, just slowly. In 2025, the FCC cut more than 1,200 non-compliant providers off the U.S. phone network entirely. A coalition of 51 attorneys general launched its own crackdown on the worst offenders. Regulators have also proposed forcing carriers to flag foreign calls and stop the spoofing of American numbers from abroad.
Good. But it’s whack-a-mole, and you can’t wait. Until the network plugs its own holes, your thumb is the best defense you’ve got. Four moves:
- Turn on your carrier’s free blocker: AT&T has ActiveArmor, T-Mobile has Scam Shield, and Verizon has Call Filter — all free. The catch is you usually have to switch on the strongest settings yourself. Do it today.
- Send unknown callers to voicemail: Both iPhones and Androids can route any number that’s not in your contacts straight to voicemail. Real people leave a message. Robots don’t. Here’s a simple way to silence robocalls today. (This is what I did after researching this story … big improvement.)
- Never press a button: When the recording says “press 1 for your loan” or “press 2 to opt out,” don’t. Pressing anything just confirms a live human is on the line, which makes your number more valuable. The same trap applies to talking — here’s the question you should never answer when a stranger calls you. Just hang up.
- Layer on more protection: For the full playbook — apps, settings, and the Do Not Call registry — here are more ways to shut down the spam texts and robocalls driving you crazy. And since scammers love to pivot to texting, it’s worth knowing how to fight spam text messages too.
None of this is perfect. You won’t get to zero. But you can take 10 calls a day down to one or two — and stop pressing 1 on the rest.
Because the phone companies aren’t going to save you. Not fast enough, anyway. So save yourself.
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