Last Week Tonight with John Oliver explains the rise in robocalls

If you’ve noticed a rise in the number of robocalls you get then you’ll want to hear John Oliver explain why.

There doesn’t seem to be too many things that a majority of people can agree on these days. Things feel as divided as ever and it’s easy to share your opinion on any issue large or small. But as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver uncovered, robocalls have become a universal pain for Americans.

Anyone with a phone has received these types of unsolicited calls that either offer some great deal or threaten legal action for an unknown cause. They can be relentless no matter how many “do not call” lists you sign up for or how many different numbers you attempt to block from reaching you. Yes, they are scams plain and simple. But they may not be so “simple” after all.

Taking a closer examination of scams is a common theme early in the new season of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Recently he spent time debunking psychics and explaining the techniques many use to get money from grieving customers. On the March 10 show, Oliver took aim at robocalls.

Oliver explains how it is not just big companies conducting these robocalls anymore. Like a lot of other scams, lower costs and improve technology have made it easier to get a network of calls up and running.

A big part of that is spoofing, or making a phone call appear to come from a familiar or legitimate source. In breaking down spoofing, Oliver also manages to get in a traditional ricochet shot that this time tags Senator Susan Collins. But maybe she didn’t get it quite as bad as Jeff Rossen, AT&T, and Ajit Pai got it.

The Last Week Tonight segment does a good job of explaining how we got to this point where robocalls are so common. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be very much that we as consumers can do other than ignoring calls. Phones have become essential to just about everyone.

It looks like a lack of action on the part of the government is partly to blame. There are not enough laws in place or requirements enforced that prevent or deter companies from engaging in robocalls.

But as a person who loves creative solutions, John Oliver couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. As he likes to do, he encouraged his audience to take action by robocalling the FCC with a special messaged recorded by Oliver. We’ll have to wait and see how effective the initiative is but any slight annoyance it causes may just be one small victory in the war against robocalls.