Even if you don’t answer the phone, robocallers may still be making money off the call.
The Wall Street Journal explains that the moneymaking relies on the caller ID system. Phone companies check caller ID databases to identify the person calling. The companies pay small fees when a match is made and a name is displayed. The fees are typically between $0.0025 and $0.005 with each match.
Some of the caller ID databases pass some of those fees to the company that controls the caller’s phone number or to the company making the call.
Scammers purchase blocks of unused phone numbers, submit fake names and addresses for each number to caller ID databases and collect the money.
The fees add up as millions of robocalls are made per day.
What are carriers doing about the issue? The Wall Street Journal has more.
