ST. LOUIS — The Missouri attorney general’s office is warning people in the Show Me State to be on the lookout for robocalls and phishing text messages coming from other countries.
As cell phones become more ingrained in our everyday lives the number of scam calls continues to rise.
In order to put an end to robocalls Karen Schlaker signed up for the no call list, but her phone hasn't stopped ringing.
"They want to either buy my house, my mom’s condo, or a third property that is not ours,” said Karen Schlaker. “I have never been there and don't know who owns it."
According to Assistant Attorney General Michelle Hinkl, stories like this have become all too common in Missouri.
"It's the number one complaint that our office receives,” said Hinkl. “We average about 45,000 complaints per year."
Working with state and federal partners the Missouri attorney general’s office is trying to track down the person on the other end of the line.
"We know what the caller ID showed, what the time was, and who your carrier is,” said Hinkl. “I can track that call, so I can then send out subpoenas and work backwards to find out who sent those calls."
The problem is all too often the calls are coming from overseas.
"We send subpoenas around to different providers to figure out where these calls are coming from and eventually they say 'Oh it came from the Philippines’,” said Hinkl. “Well, no one in the Philippines responds to our subpoenas."
Hinkl says some scammers have caught on and are shifting to text messages.
"I had two this week of phishing where they want me to click a link,” said Schlaker.
While carriers are trying to cut down on spam there's a loophole that they haven't been able to solve.
"Text messages cannot be tracked in the same way that phone calls can,” said Hinkl.
That's why Hinkl said the easiest thing to do is simply block numbers as they come in.
"As soon as it's clear it's a robocall just hang up,” said Hinkl.
For people like Schlaker who are being bombarded by these calls, it's simply not that easy.
"I'd like it to stop,” said Schlaker.
If you would like more information on how you can protect yourself from robocalls click here.
You can also sign up for the Missouri no-call list or the national no-call list.