BROADCASTS.com

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The average American is on the receiving end of more than 150\\xa0robocalls a year. Some robocalls, which are automated telephone calls placed by a computerized auto dialer, have legitimate purposes. Unfortunately, many of these calls are used to pester or scam consumers. In June 2019 alone\\xa0Americans received 4.35 billion robocalls, with scams and telemarketing making up over\\xa050 percent. Curious about the barrage of robocalls he\\xa0himself\\xa0receives, journalist Alex Palmer decides to look into how robocalls work and why they\\u2019ve become so popular. He finds that advances in technology and the low cost of placing robocalls\\u2014as little as\\xa04 cents\\xa0per dial\\u2014have made\\xa0this nuisance\\xa0a popular marketing tool for scammers. After digging deeper into the trend, Alex discovers the case of a set of illegal robocalls that temporarily stalled a Virginia-based paging provider, disrupting the ability of hospitals to get in touch with emergency services personnel. As a result, local doctors, nurses, EMTs and\\xa0firefighters\\xa0were at risk of missing critical pages. Due to the\\xa0resulting\\xa0public safety hazard, the\\xa0Federal Communications Commission made tracking down the source of these robocalls a top priority. Meanwhile,\\xa0travel-review website TripAdvisor\\xa0is being inundated with complaints from customers that\\xa0it is\\xa0soliciting them through\\xa0robocalls to use\\xa0its\\xa0travel rewards program. But TripAdvisor isn\\u2019t making the calls and doesn\\u2019t have a rewards program. With\\xa0its\\xa0reputation at stake, TripAdvisor puts\\xa0its\\xa0top fraud experts on the case.\\xa0The FCC and the travel site\\xa0will eventually learn that they are on the hunt for the same man, Adrian Abramovich.