The robocall blunder

Robocall design blunder - cartoon of surly cat on a phone call

Blunder: A serious mistake, usually caused by not taking care or thinking.

Picture the following (no imagination needed). Your cell phone rings. You don’t recognise the number. But remote working means that sometimes there are relevant calls from unrecognised numbers. So you answer the phone. Then you hear that dreadful robotic voice…

What do you do? I’m going to take a not-so-wild guess and say that you immediately hang up.

Not another robocall!

Technology makes it cheap and easy for telemarketers and scammers to make robocalls. And given all the data leaks, lots of strange people out there may have your number.

Everyone I know hates robocalls. I can’t imagine ever buying anything as the result of a robocall. Which means I don’t understand how successful they are for scammers. They must be, because otherwise why would there be so many of them? I suppose it’s like the Nigerian prince scam – even a single victim is pure profit.

(The Nigerian prince scam is one name for an old scam. You receive an unsolicited email from a foreign dignitary, or a Nigerian prince. He has a huge fortune but needs your help to get the money out his home country. And you can share in that large fortune if you help him…)

How to stop robocalls

I googled “robocall” and the top 2 results were about how to stop them. According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), unwanted calls are their top consumer complaint.

I have blocked a long list of numbers, and I’ve registered on the national optout database. That doesn’t seem to stop the calls. So I had a look at the tips for stopping them.

My second search result was the FCC. The FCC’s top tip: Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers. That’s a great idea, but not practical for many of us. I get lots of relevant calls that are from unknown numbers. I can’t afford not to answer my phone just because I don’t recognise the number.

My first search result was Kaspersky, a big name in IT security and virus protection. Kaspersky’s top tip: Hang up as soon as you realize it’s a robocall. And that’s what I normally do. But that might be a problem.

A design principle to remember

Back in 2000, Jakob Nielsen published an excellent book on web usability. At the time, animated advertising banners were everyone’s pet peeve. Nielsen’s wise words: never use a UI element that looks like advertising for a useful purpose. Why? Because everyone will just ignore it.

This design principle still applies. Once a technology or technique has been “hijacked” for spam or scam, it’s a bad idea to use it for legitimate reasons.

Not every robocall is a scam call or a spam call. Some companies use them for information like flight cancellations, and appointment reminders. This is exactly what happened to me on Tuesday.

My phone rang. Unrecognised number. I answered. A robotic voice. Because I had my phone on the desk, the speaker on and my hands already back on my keyboard, my response was delayed. So I didn’t hang up immediately. And perhaps that was a good thing.

Because it was the credit card company that I use, wanting to verify a transaction that I had made earlier. I know there is more credit card fraud than any bank will ever admit. So I understand that unusual charges may trigger checks like this. I don’t have a problem with the principle.

But a robocall? Sure, it’s cheap and automated for the bank. But what’s the point if most of us will hang up before even hearing that it is the bank? And what will happen to my legal, but now unverified, purchase?

Personally, I think this robocall was a design blunder. What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Thank You

We're Excited!

Thank you for completing the form. We're excited that you have chosen to contact us about training. We will process the information as soon as we can, and we will do our best to contact you within 1 working day. (Please note that our offices are closed over weekends and public holidays.)

Don't Worry

Our privacy policy ensures your data is safe: Incus Data does not sell or otherwise distribute email addresses. We will not divulge your personal information to anyone unless specifically authorised by you.

If you need any further information, please contact us on tel: (27) 12-666-2020 or email info@incusdata.com

How can we help you?

Let us contact you about your training requirements. Just fill in a few details, and we’ll get right back to you.