By admin 
FARGO — Are you also getting those annoying political spam calls and texts? You’re not alone.
The constant political text messages and phone calls, commonly known as spam, have increased as Election Day approaches.
“It’s just annoying,” said Robert Langdahl, a Fargo resident.
“I’ve gotten five since Sunday, so yeah, quite a few,” said Brianna Winkler of Fargo.
Many people say they receive multiple calls and messages every day.
“It’s really annoying because sometimes you get the same one over and over again,” Langdahl said.
Since 2006, mobile phone ownership has steadily increased from almost two-thirds of the population to almost every adult by 2024.
That’s according to Teresa Murray, director of the Consumer Watchdog program at the American Public Interest Research Group.
“Technology has made it possible for entities to make hundreds of thousands of phone calls or text messages almost simultaneously, and that is one of the causes of all the scams and also all the annoying, unwanted calls and text messages. Murray said.
A law was passed in 2021 to tackle spam, but Murray’s research shows that only about half of cell phone companies are using anti-robocall technology.
“The technology that’s required only takes a few seconds to catch a lot of unwanted calls. And so for the businesses that aren’t using it, it’s clearly like an unlocked door,” Murray said.
She said companies like Verizon and T-Mobile are complying, but the people behind the messages are bypassing the blocks.
Murray said anti-robot calling technology is expensive and could be extremely difficult to add to landlines and in rural areas.
The Federal Communications Commission has shut down 15 robo-call companies in the past three years, and Murray predicts it will crack down on even more in the coming years. However, because phone numbers are so easy to find, these companies and campaigns have access to them too.
“I just delete them because I know they’re spam. So I get them, I delete them, and I don’t even really read them,” Winkler says.
Murray suggests working with your carrier to add filters to the calls and texts to prevent them all. You can also remove yourself from the call lists by going to
the do-not-call website
.