Arkansas firm battling robocallers

Have scam calls gotten so bad that you refuse to answer calls you don't recognize?

If so, you might miss an important call from your doctor, bank or a loved one calling from someone else's phone.

An Arkansas company is working on a solution.

The solution is called "engage" and about ten million cell phone users are giving the technology a test run right now.

Not only will it inform you if the call you are receiving is likely a scam...

"But what if you got a phone call that looked like this,” says First Orion Chief Information Officer Scott Hambuchen as he demonstrates how the technology works. “Now you know exactly who is calling and what do they want."

After developing the Privacy Star app to help consumers block robocalls the company partnered with T-Mobile and Metro PCS to offer protection that comes standard with those carriers plans.

The founders of Acxiom, a company that worked to help companies target and market to consumers are now working to prevent such targeting...at least by scam artists.

"A lot of our business is about data analysis so that big data experience that we gained over 20, 30 years has really helped us use the data today to identify unwanted callers and scammers," says Hambuchen.

Hambuchen says the scam blocking technology developed by First Orion is preventing the loss of millions of dollars.

But the scammers are not giving up or going away.

They have technology too.

"Much like virus detection on your computer I don't know that it will ever go away completely,” says Hambuchen. “But I think the technology to prevent scam and robocalls is finally catching up to the point where we can now have a significant impact on that environment."

Hambuchen says efforts by the legislature to fight robocalling and spoofing are welcome but he believes the greatest gains will come from the providers and private sector.

Air date: April 19th, 2019