Tech support and IRS scams have become as common as random emails proclaiming that you've won the lottery, or emails from prince in some foreign land who wants to share their wealth.

Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday urged the government to hang up on telemarketers who want to bypass the national “Do Not Call” list by sending pitches directly to a person’s cell phone voicemail, pleading not to “throw gas on a robocall wildfire.”

The phone rings, pauses, and then a recording on the line says: "Hello! This is Rachel at cardholder services," or "This is an important notice about your automobile."

Federal regulators on Thursday said they've identified "the perpetrator of one of the largest ... illegal robocalling campaigns" they have ever investigated.

Robots and computers aren’t just taking people’s jobs, they’re also calling everybody and leaving messages about sweet business loan opportunities that you have been chosen for. Recently, these annoying spam calls have been on the rise, leaving people increasingly frustrated.

In the face of aging infrastructure and vulnerabilities, cities and states are upgrading emergency call centers to include streamlined and media-rich systems.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has awarded $1.3 million to 12 small businesses for 13 Phase I contract awards to develop technology solutions to Homeland Security challenges. 

Marketing companies want to leave voicemails on your cellphone—and now one telemarketer is trying to create a loophole to bypass regulations on robocalls by arguing that the messages don’t count as a call if they don’t make your phone ring.

Dish Network has been ordered to pay $280 million in penalties as part of an 8-year-old "robocall" telemarketing lawsuit.

Federal regulators are working on various methods to block robocalls, both to landlines and to mobile phones, with varying degrees of success. As those technologies make their way into the marketplace, some companies now are looking for clearance from the FCC to deliver their messages directly to customers’ voicemails without ringing their phones.

Dinner is set, but the phone rings, and when you pick up it isn't a friend, or someone you know, sometimes it's not even a person. It's a robo-call.

THANE: A key aide of Sagar Thakkar, the alleged kingpin of the IRS scam -- which duped thousands of Americans of over USD 300 million by reaching them via call centres posing as US officials to extort money -- has been arrested from Delhi, Thane Police said today. 

While the FCC and major telecommunications companies figure out how to stop illegal robocalls, companies that actually track robocalls say the calls are on the rise.

More than 29 billion robocalls bombarded Americans last year.

That amounts to roughly 90 robocalls for every man, woman and child, with some getting several calls each day.