PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — John VonHof is a general contractor who relies on his phone for his business to answer incoming calls.
"I have to, whether it's a supplier, whether it's one of my employees or new business, it's a necessity. I have my phone on me at all times," said VonHoff.
Unfortunately, not all of the calls are for his business. Some are automated calls trying to sell him things he doesn't want.
"These other ones that are robocalls, drive me crazy. I've already had 17 of them today," said VonHoff.
He's been keeping track of the robocalls and has received a shocking number of them.
"It just kept coming and coming and coming. In that month, I tracked it, I had over 1,000 phone calls in the month of November," said VonHoff.
When Ashley Moody was the Attorney General for Florida, she issued fines to four companies that she said were the worst offenders, sending millions of robocalls to Florida consumers every year.
Still, the calls keep coming.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says, "See what services your phone carrier offers and look online for expert reviews. For cell phones, also check out the reviews for different call-blocking apps in your app store."
The FCC also strongly suggests not speaking to anyone if you believe it's from a robocall company.
"Hang up. If you hear a recorded message from someone trying to sell you something, the call is almost always illegal. It's also probably a scam. Hang up," a statement on the FCC website says. "Pressing numbers to speak to someone or remove you from the list will probably only lead to more robocalls. And the number on your caller ID probably isn't real. Caller ID is easy to fake, so even if it shows that a call is coming from nearby or a company you know, you can't trust it."
John VonHoff, just wants the calls to stop.
"I have a do not call on my phone, I press that every time I get one of the calls. They still keep coming," he said.
