PUEBLO — Imagine answering your phone only to find out it’s costing you extra. That’s exactly what happened to one Colorado man, who got hit with unexpected charges on his phone bill.
"That’s one thing I don't want people messing with is my money. So I keep track of everything," said Pueblo resident Darla Mason.
For Darla and Paul Mason, their $160 monthly phone bill is usually predictable, but that all changed when an unexpected $20 charge appeared.
Darla noticed the extra charge and headed to Verizon to dispute it.
"They told me the only thing they could figure out was, since he was answering all these calls, they were probably international phone calls coming into him," Darla Mason said.
"With all these spoofing of the numbers, you don’t know if you’re getting charged for an international call," said Pueblo resident Paul Mason.
At one point, Paul Mason received 40 unknown calls in a single day. He kept answering, but why didn't he stop picking up the phone?
"He’s trying to start a business and he calls anybody and everybody on his phone," Darla Mason said.
"I was getting all these quotes for equipment and I have unlimited long-distance," Paul Mason said. "It was an international call coming in under a spoofed number. I answered it and was charged."
He said he believes the unknown calls increased after he signed up for Medicare, and the random calls dropped off after he added his number to the Do Not Call registry.
44,429 Coloradans put their number on the national registry as of the third quarter of 2024, according to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
Robocalls, spoofing, and spam calls are an issue that Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission are cracking down on.
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