Consumer Alert: Verizon unveils a new robocall blocker

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Today’s consumer alert looks at another way to block those annoying robocalls. Verizon is providing a new tool to stop neighborhood spoofing. We’ve all experienced this scenario. Your phone rings, and it’s a number with your area code, so you answer it believing this may be someone you know. Instead, it’s one of those extended warranty calls. Or a scammer telling you your Social Security number has been compromised.

So Verizon is taking its free robocall blocker a step further. It’s called a Neighborhood Filter, and it detects those calls that are spoofed to look like it’s someone in our area code, but it’s really likely some scammer an ocean away.

Click here to download the app for Android.

Click here to download the app for Apple.

It’s part of an industry-wide effort to identify whether a call is actually the number being displayed on your caller ID. Nearly all the carriers have a free call blocking service. Each is provided free or at a nominal cost.

Consumers are traveling again

After travel was all but shut down last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel industry is experiencing somewhat of a rebound.

United Airlines is adding 137 more flights to warm weather areas during the dead of winter than it had before the pandemic.

The airline is betting that we’ll be itching to fly to California, Arizona, Georgia, Florida and Nevada, as well as beaches in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Last month the airline ordered 270 new planes and plans to hire 25,000 new workers.

The cruise industry is doing just the opposite.

American Cruise Lines just had to cut a cruise short after three passengers tested positive for COVID-19.

The ship had to make a u-turn just one day after it had set sail from Petersburg, Alaska.

This follows two passengers testing positive last month aboard a Celebrity Cruise.

This makes for some choppy waters as the cruise industry tries to welcome passengers again after being docked for more than a year.

Each cruise line has different policies regarding COVID-19 vaccine requirements and social distancing. Click here to see them.