WASHINGTON – It's not just federal employees who are feeling the effects of the government shutdown.
Over the last several years, phones around the country are ringing more because of robo calls.
Consumers are getting calls from telemarketers, bill collectors, and scam artists. The partial government shutdown may be making the problem worse.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission are part of the shutdown, so there is nobody in Washington to administer the country's anti-robo call rules. There's also no one to warn Americans about possible scams that involve automated calls.
To make matters worse, if you want to add your number to the "do not call list" or check to make sure your number is on the list, you're out of luck. That's part of the shutdown, too. Consumers are faced with a website that says the government is "unable to offer this service at this time."
Experts say the shutdown may be giving scammers and companies that routinely break the rules the upper hand.