The tools to fight scam robocalls and robotexts work — if companies use them, that is.

The U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a research group, found that scam robocalls and illegal telemarketing have decreased by 17% since a federal law was instituted in 2021 that requires phone companies to deploy equipment that fights these activities. The fund also found that, as of last month, 4,365 companies had installed the equipment.

The other side of the coin, however, is that requirements are being phased in and many companies have not deployed the equipment or have only partially done so.

The gap between promulgation of the law and full compliance is meaningful because the volume of scam robotexts has tripled since 2021.

The abilities of the bad actors are growing as well. “Further, attempted scams are more effective than they used to be. In 2021, about 17% of people who reported being targeted by a scam lost money. Now, through the first half of 2024, it’s 24%, according to the Federal Trade Commission,” according to the PIRG article.

“These figures include all types of scam origins: By phone, email, text, social media, apps, and old-fashioned mail through the Postal Service.”

These exploits extract a great human toll. The press release points to Truecaller’s U.S. Spam and Scam Report that estimates that, in 2023, 56 million Americans lost money due to scam calls.

Exploits that start with phone calls and texts result in far more losses than those that begin with emails, social media, or elsewhere. Median loss for scam phone calls is $1,480, and $1,000 for scam texts. Five- and six-digit losses and even some victims’ life savings are not uncommon, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund found.

The organization said that there are a couple of reasons to be optimistic. For one thing, the FCC requirements are so broad that only the lowest-tech organizations are not covered. The report also says that the FCC only recently began “attacking scam texts.” It implies that more actions will be coming in the near future.