FCC looks to crack down on robocalls, robotexts

[Little Tich]

Source: Reuters

The top U.S. telecommunications regulator wants to make it harder for telemarketers and other businesses to place unwanted robocalls and text messages under changes to autodialing rules proposed on Wednesday.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on June 18 on the proposal, which would give legal cover to telephone companies to offer consumers technologies that would block robocalls, regardless of where they originate.

"The FCC wants to make it clear: Telephone companies can – and in fact should – offer consumers robocall-blocking tools," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post.

The wireless carriers have worried that blocking automated calls could be construed as violations of the law that requires them to ensure that all calls placed over their networks reach their intended recipients.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-usa-robocalls-idUSKBN0OC2HT20150527

[Marie Marie]

1. Halle-f'ing'-lujah!!

We must get about 6-7 a day. We screen all our calls because most are from these pests. Let's shut them down - NOW!!!

[MADem]

9. YOU!!!!!!! You've been reading my mind!!!!!! That's EXACTLY what I was gonna say!!!

We screen too, we have a call blocker on the phone (unfortunately, it only holds several dozen numbers, so I have to go in and empty them out every so often). It's amazing how many times they'll try, over and over again. I hear about people who grab the air horn and blast it down the telephone; I couldn't be bothered, but I don't blame people who do that kind of stuff.

It's way outta hand.

[Marie Marie]

12. Hey MADem!

Actually, I was reading your mind but I promise not to share with the world all the "other" thoughts I encountered in there -

Also, I had to check out your TOM MABE link and I can't stop laughing. That was too funny - thanks for sharing.

[MADem]

13. Heh heh...!

That 800 Notes website is useful, too--if you have a call on your caller ID and you don't recognize the number, you can go to that site, punch it in, and if anyone has gotten calls from it, it will pop up, with comments about what type of call it is (scam, telemarketer, etc.) and then ya can block 'em if you have that feature on your phone!

[GreatGazoo]

16. the headline is misleading -- what the FCC/Telco's are proposing is that we pay to block calls

This just turns robocalls into a revenue stream for the cell companies.

Right now they make nothing off robocalls since most are generated from VOIP systems.

Cha-Ching!

[mpcamb]

18. Need a NO CALL system that puts the uninvited caller and scammer at risk.

[still_one]

2. I wonder what they will charge for that feature

[Thor_MN]

3. Now? A bit of fucking attention?

There was the freaking NSA collecting data of all the freaking phone calls and you couldn't seem to use it to drone strike these assholes. Now that it supposed to be shut down, now, you want to do something about it. Idiots.

[groundloop]

4. I applaud this, but have to wonder about the do-not-call list

I've been on the do-not-call list forever and in the past couple of years it's gotten nearly as bad as before the list existed. I imagine telemarketers will eventually find a way around whatever technology is offered by the phone companies, and also tend to agree with the comment that phone companies will likely find a way to profit from offering us this 'service'.

[AngryDem001]

8. The damn phone companies probably sold the numbers to

telemarketers in the first place.

[MADem]

10. The people calling you are calling from offshore.

There's this idiot and his buddies from India who calls our abode every few weeks and wants to "help" me with my computer because golly gee it has a VIRUS!! He's calling from (ooooh) MICROSOFT!!!!

When I'm bored I will have fun with that ass--I like to say "Let me go get my computer" and put the phone down beside the tv with the volume at a good tilt. Then I'll sit down and watch the rest of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" or whatever show is on. I figure if I keep him spinning his wheels for fifteen minutes to a half hour, he's not victimizing someone else during that time.

I've often wanted to run a TOM MABE on 'em, but I don't think I could keep a serious face/voice.

[SeattleVet]

14. The Do Not Call registry keeps the *legitimate* telemarketers from calling.

The ones that are calling are the criminals that have already decided to ignore the law.

I use a VOIP phone system (Ooma) and subscribe to their 'Premium' service - a little over $10/month. That gives me access to their 'blacklists'...there is a personal blacklist, where you can store up to 256 numbers. If enough people block the same number, it gets put onto the 'Community' blacklist. And, they recently added the NoMoRobo service. You can enable or disable any or all of these features. I have everything enabled, and instead of the 5-6 calls a day I used to get from the scammers, I'm down to maybe one call every 2 weeks.

For the ones that *do* get through, I keep a radio scanner next to my computer on my desk. If I see a Caller ID that I don't recognize or that is an obvious scammer, I turn on the scanner and answer, 'North Precinct; fraud division. Clearly state your name and your company name" with police calls going on in the background. Most of them can't seem to hang up fast enough. For the persistent ones, I set the handset down next to the radio and let them listen for a while. My record was one timeshare scammer that listened to SPD traffic for a full 18 minutes before hanging up.

[Liberalagogo]

5. AT&T

will only let you block 20 numbers which is totally not enough. I've had to argue with them several times that their website will NOT let you block an 11 or 12 digit number. Only 10 or 7. The problem is that these spammers once they figure out you've blocked their 10 digit number, they spoof it by adding +11 or +011, etc to it. Or they even call from fake area codes or from 000-000-0000. The phone company doesn't seem to get it that most of these numbers are faked. Do Not Call won't help with that. Plus political calls and so-called charities aren't covered by Do Not Call. And I've yet to find a decent easy to program, use and reliable call blocker in a store. There's ones online, but who the hell knows if they work?

I swear a Presidential candidate that came out sincerely against robocalling and telemarketing would win hands down.

[freshwest]

6. That would be great. It's why my ringers are set to silent now. Hate that stuff. n/t

[AngryDem001]

7. About fucking time!

The last few months, these telemarketing scum have been lighting up my phone. Multiple calls with no message at voicemail.

UGH!!

[herding cats]

15. I deal with about 7-10 of these a day at my work.

They often spoof a regular phone number in my state and I end up putting a paying customer on hold to take the spam call. The customers are not always nice about being put on hold anymore. People have their mean on these days. It's enough to drive me insane! They're 100% illegal, but every entity I've called on the state and federal level seems to give me the same fake concern, and nothing after that. The phone company doesn't even feign concern. Their first response is to try and sell me something which won't work because of the spoofed numbers anyway.

On my cell if I don't know you, I don't answer to you. They hardly ever leave a message and blocking the calls and/or texts slows it down to a manageable number of calls per day. It's still annoying and I shouldn't be paying out what I do every month and be allowed to be harassed by these jerks.

If I never have to hear, "Our records show," or "Hi, this is "blah blah" calling about your Google profile" ever again it would be fine by me.

Whatever they develop from this will probably not work, be insanely over priced to subscribe to, or be some sort of complicated nightmare to implement. Or a combination of all three!

[sendero]

19. If you have a "smart" phone..

.... (I use an android) get Mr Number or a similar app. It's a bit of work to flag the numbers initially, but over time I have reduced the number of junk calls substantially.

[GreatGazoo]

17. There is no "crack down" in the proposal -- merely a new revenue stream for cell companies

"offer consumers technologies that would block robocalls" = $5 / month * millions of customers = Cha-Ching!

All of the "Google specialist" calls are coming from a firm in Santa Monica CA. They spoof regional numbers and keep cycling through new ones.

More about "Sharon Your Google Specialist..." http://www.mechamcompany.com/getting-calls-from-a-google-specialist/

[Sgt Preston]

20. In our system, every problem turns into a money-maker.

And the purpose of money is to make more money.