Robocalls become crime punishable by $16K per call fine
Rejoice! Automated and unsolicited phone calls in which businesses try to push products on consumers will soon be punishable by fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.
Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.(thanks, Chief Fulfiller of Needs)
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So anyone who would generally give me a robo-call can still legally do so. Great
I hope that it works. They've been useless in enforcing Do Not Call registry violations.
That explains the robocall messages on my answering machine all week urging me to "opt in" so I can still get fabulous marketing offers over the phone before it's too late.
And debt collectors. They can still robocall.
Good stuff. Although, I placed myself on the Do Not Call Register (in Australia) over a year ago and my unsolicited calls did drop from six to ten a day down to maybe one a week.
I still reckon they are going about it bass-ackwards, though. Instead of making us join a Do Not Call register, how about they make a Do Call register instead. Anyone not on it is assumed to not want calls and is to be left in peace.
Yeah, can't see that one happening anytime soon.
Doesn't work very well vs. bottom feeders who spoof their caller ID or call from offshore, though.
The trick is to make sure you punch whatever buttons you have to to talk to a live (expensive) person. Then waste their time as well as you can.
It may not deter them, but it's awfully fun.
Cicada, the problem I have with that is that I don't want to be an asshole to the poor phone jockey, who, at the end of the day, is only trying to make a living. If I could waste the time and drive up the blood pressure of the person actually responsible, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I'm not going to get near the ivory tower.
I work in a call centre (inbound, thank whatever deity you choose) and I am very aware now of just how hard customers blow.
@#9 You don't have to be an asshole...just kill some time. Be cute, be funny, tell stories, launch into tangential comments about your dog that still imply you might want to change your long-distance rate plan or refinance your mortgage, whatever.
Won't help until there's a good way to tag a call as a violation and have it forwarded for action with minimal effort.
Or until the government starts setting up "honey trap" numbers.
I hope calling me twice a week to tell me that the warranty on my 1991 Honda is about to expire doesn't count as an "informational" call.
Why couldn't we just have no robots except by opt-in? (e.g. flight changes)
#10 - As someone with work to do, that would still drive me bugshit. I have enough crap to deal with without unneccessary crap on top of it.
Why exclude "Banks, telephone carriers"?
@10- As for it driving you bugshit...I'm afraid once someone's picked up the phone and called, they're past the level of politeness where we avoid mere irritation. Tit for tat and all.
Listening to a robot for longer than it would take you to hang up is a very, very serious symptom.
Our state law is somewhat more restrictive, and Do Not Call has helped my situation somewhat. But there's still no place where I can say, "Hey, I haven't bought, given, replied to, or listened to a phone solicitation in 25 years, and you're wasting my time and yours, and I DON'T OWE YOU THAT, SO QUIT CALLING." I have a small door sign that keeps solicitors away from my house -- why can't I have one for the phone?
15: Back to my original point which is that the person making the call is NOT the main culprit here. Unless they own the business, which is highly doubtful.
@17- But if someone's going to get the short end of the stick here-- and someone is, however unfair-- why should it be you, the callee?
18: So the answer is to waste even MORE of my time while making some poor joker's day miserable? I put myself on the DNC register and hang up on the few that still call. It's really not that difficult, and I'm really not about to go out and try and make two wrongs equal a right.
The company responsible for the robocalls has to pay the person whose time I am wasting, and I want to waste as much as the offending company's resources as
possible. I always try to do that with the calls for "Cardholder Services". Lately I've tried pretending to be "Mister Adams with quality control" and then asking the person's name and the name of the call center, but that doesn't waste as much time as playing along making up bogus numbers about my non-existent credit card debt, or asking if they have Bollywood channels for the Dish Network robocalls.
And who gets the $16K? I don't care to bother if it only enriches the government.
Exactly, how much of that 16k does the victim of the spam calls get?
When I got my iPhone, I got a new number. Apparently someone else had that number before I did, and gave it up. They had a kid in school. I got robocalls from that school almost every day.
While the school wasn't a solicitor, it was still very annoying. I had to call them multiple times before they actually stopped robocalling me. It took over a year before it stopped. I'm worried it might start again in the new school year. It's obvious that their system is just crappy, and they don't know how to fix it, but I wish I could use something like this to make them stop.
I got a life insurance producer's license a few years ago, and I get two or three calls a week, usually robocalls, from insurance brokerages wanting to sign me up as an agent. It's irritating as hell, and they always seem to call when I'm driving in heavy traffic, or trying to eat lunch or something. I can't figure out whether these will be banned; anyone know?
to #23
why does a school robocall anyone? I've never heard of that. is it the same message or different ones?
upto $16,000 per call?? That's a ridiculous amount. No wonder, my European friends call us a sue friendly country
spam is spam and merits the death penalty. It is theft of the only precious thing we have.
This is your second and final car regarding your car's warranty...
@25 starfish: if you don't show up to class, or to announce special events, etc.
My high schools one would even state the period that you missed, it worked quite well IMO.
Thanks for this post, I bookmarked it they day a read it, and today got to report a B.S. Robocall message left on my answering machine.