FCC Announces First Do-Not-Call Citation

An anonymous reader writes "The FCC will announce on Thursday December 18, its first enforcement action for violations of the new national Do-Not-Call list. The perp is a mortgage broker (big users of telemarketing, junk faxes, and spam) in California -- CPM Funding, Inc. No fines (yet) since the FCC can only impose fines on telemarketers after they have had one citation letter (which this is). If, perhaps, a common carrier was to violate however (can you say MCI, AT&T, etc) they can be fined up to $11,000 right off the bat.... no warnings. (The action against AT&T a couple of months ago was for other violations, not violating the new National DNC list.)"

Comments

Suing the local police?

[ObviousGuy]

Would the police be excluded from soliciting for fundraisers? If not, why not?

Re:Suing the local police?

[pr0c]

https://www.donotcall.gov

Will All Telemarketing Calls Stop If I Register?

Q: If I register my number on the National Do Not Call Registry, will it stop all telemarketing calls?

A: No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you've provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls.

Re:Suing the local police?

[redog]

I got a call from the Fraternal Order of Police just last night, this ws the first and only time I have ever asked them to "add me to your do not call list please" so I guess I will see how that goes.

Re:Suing the local police?

[cpeterso]

The politicians write the rules. When you write the rules, they don't have to apply to you. :(

Merry Chrismas!

[wowbagger]

This holiday season just keeps getting better and better - MS losing ("loosing" for those of you who learned to spell from /.) Office customers, SCO being told to put up or shut up, David Boies being up on possible ethics violations, Saddam Hussein in custody, RotK released, Athlon64 systems shipping, a spammer in Virginia being hit with felony spamming charges, now this.

Thank you Santa!

Re:Merry Chrismas!

[Anonymous Coward]

you forgot kernel 2.6! What are you? a microsoft fanboy?

Hmm...

[cperciva]

the FCC can only impose fines on telemarketers after they have had one citation letter

Does that mean that telemarketers can harass people for two weeks, receive a citation letter, change names, and repeat the process ad infinitum?

Re:Hmm...

[gcaseye6677]

It may not be perfect, but I really do think the national registry is working. I have not had a single telemarketing call since then, and I was previously getting up to 20 calls a day! Some of this may have had to do with me treating callers rudely and putting them on hold until they hung up, since the number of calls did start to drop even before the list was in effect. Maybe telemarketing firms are finally taking a hint and realizing that nobody wants their worthless crap. Now if only we could make spammers do the same.

SMS/Premium rate spam squished

[Bazzargh]

Somewhat relevant - a couple of months ago I got several SMS spams on my mobile advertising a premium rate phone service, which didn't list the call prices and looked dodgy anyway. I showed them to a friend who works in the mobile industry, who mentioned ICSTIS - they regulate premium rate services in the UK.

I went to their website, read up on what they'd take action on, and filed a complaint.

A month later, they got back to me to say that they had...
1) stopped the service immediately as it looked like they were operating in breach of the code
2) held an inquiry, decided that they were in breach of the code in lots of ways and passed judgment....
3) ...banning them from operating a premium rate line for a year
4) ...fining them 15000
5) ...and getting them to pay back the money they'd made on calls to the service.

w00t! Heck I know 15k isn't a lot but the scum were shut down. Nice to see the system work.

-Baz

sitting ducks, lying marketdroids

[Doc Ruby]

Some sleazoid called me during dinnertime last night, claiming to be from "CRM", "we're not selling anything, we're just doing a survey". When I asked him to remove me from the list, he told me that they don't use a list; they randomly generate phone numbers. I assume they use a wardialer to call down the random list, turning the call over to a "human" operator when a person is detected answering the call.

The "Do Not Call" law should be a simpler law that covers the actual problem. It should outlaw "unsolicited commercial transmission" in any medium. Opt-in would count as "solicitation". Otherwise, each new medium and hybrid will drown in these spams until Congress is forced to act. The agency administering the law should have comprehensive jurisdiction, if the FCC + FTC aren't sufficient. Transmissions from *official* political organizations (government), including the police department, in an official capacity, are allowed, for public safety and administration. Not to mention that they are legally controlled by the public, unlike corporations. I realize that until we get fat clowns like Karl Rove, with his Direct Marketing junkmail career, out of the Washington catbird seats, spam will be part of our lives. But articulating an alternative solution, that we can consistently demand, at least paves the way out.