FCC Opens Flood Gates for Junk Faxes

EmagGeek writes "The FCC implemented a Report and Order on Reconsideration (R&O on Recon) that uses some of the same exemptions for junk faxes that currently exist for the Do Not Call list. The new rules specify that junk faxers can claim an Existing Business Relationship (EBR) to justify flooding you with junk faxes. Under the new rules, a junk faxer could visit your website and call that an existing business relationship. The new rules also prevent junk-fax trapping, in which someone posts their fax number on the internet, waits for junk faxes, then files suit against the faxers under the TCPA. With all of the government-sponsored selling out of The People that has been going on in the past, say, 6 or so years, one has to wonder when or even if it is going to stop."

Comments

Don't blame the FCC for this

[Guppy06]

"uses some of the same exemptions for junk faxes that currently exist for the Do Not Call list."

This was called for by the Junk Fax "Prevention" Act of 2005. It cleared the Senate unanimously and by voice vote in the House. Be sure to thank your members of Congress for this one.

Re:Fax Is Old

[smooth wombat]

Does anyone know how to stop these junk fax "calls?"

There should be a phone number at the bottom of the fax which you can call to input your phone number and have it removed from their list.

Where I used to work (state government office) they had faxes on every floor and on those times I would be out and about if I saw a junk fax I'd take it with me, call the number and have the fax number removed. As far as I know junk faxes stopped coming to those machines.

Please make them STOP.

[lancejjj]

I noticed that starting about a year ago I started to get junk faxes on my fax machine... and now it has grown to 30 to 40 per day... and none of the faxers have ever had ANY business relationship with me. If I ask to take myself off a list, a new one appears the very next day!

Before that time, I used to receive a total of 3 or 4 faxes a week total (from my clients, and none from scam-marketers)

Virtually all of these faxes are of the nature of "HR is sponsoring a company trip to Aruba for $300", "June, I thought you'd be interested in this special weight loss pill, it worked for me!", and "refinance your house".

I'm not sure how congress or the FCC let this scum go nuts, but it's obvious that they have, costing ME lots in paper, toner, and consumption of my otherwise important business FAX line.

Re:Please make them STOP.

[argStyopa]

Of course, you DO understand that you're partially to blame for the explosion?

The *first* time you called one and said "take me off your list", you just raised the value of that CONFIRMED GOOD fax number 100x. So you got bumped to the "confirmed good" fax number list, to be sold MUCH more widely.

Here's a trick: put a phone on your fax line. Hit *77 or whatever your local telco's signal is for (Anonymous call reject). Reattach your fax.

Voila, 90%+ of your incoming spamfaxen are now prevented from reaching your line.

REAL PEOPLE that send faxes don't typically BLOCK their fax numbers, and thus will come through.

Re:Please make them STOP.

[RenderSeven]

That is absolutely positively wrong, so you have obviously never tried it. Shame on you for spreading misinformation based solely on your pessimism! If you spend a little time calling every unsubscribe number at the bottom of every fax, you will in fact stop getting faxes. I went from 5 a day to none in 6 months after less than a week of calling the unsubscribe number on every fax. I do it for all my clients, and their junk faxes have all stopped. Completely stopped. It works so well I'm almost tempted to think of junk faxers as legitimate.

I dont know why there is such a difference between faxers and email spammers. Possibly because phone numbers can be traced. Who knows. But they really do honor the unsubscribe lists, consistently and reliably.

I'm not claiming to be pro-Bush, but....

[saintp]

"With all of the government-sponsored selling out of The People that has been going on in the past, say, 6 or so years, one has to wonder when or even if it is going to stop."

s/6/200/;

The problem isn't this president; the problem is the last 38 or so.

Re:Fax Is Old

[EggyToast]

yes, you can report it to the telephone company and they will contact the offending faxer. Next time you get it, hang up and dial *69 (the one that tells you what the last incoming number was). Then call your telephone number and say you've been receiving faxes at this voice line for [duration] and here's the offending number. They'll track down who owns the line and, well, they won't be very nice about it.

I had this happen to me in my old apartment. We didn't own a fax machine, but we got fax calls at 4am for a week. Needless to say, they were not very pleasant mornings.

Old iMac makes a better fax machine

[Jim in Buffalo]

You know what makes a good fax machine? An old iMac running OS X. It can receive faxes and just store them as PDFs, and even forward them to an email account, and you don't have to use one lick of toner, ink, or paper that you don't want to use. Got a junk fax? Just delete it. Use your email filters to separate out faxes from legit sources (the fax header appears in the Subject: header of the email) from the junk ones. The fax function is included with OS X, and if you buy some additional software and hardware, you can use that old iMac as a custom voicemail system as well.

The FCC does not have the authority to change law.

[msauve]

US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C):

"It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine"

A "telephone facsimile machine" is defined in Sec.227(a)(2)(B) as:

"equipment which has the capacity to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper."

The term "established business relationship" is by law only applicable to a "telephone solicitation," which is clearly defined in the law as different than a fax. Furthermore, the FCC is by law specifically allowed to exempt by law only two specific sections, neither of which pertain to faxes.

http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?g etdoc+uscview+t45t48+1372+1++%28%29%20%20AND%20%28 %2847%29%20ADJ%20USC%29%3ACITE%20AND%20%28USC%20w% 2F10%20%28227%29%29%3ACITE%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20 %20

Re:Selling Out Six Or So Years

[Anonymous Coward]

People hated Clinton for abusing power. On practically his first day i the White House he had career government employees fired without cause and then when they complained to the press he had the FBI charge them with crimes they obviously didn't commit. He and his staff obtained secret FBI files on his political opponents under mysterious circumstances. The documents were never supposed to leave the FBI headquarters but somehow ended up in the White House in the charge of a political thug no one could remember hiring. His assaults on constitutional freedoms were no less dangerous than those going on today. They were just considered more politically correct.

Easy fix...

[PenguinBoyDave]

Get eFax...comes to my inbox. No wasted paper, no 2:00 AM ringing fax machine.

Re:Wha?

[LordOfTheNoobs]

My first impression upon seeing this was that the poster had posted not a fax number of the FCC, but instead a previous ( or possibly current ) employer. Thanks for firing me, here's a hundred thousand "Fuck You"s.

[ The number does appear to belong to the FCC given fact checking ]

Re:Fun day

[frogephant]

It's sickening, terrifying, and getting worse every day. But I am afraid the intelligence agencies' abuse and violation of citizens rights and the law is nothing new. I believe it was Bamford in The Puzzle Palace who described how between WWI and WWII, when Congress had outlawed Government access to telegrams (among other things), the Army (then in charge of communications intelligence) simply made an agreement with Western Union (maybe others too). Army agents would visit the New York office (which then handled all overseas cable traffic from Europe) and sit in the manager's office while he was "at lunch" and peruse the last 24 hours worth of international cables. I suspect the CIA and NSA (FBI most likely also) have equal qualms about violating the law today--especially when we have a President who thinks he is the law. Only way to stop it is to get rid of the agencies. And you know how likely that is to happen.

Re:One solution...

[vandon]

Under the new rules, a junk faxer could visit your website and call that an existing business relationship. The new rules also prevent junk-fax trapping, in which someone posts their fax number on the internet, waits for junk faxes, then files suit against the faxers under the TCPA.

This FCC ruling seems like it's actually tightening up the rules a bit.

FTFA:
This definition also clearly contemplates that the EBR could be formed by any of the following: an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction by the business or residential subscriber Consistent with the legislative history of the TCPA, an inquiry by a consumer could form the basis of the EBR. However, the definition makes it clear that the inquiry must be about the products or services offered by the entity. Thus, we conclude that an inquiry about store location or the identity of the fax sender, for instance, would not alone form an EBR for purposes of sending facsimile advertisments. Merely visiting a website, without taking additional steps to request information or provide contact information, also does not create an EBR.

In addition, we conclude that the EBR exemption applies only to the entity with which the business or residential subscriber has had a 'voluntary two-way communication'. It would not extend to affiliates of that entity. While a fax broadcaster which is retained to send facsimile ads on behalf of an entity that has an EBR with the recipient, it is not permitted to use that same EBR to send a fax ad on behalf of another client.

----
In other words, the faxer cannot say they have an "existing business relationship" because THEY visited YOUR site. The only way that an EBR can be formed is for you to ask them about their products and provide them a fax number. The spammers cannot form a relationship with you. You must form a relationship with them. That relationship does not extend to the spammer's partners. For a partner to spam you, you must also ask them about their products and provide a number.
The pdf also goes on to say that you can note on an advertisment, directory or internet site that it does not accept unsolicited advertisments at the fax number in question.