What Can You Do to Stop Junk Faxes?

olddoc asks: "I am having a growing problem with junk faxes. Unlike email, it costs me money when I get a fax so junk faxes really tick me off. A while ago, I gave my number to a removal number and now I am getting more junk faxes than ever." What options are there for dealing with this? If you've also had this problem, what did you do and how effective was it in stopping unwanted faxes?

Comments

PC FAX for receiving.

[ViXX0r]

At our office we turned off auto-answer on the fax machine proper and set up FAX receiving on a PC plugged into the FAX line to receive them. Now all the incoming faxes are just saved in the computer. The ones we want we print out, the spam you can just delete.

If in the UK...

[KingDaveRa]

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/fps/ - the Fax Preference Service works wonders in stopping junk faxes. Same goes for the Phone Preference Service, and the Mail Preference Service.

Not a lot of help if you're in the rest of the world, but still - this could be useful to somebody!

Re:Removal doesn't help

[goodie3shoes]

Here's the US FCC's info on junk faxes http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/unwantedfaxes .html Interesting that the business advertised is liable even if they didn't send the fax. But this doesn't really help. Since the senders are scumbags, one can't be surprised that they don't follow the rules. Why couldn't software scan received faxes for telltale signs of junk such as "Cancun", "vacation", "To all Employees", and trash them as we do with email filters?

Re:How Much do you need faxes?

[Dadoo]

I'd say that faxes are a disappearing technology.

As much as I'd like to agree with you (because I think there are many better solutions), I can't. I work for a company that processes insurance claims and many of our claims are submitted via fax. Until about 6 months ago, they had 8 or 9 fax machines receiving the faxes, but they could barely keep up. Then, I replaced them with a couple of servers - 16 lines each - running Hylafax. On average, we're receiving 800 to 900 faxes a day, but during January and February, we were averaging around 1400.

Can't Get Rid of it.

[binaryspiral]

Faxes are official legal copies of documents. Email attachments are not.

Anyone who has to send a signed or legal documents quickly - a fax is the only option unless you send it via courier.

TCPA

[deblau]

Read this. In particular:

The FCC can issue warning citations and impose fines against companies violating or suspected of violating the junk fax rules, but does not award individual damages. If you have received a fax advertisement from someone who does not have an established business relationship with you or to whom you have not provided prior express permission to send fax advertisements, you can file a complaint with the FCC. You can file your complaint by completing the FCC's on-line complaint Form 1088 at: www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html; e-mailing fccinfo@fcc.gov; calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.