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

Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Fax them back with a bunch of black paper taped into a loop.

Re:Solution

[DarkFencer]

I'd imagine these Fax Spammers are using computers with modems to do the dialing so if a fax is 'sent' back to them (assuming they even receive faxes) they will probably go into the bit bucket - not cause an actual printout.

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.

Get Rid of it.

[Drexus]

We had junk faxes to the amount that it represented 90% of what it was used for. Then we got rid of it. If they can't email it, mail it, or call us. Then we don't want their business.

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?

Digital Fax Modem with internal memory or ...

[Qbertino]

A USB fax modem with memory is handy for this sort of thing. Just delete the ones you don't want, archive/print/whatever the rest.
A better idea is to install a tolled number as your fax number. You can actually do both. Fax modem *and* tolled number. 1/2$ per call. Then post your fax number everywhere. Instant profit. You'll have ROI for your fax modem in an instance. You get just get the best there is with no need to worry. Zyxel used to have some with internal memory that ran on their own with no PC needed. Refinance your real customers who fax you stuff in their next bills.

Re:DNC

[LinuxGeek]

A friend with a couple of businesses had a fax spam problem and had requested that the worst (by far) offender please stop wasting their time and his by sending any more faxed offers. He made several more polite voice and faxed requests when they persisted in sending the faxes.

Finally, he printed out a couple of pages with large letters asking to please remove his business from their list, giving his name, fax and phone numbers. He then taped the pages together into an endless loop and faxed his request to be removed. I think he said that his fax log showed that it sent for about two hours before cutting off. Amazingly, he got no more junk faxes from that particular spammer. :)

I hope you don't pile on to those

[artifex2004]

Also, you could publish their phone/fax number on the Internet. I've seen forums that where this is done, and it becomes kind of a DOS attach against businesses who appear to ignore the DNC list in their telephone spaming.

How do you know the submitter is not a competitor or otherwise has malicious intent? Let the law handle it, don't do the same thing you're accusing them of doing. What's the difference between you? Intention means nothing when the actions are the same.

Nice urban legend

[zoikes]

Nice idea, but it never happened... i defy you to find a usable fax number on any of the junk faxes you receive.

Another story in a similar vein is slapping those business-reply-by-mail envelopes on a brick -- recepient pays ALL necessary postage. :)

Re:Nice urban legend

[ajs318]

No it isn't, at least not by an ordinary person. On a land line, the caller ID is sent -- from the called party's local telephone exchange -- after the line polarity reversal and before the first burst of ringing voltage. No circuit is established between caller and called party. The only way to spoof caller ID is from the called party's local exchange. If you're on ISDN and have multiple numbers, there's a message you can send down the D-channel to select one of them; but the remote exchange will actually check that the number really is assigned to you. Spoofing caller ID requires fairly high-level access, and the phone company know exactly who can do it.

However, there may be a way you can apparently spoof it, if the far-end user is sufficiently dim-witted. But it will probably only work for phones, not faxes. Like any phorm of phreaking, this one relies on telephone company greed to succeed.

The old Nynex / Cable and Wireless phone lines avoided patent issues (and coincidentally made sure their equipment would be incompatible with BT's; though manufacturers would soon see a gap for a phone with built-in caller ID display and include both systems in their phones) by using a different method of sending caller ID, which was a burst of DTMF tones between ringing voltage bursts. If someone's telephone supports such dual-mode caller ID (it'd've been labelled "BT and cable compatible"), then you can send DTMF digits from the calling end immediately after the line has been picked up and they will show on the screen.

Obviously that won't work for most people, since it's usual to look at the caller ID on the phone first, then pick it up (or let it ring, as the case may be). The called party would have to be in a hurry, or expecting a call from a known person, to pick up the phone without checking. Furthermore, you can only spoof the number that appears on the screen of the telephone, not the number you hear when you dial 1471.

Re:hit em back

[cskrat]

For all the suggestions that eating their toner is a nice way to retaliate.

I seriously doubt it. They are most likely using an auto-dialing script on a PC fax-modem so that they can cut out the cost and hassle associated with having a live person man the fax machine feeding it junk all day. And if you can actually get through to send a fax in the 1/2 second between numbers on the script, your fax will either be deleted, ignored or treated as a confirmation that your number works without ever going to paper.

You can bet these spammers have put more thought into what you can do to them than you have and have even experienced attempts at retaliation from other persons like minded to yourself. As such don't expect them to be vulnerable to such naive attempts at breaking their system. The best recourse is going to be either changing your number, setting up electronic reception of faxes or contacting relevant and credible legal authorities.

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.