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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?
Fax them back with a bunch of black paper taped into a loop.
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.
University - a box of academia nuts.
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.
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?
BSA: "Would you like a free Software Audit"? me: "No, thanks. My software is all Free".
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.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
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.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
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.
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.
My God! It's full of eval()'s.
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.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.