FTC Rules Outlawing Robocalls Go Into Effect Next Week

coondoggie writes "Nearly a year after announcing the plan, new Federal Trade Commission rules prohibiting most robocalls are set to take effect Tuesday, Sept. 1. With the rules, prerecorded commercial telemarketing robocalls will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls. Hopefully the rules will go a long way to helping consumers eat dinner in peace without being interrupted by amazingly annoying telemarketer blather or in this case prerecorded blather. The requirement is part of amendments to the agency's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) that were announced a year ago. After September 1, sellers and telemarketers who transmit prerecorded messages to consumers who have not agreed in writing to accept such messages will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call."

Comments

Political robocalls too?

[patmandu]

...or did they make sure to keep that loophole in there for themselves again...

Re:Political robocalls too?

[Evan Charlton]

No, they left that in. FTFA:

However for those who have called on the FTC to help eliminate the other phone scourge - political robocalls - the new rules will not help. Calls from political campaigns are considered protected speech the FTC said. Ultimately consumers may get some help from state legislatures as many are regulating or looking to pass laws for more control over automated or robocall computer-generated phone-calling campaigns. One group, the National Political Do Not Contact Registry is campaigning to outlaw political robocalling altogether.

Re:Political robocalls too?

[TheGratefulNet]

They left the loophole open. "Call from political candidates are considered protected speech". Really, what did you expect?

system is broken. time for overhaul.

free speech is when I ask you a question and you are allowed to answer and not fear for your life.

free speech is NOT the right to call me and force some stupid idea down my throat.

there IS a difference and its not subtle, either.

in no reasoning person's mind could a robocall, or ANY kind of political call, be called 'protected'.

if that's protected, I should be able to call a judge on his personal phone line and complain about his judgements. call my congresscritters on their personal lines and complain and 'sell' them on my way of doing things.

they want access to us? give us parity and we'll talk. so to speak.

no? not going to work that way?

time to redo the system. maybe from scratch, if that's what it takes.

Re:Political robocalls too?

[blackraven14250]

Don't be embarrassed for not getting politics shoved down your throat. You can hang up on a robot, and they wouldn't even know.

I think this is the wrong way to go about this. They should require every line used for marketing calls to show up on caller ID as "Marketing", and every call for political reasons to show up as "Political". Then people don't have to answer at all. You can add in a registry to keep people from calling, or you can require phone companies to block numbers with that name on the ID to a given number if you really want. The phone company idea would be my preference, as it's really easy to block numbers on our AT&T wireless lines on the net, and there should be no reason you can't do it on a land line just as easily.

But... but... but...

[QuoteMstr]

Governmunt regulation is bad and socialist and communist and will make our children weak and effeminate. I know it's true because Ronald Raygun told me so. Why does the FTC hate America?

RON PAUL! RON PAUL! RON PAUL!

capcha time?

[TheGratefulNet]

I'm thinking it might be time.

something that ensures a human is at the other end, and a thinking one, at that. yeah.

phone spam is getting to the point where we need blacklists and whitelists. wildcards on names, numbers in caller-id. or even trapping on lack of caller-id.

arms race they want? we can meet that challenge.

but its a damned shame we've let ourselves get to this point ;(

Re:Do Not Call Has Worked Perfectely For Me

[Shakrai]

I haven't gotten a single call on my mail line since the day I put it on the Do Not Call List.

Then you are amazingly lucky or keep your phone turned off most of the time. There was at least one outfit that was literally war dialing every single possible valid NANP number. They called police dispatchers, the White House, military bases, Congressional offices, etc, etc. I got at least three or four calls from them per month until the FTC shut them down.

They were a bunch of cocksuckers too. You'd challenge them on ANYTHING and they'd just hang up you. I gave up on trying to get removed from their "list" and tried to pretend to want to do business with them. They wanted a credit card and when I told them I didn't have one and wanted to mail them a check they gave me an "address" of "4321 Main St. Some Random City and Zipcode" and hung up on me.

Eventually I gave up on trying to figure out who they are and just started being incredibly nasty to them. I'd bust out the 'C' word if I wound up with a female caller and various racial epithets for the male callers. Most of them would hang up but a few of them got into shouting matches with me over how horrible it was to use such words. I'm not actually a racist or sexist but I figured it was the best way to piss someone off over the phone with a single word before they could hang up. Since they consumed my cell phone minutes and interrupted multiple dinners I figured it was only fair.