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Congress May Permit Robot Calls To Cell Phones
TCPALaw writes "While many hoaxes have circulated in the past about cell phone numbers being opened up to telemarketers, it now may actually happen. A bill, HR 3035 (PDF), has been introduced in Congress, that would create numerous exceptions to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which banned autodialed and prerecorded robot calls to cell phone numbers. If passed, HR 3035 would permit a wide range of autodialed and prerecorded calls to cell phones that are currently prohibited, and would preempt practically all state laws providing similar protections. This is being applauded by debt collectors and banks (PDF) ... as if the bailouts weren't enough, now they get to make you pay for their calls to you."
I will send them a bill if they get through, and only pre-approved (i.e. in my phonebook) calls will ring my phone.
I ignore voicemail from everyone.
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Isn't it amazing what a few thousand dollars in campaign contributions will do?
This is why cell phones should be pay to call. Not pay to receive. You have no control over who calls you, therefore it makes no sense to agree to pay for incoming calls. Any plan without free incoming calls is a non-starter for me.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You have to pay to be called? Someone can rack up your phone bill by repeatedly calling you? That doesn't sound right.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
Do you know who, aside from bill collectors, banks and telemarketers, wants to robo-dial your phone?
Those same congresspeople. For polling, GOTV and of course dirty tricks.
Debt collectors and banks? They shouldn't be robocalling. Those situations are where they have a pre-existing relationship with the person being called, and aren't cold-calling anybody.
Robocalls are the telephone equivalent of spam. Why is it I can put a "No solicitors" sign on my door, but my phone must be subject to cold-calling from telemarketers, solicitations for "charities" and political groups, and any scammer who can operate a telephone? And they want to make it easier to bother lots of people at a time by allowing robocalling?
If anything, every telemarketing call should have to be hand-dialed, etc., no computer assistance. Think of the jobs that would be created.... Do it for the economy.
I wonder how soon the phone companies will work out a deal to let telemarketers call the phone customers, for a fee - because we know how much they care about the customers.
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Just set up your phone to forward all unanswered calls to your Congressman's office. If you don't know who is calling its probably going to be spam anyway, and I just don't answer them anyway and just wait for a message.Though, I just wonder if forwarded calls count against your minutes? Maybe Google Voice can set this up for people without a decent smartphone?
Prerecorded, I don't know. But if a debt collector calls you with an autodialer, you can take them to small claims court for $500, as it's illegal. If you can demonstrate that they willfully ignored the law, it's $1500.
Although the idea behind the *Telephone Consumer Protection Act*, as it is currently, is reasonable, in practice, it does little good. I started to get robo-calls some time ago on my land line from 'Tax Resolution Services'. The number has been on the national do not call register for ages. J. K. Harris and Company were particularly aggressive. Although I told them to put me on their do not call list, asked for a written copy of their do not call policy and did all the right things, they did not stop. Fortunately, I documented it all. Eventually, I took them to Small Claims Court, under the right to private action provision of the *Telephone Consumer Protection Act*. I won the case, along with $1,000 damages, court costs and legal interest. That was several months ago. To date, I have not received a penny. They do not respond to e-mails, certified letters, or telephone calls. I cannot go after their assets, as they seem to rent everything and own nothing. It turns out their head of legal services is only a paralegal, not a lawyer, so I cannot even pursue her for failing to live up to the professional standards of South Carolina Bar Association. So, scumbag telemarketers already have ways of getting around the law. Making life even easier for them would thus be a very bad idea.
Since I don't get enough spam calls as it is. Thanks Congress.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I once worked for a debt collection agency when I was a lot younger, and there were some pretty rigid rules that had to be followed about calling people with regards to debt. These rules were set up by a central governing authority that determined accepted business rules and practices (I don't recall the name of the authority off hand). Among the rules that had to be followed, I remember that collectors were *NOT* allowed to call people multiple times in one day unless they had not reached anyone the first time, or if they had been advised to call back later. Also, hours of attempted telephone contact are restricted to between the hours of 7AM and 9PM local time for the person being called. Further, if the person that a collector reaches claims to be the owner of the phone number that the collector was trying to reach, and affirms that the person the collector is trying to reach cannot be reached at that phone number, then the collector *MUST NOT* call that number again to try to reach the debtor, and other methods of contact must be utilized. Finally, C&D notices, issued in writing, must be adhered to. If the collection agency does not heed these guidelines (the aforementioned ones are just a handful... there are actually about 10 or 12 or them), then the person answering the phone can report the collection company to the authorities, and the collection agency will face a very stiff fine.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I have found the the "beta" spam feature of google voice does a good job of filtering out crap calls. Also, every cell phone that I have used for the past 10 years has had caller ID. I just don't answer calls that I don't recognize. If it's important, they'll leave a voicemail.
-=You might be a geek if your computer is worth more than your car=-
I don't see anything in the bill to object to. Telephone soliciting is still prohibited, and if a debt collector is after you I think you have other things to worry about.
In fact, the only scenario I can see as a real problem is when debt collectors rack up charges robo-calling you. Just take every charge off the amount you owe until it's a wash. Or actually pick up the phone and figure out how to deal with your debt, and inform them that you are being charged, and you do not have a prior business relationship as defined in the Communications Act and this is a mobile phone.
Anyone have a better summary?
they are already exempt from the restriction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocall
Robocalls are made by all political parties in the United States, including but not limited to both the Republican and Democratic parties as well as unaffiliated campaigns, 527 organizations, unions, and individual citizens. Political robocalls are exempt from the United States National Do Not Call Registry. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. However, political groups are excluded from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) definition of telemarketer, thus robocalls from or on behalf of political organizations are still permitted on the federal level.[1]
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The easy solution is an Android or iPhone app to automatically hang up on unlisted calls and/or calls not in your phone book. Perhaps even a central phone number black list for known robocall sources. Phone doesn't even need to ring.
Godaddy is a scam and a ripoff.
"since it isn't a problem for me I am not concerned."
Sigh.
Disclaimers: A) I work in the industry that produces automated dialing systems and B) IANAL. That said, let me enlighten you all as to how the technology shifts over the last few years has conflicted with the existing law. Let's say that you have a loan from a bank and quit paying the bill. The bank has your telephone number and is entitled to contact you due to the existing business relationship. Fine so far. Fast forward several years and your old landline telephone number is now soft-routed through Google Voice to your cell phone. Existing law would make that call illegal because you called their cell phone, even though you - in good faith - called what you thought was a landline number. This law, as I understand, would fix that. PS - Nothing to do with "robocalls" other than to explicitly disallow the random or generated numbers lists which some scum use for robocalls.
I see a lot of people saying they don't answer unknown/unidentified numbers.
You don't want anything bad to happen.
Just be sure to add all the local hospitals to your contacts.
And the city jail. And county. And any local police department numbers.
And all your cow-orkers if you're unfortunate enough to be on-call at work.
And your bank(s).
And any numbers your credit card companies might be calling from.
Might be better to have a blacklist app.
fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, won't get fooled again...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Hmmmm Edolphus Towns is an anagram for:
Lust-Phoned Sow.
Just saying.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
File a complaint. It takes a while, but they do actually process these. I filed several of them years back and recently received E-mails notifying me that they had taken action. You don't get any money out of it, but it's my understanding that the companies in violation are fined, so filing enough complaints will (hopefully) provide a disincentive to harass people.
I've found that if it's *REALLY* important (e.g. life or death), they will call several times before giving up.
For example, when my sister was in the hospital, her boyfriend called my phone several times. I didn't have his number so I didn't answer it. He left a message the first time and told me that he'd keep trying to call.
By his third call, I realized the same number just tried to call and it must be an emergency.
Creditors usually don't do this since they get paid only if you pi
We don't live in Shouldland.
And the simple solution to this: don't identify yourself to anyone unless you've obtained the purpose of their call. Seriously, why give out information that they may not already have?
It's not being courteous, it's being naive - at least in todays' society.
---jstlook ---For that is the way of Elves, for they say both yes AND no, and mean every word of it. --- J.R.R.T.
True, the downside is that you're using the big G and they're mining your texts for data like everything else. However, you can pull up your GoogleVoice account in a browser, and send texts back and forth to whomever for free.
I worked at a company that got 8 $11,000 fines for a total of $88,000. They do follow up at donotcall.gov and they do fine.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Not a prerecorded call, but an autodialer. I forgot to specify, though, that it applies to cell phones only (as far as I know). Article here.
Robocalls -do- leave voicemail. I get tons of it.
Voicemail spam is actually THE major reason I am going to kill my land-line (hear that, FairPoint?).
Sadly, you are right about the parties trying to "close the cell phone loophole". While the bill's primary sponsor is a house gop'er, it is co-sponsored by a NYC democrat.