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FCC Cracks Down on Robocalls
Cara_Latham writes "If you want to receive annoying robocalls from telemarketers you will have to opt in. Federal Communications Commission rules now require that telemarketers get your consent before dialing your number. Telemarketers will also have to obtain consent even if they had previously 'done business with' the consumer on the receiving end of a call."
Bahhh... turns out they're using a referral check from Google News, follow the link here to get around it.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
A paywall?
Are you effing serious, subby?
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/robocalls
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BMO
Glad I don't live in the US - The whole paying to receive calls and messages is unheard of here (NZ) and as far as I am aware, most other countries around the world. . Unless roaming and then I believe universally you are pinged with exorbitant cost.
. .
VOIP is great . . . until your Internet connection goes down. Our land line has gone down once, for a couple of hours, since 1997. We've lost Internet connectivity for days at times.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
For AT&T it's 7726 ("spam" on the keys). They appear to be using the information provided to go after the spammers. Plus, if you forward it, you (and they) have a record so you can apply for a refund of the SMS fees on those messages.
AT&T **always** has removed text charges I complain about. And I call and complain about a 9 cent charge I didn't want. I don't even have a text plan, and don't text anybody. I keep telling them to block all texts always no matter what, but whenever one shows up on my phone, I get charged for it. Again, it has, fortunately, been super easy to call AT&T and complain, every single time.
Pretty sure they're paying the support staff a lot more money for the time spent on the call to reverse a 9 cent charge. If everybody did this, I'm sure cell companies would lose enough money to get their act together.
Morphing Software
Verizon land lines already have a whitelisting system. I use it. In fact I wouldn't keep a land line at all without it. Unfortunately the whitelist only allows 10 numbers. They have a blacklist system too and both can be active. Now I only ever get calls from people I know. Occasionally I have to turn it off because I am expecting some commercial oriented call and that's when I am reminded about why I use whitelisting 100% of the time. Cell providers should have the same system. Whitelisting and blacklisting should be standard features in the modern world.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
I get robocalls from companies I have no business relation with on my mobile phone, which is also on the do not call list. This is currently illegal. When this happens, I dutifully fill out the forms on the FCC complaint site, with all the details. Afterward I am sent a snail mail letter acknowledging the form. Rinse and repeat, but no changes. I still get robocalls from the same number as the complaint. I'm talking 20 or 30 of complaints over six months.
So this new "tougher" rule is supposed to do what exactly? Nobody is enforcing the existing rules, why make new rules? For good PR, I guess.
SMS doesn't work that way.
That depends, if the message is comign from a SMS short code rather than a normal phone number then the carrier could remove the sender in question from their short code program if they sending out spam or fraudulently signing peopel up for premium services. I'm not saying that they necesicarily will, but they do have that ability.