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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."
Can we add text messages to this please?
I'm tired of paying per-message to receive spam.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Full article is behind a login wall, here's a workaround:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577225922293962202.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Make $700/hour working from home no experience required
Reply STOP to unsubscribe
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
... By using this website, service, or product, (henceforth known only as The Service) you grant The Company the right to robocall using any telephone network or communications medium at our sole discretion. Any attempt to subvert, co-opt, or bypass this provision will render use of The Service illegal, and we reserve the right to take any legal measures available to us to end your use of The Service. An electronic signature is as valid as a physical one for the purposes of enforcing this section of the End User Licensing Agreement.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
First it was at home, then my cell, then my work, and now on Slashdot?! Make it stop! For the love of God make it stop!
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise - William Shakespeare
A paywall?
Are you effing serious, subby?
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/robocalls
--
BMO
But if one of a million visitors to your website posts malicious content, expect the federal dns treatment.
I'm sorry, but due to the presence of a word in your post which is in one of the films we own the rights to, as per Digital Millenium Copyright Act (as we and our lackeys choose to interpret it) we shall be forcing this site to shut down indefinitely, further we will freeze all financial accounts, telecommunications access to your residence, issue a character assassinating bulletin to Newswire and one of our company drivers will back over your mailbox and/or leave tracks on your lawn.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
At least your car doesn't ring with a robocall telling you your phone warranty is nearly expired... you're in the store and suddenly a voice on the store's intercom system announces your license plate number and says, "your car will be towed if you do not shut off its alarm within five minutes; it's been wreaking havoc in the lot for 20 minutes already!"
To
your friendly political campaigns efforts to use robocalls to discourage minority voters from attending polls, slander their opponents before the the big vote, or piss you off before supper sleep or sex will remain unaffected by this regulation. should you wish to file a complaint please direct messages to the round smelly bin in your home, or in petrol form to the windows of the appropriate politician accordingly.
regards,
commission of communications.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I do collections for a living. You'd be surprised at how many people start screaming how they're gonna sue me because they're on the Do Not Call list. News flash, kids. Collection calls are NOT covered by the national DNC list.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
I notice that there is no sign of stopping congresscritters, or the survey-takers in their employ, from robocalling. Since that's the vast majority of robocalls that I get I doubt that this is going to make any change in my life.
FYI, it's not enough to tell a phone caller to take you off their list. You need to say, "Put me on your Do Not Call List." They're required by law to do so, and any time they sell or rent their phone list the DNC list is required to go with it. If they tell you they're not required to have a DNC List because they work for some slimeball pretend non-profit that does political work I've found that the following technique works. Say, "If I were to cuss and swear at you then you would put our number on a list of people not to call again. Please put our number on that list." Those two simple changes changed the number of calls that an acquaintence got from 7-8 a night to 7-8 a week.
If you're ever required to put down a phone number, for store discount cards or something, use the same number that I (and a hundred other people do). (321) 123-4567. You'll be amazed at the number of cashiers that think it's really your phone number.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
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
the new rules still leave exceptions for 'non profits' and of course, political callers.
those are the ones we want blocked THE MOST.
this is a useless law. it serves no one but 'looks pretty' on someone's resume.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The FCC didn't give a shit three years ago, when the car-warranty scammers were robo-calling every phone number, including cell phones. How many thousand complaints did they get over that one? No, the FCC didn't do jack until the robo-callers called a US senator. That got them shut down.
Thus proving that senators aren't entirely useless.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Assuming that this is implemented properly in US, does this cover people like me in Canada who are called by telemarketers from US?
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.
Half the time the people calling to collect a debt can't even produce proof that they are legally authorized to collect it.
First response to any collections call should always be, "I would like written proof that your organization owns this debt and are authorized to collect it." A lot of the time, you never hear from them again. I'm not gonna come right out and say they're scammer fucks, but it's funny that said proof almost never, ever, shows up...
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. The miscreants calling you will care about this law almost as much as they care about all of the other laws in place. Passing more laws to stop activity that's already illegal has been tried many times before.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
All that will happen is Canadian/Offshore companies will call the US as US companies now call Canada to get around Canadian rules.
It is now so bad that I don't answer long distance calls where I don't recognize the number.
What is needed is a rapid response/fine structure. Telcos have to block the number the instant they have proof that it is making naughty calls. Not 30 days but 24hours. Also what is stopping these agencies from buying one of these scam offers and then having the FBI track where the money goes and shutting seizing the whole pile?
play with them / eat up there time. Next time I hear that free cruise call I may want to tell them that you have called the $2 a min with a $5 min cost per call support line and then start asking them alot of PC questions.
At least twice a month, I always get called by 920-602-0879 on my cell stating that I've been pre-approved for debt consolidation or some such crap. When I called the number back, it says the mail box of "services" is full. Gee. Imagine that.
I want to block these cocksuckers!
Life is not for the lazy.
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.
They should just make it illegal to use any machine that dials people and plays a recorded message. Anyone wants to reach you (including non-profit organizations, charities, survey organizations, political parties etc), they can employ a bunch of people to ring numbers manually (even if what came down the phone at the other end was a pre-recorded message, if they had to dial the number manually it would be enough to discourage this practice due to the cost of hiring staff to dial)
auto-dialers are one of those inventions the world would be better off without (like the technology Hollywood uses to turn 2D films into crappy-looking near-unwatchable 3D films)
Nice old-school method.
Here's one of my favorite chips from back in the 80s that you still might find useful:
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/Datasheet-06/DSA00100400.html
Let's you detect dialtones, busy & ring signals.
This one:
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/Datasheet-06/DSA00100405.html
decodes the SIT (three tone) error signals (there are eight different ones, actually.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_information_tones
Keep hacking and tell me what you end up with.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
The problem I have with many telephone debt collection agencies is that they are harrasing. There *are* federal and state laws againsr harrassing collections practices, which clearly spell out what is and is not harrassment.
I am not going to accuse you or your employing agency of any of these following practices. I am merely pointing out that many collectors do these things as standard operating practise, banking on the fact that few debtors know their rights under the law.
1) calling outside of business hours, or to a number other than a personal residence or private cellphone. No calling at work.
2) calling after being informed to stop calling, and for all debt collection activity to be done by authorized us mail only. (If told to discontinue telephone negotiations, you must comply, and must do in person or by mail negotiations. This is a federal law. Failure to comply is punishable by fines on a per call basis.)
3) falsely claiming to have a court case ready/threatening suit. (You must be able to provide the name and contact information of your prosecutorial legal counsel and the case number on demand. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of this federal statute)
4) claiming a debt that is not verifiably owned.
5) cashing a payment cheque, then failing to credit the balance. (I have seen this happen many times.)
6)harrassing people other than the debtors, such as family members.
7)repeatedly calling a number that is not for the debtor, demanding to speak to the debtor. (People give a false number frequently, especially with repeat debtors. When the person on the other end informs you that the debtor does not live there, you are not authorised to continue calling just because you think the person you spoke with is lying.)
8) become verbally abusive or threatening.
I am best friends with somebody who's family owns a collections agency, (who keeps paper records! Its crazy!) And have had several lengthly discussions about proper calling practices. I don't think collections is an evil or unnecessary vocation. However, there are plenty of predatory collections agencies out there.
I don't want to name any directly. (They get bitchy about such accusations.) However, there exists a special class of debtor that purposefully creates debts to collect fines from collections agencies via the consumer protection statutes in their areas. These people could not stay in that business if the violation of the statutes were not endemic and profuse.
It is this abusive behavior from collections agencies which gives them a bad name.
With AT&T you can block all texts that come from the internet.
Many other carriers have a similar option. It doesn't cost anything.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
#2 is supposed to come into play when they send a written notice to be contacted only by mail and/or attorney. They tell me to stop calling, I inform them of this and give them the address to mail in the request, if it's a home phone. If it's a work phone, I note it on the account 'NWC' ('No Work Calls') and take out the work phone number. The only time I'll ever call that number again is on a different debtor or if I'm verifying employment persuant to initiating legal action.
#6 is just plain wrong if you're calling about a doctor bill, unless the debtor gives you permission to talk with them.
I've had problems with this myself. There were a few websites around telling people how they could 'legally' screw over a debt collector by such tactics as, predating a letter by a month or more requesting we validate the debt, following with a letter a couple days later, timed to arrive before any reply could be made, demanding we cease, desist, and purge the debt because we did not validate the debt within the 30 day period mentioned in the law. I sent him a copy of the statute stating the 30 days starts the day the letter is postmarked per Arizona law (I was working in Arizona at the time), along with a photostatic copy of the envelope plainly showing the postmark of his letter, along with a copy of the bill and the signed release, along with a cover letter explaining what everything was and demanding payment. 30 days later, we submitted the debt for legal action.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.