FTC Targets Group That Made Billions of Robocalls

coondoggie writes Given the amount of time the FTC and others have put into curing the robocall problem, it is disheartening to hear that a group of companies for almost a year have been making billions of illegal robocalls. The Federal Trade Commission and 10 state attorneys general today said they have settled charges against a Florida-based cruise line company and seven other companies that averaged 12 million to 15 million illegal sales calls a day between October 2011 through July 2012, according to the joint complaint filed by the FTC and the states.

Comments

Re:And was it really a punishment?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Honestly, if we are stuck with the NSA amassing a database of all the phone calls, ever, anywhere; and a policy of using CIA killer robots on people who annoy us; I'd be a great deal happier if we at least got some visible benefit from the whole mess by using these assets to locate and terminate telemarketers. They have to stick out like a sore thumb in call traffic analysis, and I'm pretty sure that 'the corporate veil' is not rated to withstand most contemporary munitions.

Set up a premium number

[mlkj]

Like this fine man did.
Then enjoy not hearing whatever they try to sell you over the sound of billing them 10p a minute.

Re:Hello?

[arglebargle_xiv]

The brings to mind a profound application that would likely solve this problem, a turing test for robocalls. How long can a computer keep the telemarketers on line, whilst leaving you out of it all.

Already exists, Google "telecrapper 2000".

let's not mince words here

[Anonymous Coward]

so, back of the envelope calculation here, assuming they waste at least 30s of the callees' time for each call before they hang up.
Assuming an average lifespan of 70 for the sake of round numbers, they've wasted somewhere around 52 lifetimes of other people's time.
These people make Jeffery Dahlmer look like a piker. They should be locked in a metal box with spike on this inside. Killing's too good for the lot of them.

I pay to have a phone for my benefit, not theirs.

Re:Hello?

[sacrilicious]

http://www.reddit.com/r/itslen...