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FTC Fines Four Operations Responsible For Billions of Illegal Robocalls (cnet.com)
Four companies that made billions of illegal robocalls have been caught and fined. From a report: The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday said the agency reached settlements with four operations responsible for billions of illegal robocalls pitching debt-relief services, home security systems, fake charities, auto warranties and Google search results services. The companies were charged with violating the FTC Act, as well as the agency's Telemarketing Sales Rule and its Do Not Call provisions.
"We have brought dozens of cases targeting illegal robocalls, and fighting unwanted calls remains one of our highest priorities," said Andrew Smith, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, in a release. "We also have great advice on call-blocking services and how to reduce unwanted calls at [our website.]" The settlements come as the agency focuses on combating illegal robocalls. The four companies, NetDotSolutions, Higher Goals Marketing, Veterans of America and Pointbreak Media, are banned by court orders from robocalling and most telemarketing activities, according to the FTC's release. Further reading: FTC Tells ISPs To Disclose Exactly What Information They Collect On Users and What It's For.
"We have brought dozens of cases targeting illegal robocalls, and fighting unwanted calls remains one of our highest priorities," said Andrew Smith, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, in a release. "We also have great advice on call-blocking services and how to reduce unwanted calls at [our website.]" The settlements come as the agency focuses on combating illegal robocalls. The four companies, NetDotSolutions, Higher Goals Marketing, Veterans of America and Pointbreak Media, are banned by court orders from robocalling and most telemarketing activities, according to the FTC's release. Further reading: FTC Tells ISPs To Disclose Exactly What Information They Collect On Users and What It's For.
That'll stop 'em!
According to the article, it varied from $500k-$3m.
Depending on the size of the company, that could range from a slap on the wrist to bankruptcy.
Maybe we need to report fines in relation to gross revenue or net operating income...
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
It's been said before, but worth reiterating. The operations that were 'fined', likely run out of a condo suite, will fold without paying the fine, and then re-emerge down the block under a different name and do the same thing over again.
The growing telemarketing problem can be solved by simply holding the telcos responsible. Anything else is theatrics meant to distract the public from the fact that the telcos make money through this arrangement, and have successfully bought their way into Washington and the regulators there.
Message itself is still protected. But what good is speech if you have no phone call, Mr. Anderson?
Uhh... with math?
There's 300 million cell phones in the US (roughly) plus a bunch of land lines but let's forget about the land lines entirely.
You only need 3.3 calls per line to hit 1 billion. Given that I've gotten 3 robo calls just TODAY on my line it's not hard to see how you'd get to "billions" really quick. Hell let's say 200 million of those phones aren't on robocall lists. Now you only need 10 calls per lines to round up to 1 billion.
So, yeah, very easy to see how we'd be hitting 1 billion robo calls in the US every week or maybe 50-55 billion a year.
Since they don't tell us the two mid-range amounts, all we know for sure is that the total fines were between $4.5M and 9.5M for "billions" of calls. "Billions" is probably at least 2 billion, and likely more, so the fine per call was probably substantially less than $9.5M/2B =~ $0.005/call.
Meanwhile, a quick search suggests the going rate for legitimate robocall-selling companies is between about $0.06 and $0.02/call depending on volume.
So, at the extreme high end, the fines *maybe* amount to about( $0.005/$0.02=) 25% of gross income, and likely *far* less than that. $7M in total fines, 3 billion calls, and an average price of $0.04/call translates to only ($5M/3B calls / [$0.04/call] =) 5.8% of gross income.
Sounds like just the cost of doing business to me, hardly enough to seriously discourage other illegal robocalling companies.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
While it is the FCC's job to regulate, it is Pai's job to prevent the FCC from doing its job.
This is true of most Trump appointments. Department of Education -- take money from poor public schools and give it to rich kid schools.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Given that call centers running these operations can have more than one outgoing line, your math is irrelevant.
Sounds like you are assuming a single source of calls that operates in real time. That's not how any of this works.
It is ALSO illegal to do so in the US. But amazingly these companies choose to break the law because, for years, they were able to get away with it. Because of the design of the core infrastructure of VOIP and our telephone system, the call originators were able to spoof the source of the calls, and typically sourced them from a jurisdiction in which the US agencies have trouble investigating and/or prosecuting.
>"How long does it take to connect a phone call? To make a billion phone calls would take over 20 years."
But there are hundreds or thousands of entities doing it continuously, at least 2/3rds of the day (typical waking hours). And each entity can make potentially hundreds of calls simultaneously. So that is potentially hundreds of thousands of calls every several seconds. That is perhaps 1 billion each DAY!
...One can choose to listen or not. No?
I wasn't aware that robots, auto-dialers, or tape-recording machines had rights to free speech under the US Constitution.
They do not.