6 ms·
It’s already illegal to place robocalls to cell phones (under TCPA). It’s also illegal to robodial any number on the Do Not Call list, but unlike the TCPA, the
by BonesJustice 8y ago
It’s already illegal to place robocalls to cell phones (under TCPA).
It’s also illegal to robodial any number on the Do Not Call list, but unlike the TCPA, there is a carve out for political campaigning. Thanks, Congress!
Of course, neither does much good when the laws are nearly impossible to enforce. Thanks to caller ID spoofing, it’s usually impossible to tell who actually called you, so good luck collecting damages.
- pc86 8y agoIf you really wanted to find out you could just ask the phone company, they know the real number/identity of the person calling you, or at the very least a layer deeper than caller ID. It's not like caller ID spoofing makes you anonymous.
- BonesJustice 8y agoI think there are privacy regulations that prevent the phone company from deanonymizing a caller without a warrant. Or at least that’s the excuse I’ve heard cited before.
- bluGill 8y agoIf you are on the do not call list a warrant SHOULD be easy to get though.
- komali2 8y agoI'll give it a shot, I get about five per day.
- bluGill 8y agoGood luck. It seems like it should be possible to track these people down, but the effort is high enough that I just can't get the energy to bother.
- vorpalhex 8y agoSeveral phone carriers have free anti-spam settings you can enable. The one for t-mobile has been pretty solid.
- komali2 8y agoI use T-mobile, but unfortunately have a google voice number. I guess having my calls forwarded from gvoice somehow disables this feature. As for google voice, I have no idea how many spam calls it's intercepting, but about five a day get through.
- TallGuyShort 8y agoThrough what agency? My local police just give you a pamphlet on avoiding phone scams. And nothing that I've seen has come from my diligent reporting to the FCC. I doubt the FBI is going to give me the time of day. I just don't answer unknown numbers in my phone anymore.
- bluGill 8y agoThat is why I said should. You would need to be a lawyer to navigate the court system. For the local police, you have to push them. They are as lazy as anyone else. They also see murder and speeding as more important crimes to focus on - you need to be annoying enough that they help. You may need to walk into court yourself to get the warrant with no police help - something you can do in theory, but in practice I don't know if anyone has ever done it.
- kleinsch 8y agoMost robocalls come from VOIP addresses outside the US, which can be created/rotated just like spam email addresses.
- boomlinde 8y agoThen ban the VOIP providers. Maybe they'll adjust their policies accordingly.
- MaxBarraclough 8y agoThis is essentially how email works, right? Legitimate companies who deal with mass email on behalf of their clients (such as MailChimp.com) are very careful to prevent abuse, precisely because of the risk of getting blocked (which would sink them, of course).
- cmurf 8y agoI'm using Google Voice, 90% of my incoming calls are spam bots. Ban Google?
- panzagl 8y ago90% of everybody's incoming calls are spam bots.
- Sohcahtoa82 8y agoThis is true for me, but only because nobody calls me except for my wife, and even those calls only happen when she's on break at work and bored. All my other non-work-related communication is over SMS, Facebook Messenger, or Discord.
- boomlinde 8y agoI've never been robocalled, but I've had "microsoft support" scammers call me once. I'm in Sweden. Not sure if the difference between 90% and 0% is technological or legislative.