3 ms·

Maybe they care now, but for a good 2 or 3 decades they sure didn't seem to mind.

Alupis 4y ago
In fairness, this robocall surge has only become a real problem in the past maybe 5ish years. Before that, you did receive robocalls, but they were infrequent. Now, I don't know anyone that doesn't receive at least one per day... I often receive multiple. My phone has become useless because of this...
wpietri 4y ago
The FCC has been going after robocallers all this time. E.g., here's one from 15 years ago that I happened to remember, Cardholder Services: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-07-977A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-07-977A1.pdf The problem they're solving now is securing the phone network, which is a harder problem. Important barriers included 1) decades of history where it wasn't necessary, 2) entrenched industry players not wanting to change anything, 3) an ill-considered opening up of telephone system interconnection, 4) a quasi-religious deregulatory/free-market credo popular among a segment of politicians, and 5) politicians who are more sensitive to the concerns of rich execs. I think the reason it is happening now is that a lot of the people arguing against this have finally realized that it's dooming the telephone call, so their businesses are feeling it.
jsmith45 4y ago
I'm confused. Historical robocalls by legit marketing firms were largely eliminated by the rule banning making such calls to cell phones, combined with the do-not-call registry. That largely fixed the problem from legitimate robocallers (except the handful of exceptions made in the relevent laws). The more recent robocall problem (that this order is trying to address) is from literal scammers, who are knowingly operating illegally, hence why they spoof Caller ID, etc. These have mostly only been been a major problem in the past 5 or so years, perhaps a bit longer.

In fairness, this robocall surge has only become a real problem in the past maybe 5ish years. Before that, you did receive robocalls, but they were infrequent. Now, I don't know anyone that doesn't receive at least one per day... I often receive multiple. My phone has become useless because of this...

wpietri 4y ago

The FCC has been going after robocallers all this time. E.g., here's one from 15 years ago that I happened to remember, Cardholder Services: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-07-977A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-07-977A1.pdf The problem they're solving now is securing the phone network, which is a harder problem. Important barriers included 1) decades of history where it wasn't necessary, 2) entrenched industry players not wanting to change anything, 3) an ill-considered opening up of telephone system interconnection, 4) a quasi-religious deregulatory/free-market credo popular among a segment of politicians, and 5) politicians who are more sensitive to the concerns of rich execs. I think the reason it is happening now is that a lot of the people arguing against this have finally realized that it's dooming the telephone call, so their businesses are feeling it.

jsmith45 4y ago

I'm confused. Historical robocalls by legit marketing firms were largely eliminated by the rule banning making such calls to cell phones, combined with the do-not-call registry. That largely fixed the problem from legitimate robocallers (except the handful of exceptions made in the relevent laws). The more recent robocall problem (that this order is trying to address) is from literal scammers, who are knowingly operating illegally, hence why they spoof Caller ID, etc. These have mostly only been been a major problem in the past 5 or so years, perhaps a bit longer.