4 ms·

After I get an unwanted robocall, I want to dial "*RC" for "RoboCall". I get a credit on my next phone bill for 25 cents. The phone company charges the originat

After I get an unwanted robocall, I want to dial "*RC" for "RoboCall". I get a credit on my next phone bill for 25 cents. The phone company charges the originator 50 cents. Now the phone company has an incentive to track all robocalls. And I have a little compensation for my time.

greenyoda 14y ago
If the phone company is going to charge the originator, they'd have to verify that the call you reported was actually an illegal RoboCall. Some dishonest people might report people whom they know but don't want to hear from as RoboCalls. Others might erroneously report organizations that are legally allowed to call them, like companies with which they had a business relationship or political candidates. Verifying that each claim was valid would probably cost the phone company much more than 50 cents.
- cabalamat 14y ago
  > If the phone company is going to charge the originator, they'd have to verify that the call you reported was actually an illegal RoboCall If I'm getting unwanted calls, I don't really care whether the government thinks they are legal, I just want them stopped. How about this solution: if the caller ID is on a whitelist, it goes straight through. If not, the caller gest asked a question (which should filter out robots). If there are determined human unwanted callers, a second line of defence would be to ask them to key in a 4 digit code (and I'd only give the solution to people who wanted to call me).
  - Firehed 14y ago
    Google voice lets you do something along those lines. I personally found it incredibly tedious and quickly turned it off. I think the grandparents idea of *RC is spot on. Verification can be done through volume; i.e. a one-off may do nothing but repeated reports indicate something is up. Just like reporting spam in email. Along those lines, some sort of charge-to-call system may work. Like calling collect in reverse, but the receiving party can decide to not charge the fee if its someone they know (or flip it, hitting # within 30 seconds of an inbound call will capture the fee and disconnect)
dennisgorelik 14y ago
That's a great suggestion. I would improve it even further: Charge not $0.50, but amount depending on how many complaints that caller is getting. The more complaints - the higher is per-complaint charge. All the way to $10 per unwanted call. First few complaints per month - no charges. After that fines go to $1 per reported unwanted call and up. Phone company gets 50% or the charges. The remainder is deducted from call recipient bill. If caller is legally allowed to harass call recipient (for example in debt collection case) - that could be solved by special amendment. Whether the call is robocall or any other unwanted call - it does not really matter.

greenyoda 14y ago

If the phone company is going to charge the originator, they'd have to verify that the call you reported was actually an illegal RoboCall. Some dishonest people might report people whom they know but don't want to hear from as RoboCalls. Others might erroneously report organizations that are legally allowed to call them, like companies with which they had a business relationship or political candidates. Verifying that each claim was valid would probably cost the phone company much more than 50 cents.

cabalamat 14y ago
> If the phone company is going to charge the originator, they'd have to verify that the call you reported was actually an illegal RoboCall If I'm getting unwanted calls, I don't really care whether the government thinks they are legal, I just want them stopped. How about this solution: if the caller ID is on a whitelist, it goes straight through. If not, the caller gest asked a question (which should filter out robots). If there are determined human unwanted callers, a second line of defence would be to ask them to key in a 4 digit code (and I'd only give the solution to people who wanted to call me).
- Firehed 14y ago
  Google voice lets you do something along those lines. I personally found it incredibly tedious and quickly turned it off. I think the grandparents idea of *RC is spot on. Verification can be done through volume; i.e. a one-off may do nothing but repeated reports indicate something is up. Just like reporting spam in email. Along those lines, some sort of charge-to-call system may work. Like calling collect in reverse, but the receiving party can decide to not charge the fee if its someone they know (or flip it, hitting # within 30 seconds of an inbound call will capture the fee and disconnect)

dennisgorelik 14y ago

That's a great suggestion. I would improve it even further: Charge not $0.50, but amount depending on how many complaints that caller is getting. The more complaints - the higher is per-complaint charge. All the way to $10 per unwanted call. First few complaints per month - no charges. After that fines go to $1 per reported unwanted call and up. Phone company gets 50% or the charges. The remainder is deducted from call recipient bill. If caller is legally allowed to harass call recipient (for example in debt collection case) - that could be solved by special amendment. Whether the call is robocall or any other unwanted call - it does not really matter.