ROBOCALLS - FTC Working to Reduce Annoying Robocalls

Robocalls have become one of the biggest headaches for all of us. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) almost 2.4 billion robocalls are made every month. No wonder we are all fed up!

You know robocalls. It’s that call that you answer and you hear a recorded message trying to sell you something or trying to scare you into action with a threat to arrest you because you didn’t show up for jury duty or you owe the IRS money. Robocalls are so prolific because telemarketers and scammers can take advantage of computerized auto dialers to deliver pre-recorded messages over the phone. There have been estimates that half of the robocalls that consumers receive will be scam calls by the end of this year.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, June 25^th, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a three-pronged approach to fight robocalls. In 2018, the FTC received more than 10,000 complaints a day about illegal robocalls. The FTC effort includes,

A crackdown on illegal robocalls, under the name “Operation Call it Quits,” along with 25 other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The FTC only can sue robocall violators in civil court. It, however, does coordinate with other law enforcement agencies who can charge robocall violators in criminal court.

Robocalls are illegal if the telemarketer has not received your written consent to call or send a message to you. Merely doing business with them does not give them permission to robocall you. Also, new rules require telemarketers to allow you to opt out of future robocalls during a prerecorded telemarketing call. Certain robocalls are allowed such as from political candidates running for office or your doctor’s office reminding you of an appointment.

Secondly, the FTC is educating the public on how it can avoid robocall scams. Its latest public education campaign urges everyone to,

·         Hang Up. If you receive a recorded message, hang up. Do not speak to them. Do not press a button.

·         Block. Block the robocall number with an app on your smartphone or a service from your cell phone or landline provider. This will help to reduce the number of robocalls that you receive.

·         Report. Report the robocall number to the FTC at www.ftc.gov/complaint. The FTC maintains a database of robocall phone numbers and issues a daily report to government and private entities to help them investigate robocallers and block their phone numbers. Your input is valuable to the FTC.

Finally, the FTC encourages private industry to develop new technologies that reduce the number of robocalls we all receive. In the past it has offered cash rewards for the development of phone number blocking apps. It is currently encouraging the development of a new technology called STIR-SHAKEN that will make it more difficult for scammers to spoof phone numbers.



For more information on how you can protect yourself from robocalls check out,

FTC:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/how-stop-unwanted-calls?utm_source=sweep-partner&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=unwanted-calls



Here are more details about Operation Call it Quits

FTC:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/06/ftc-law-enforcement-partners-announce-new-crackdown-illegal



More information about robocalls,

FTC:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0259-robocalls

NBC News:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/robocalls-2019-still-getting-worse-stir-shaken-help-some-n1000681