Dan Antion

Robo NoMo? – #WATWB

I apologize for the fact that this post may be a little too US-centric for WATWB, but it has the potential to be such good news, that I had to share it. It’s a rare moment these days, when the US Congress and our President actually work together and try to do something good for the American people. Ending Reducing the volume of Robocalls is certainly something that would be appreciated by all Americans, regardless of their political preference. I don’t care which politician(s) take credit (all of them will), as long as this new law has some impact.

“The legislation comes after Americans’ phones rang 5 billion times in the month of November due to robocalls alone – almost 2,000 calls per second – according to a May report by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The report also estimated that nearly half of all calls to cell phones are scam robocalls.”

The legislation isn’t prefect, but it does put several good things into law:

“The key is requiring phone companies to help stop the calls before they reach the consumer and do it at no additional charge.”

Actually, I wouldn’t care if we had to pay a little bit for the service, especially since we still have a landline and some research appears to be required to extend the best benefits to those:

“The law also requires the Federal Communications Commission and service providers to develop a system which informs customers when they’re receiving a “spoofed” call – when the caller ID is made to look like it’s coming from the same area code, or a well-known agency, such as the Internal Revenue Service or company. That system, however, will not work for home phones connected to copper landlines, so the measure calls on the FCC and phone companies to find an alternative for those customers.”

Finally, the law addresses the activity that has been driving me crazy lately, spam text messages:

“Beyond robocalls, the law also directs the FCC to create new rules that will help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted texts too.”

I always expect Jeff Bezos to say “Hello Mate”

There are many articles around about this legislation. Just search for “US Robocall Legislation” – My excerpts came from an NBC News story, located here. I don’t expect this law to solve all the problems, but it’s a start.

The “We are the World” Blogfest is now in its third year. This blogfest’s goal is to spread the message of light, hope and love in today’s world. We are challenging all participants to share the positive side of humanity. This month’s co-hosts Damyanti Biswas, Shilpa Garg, Lizbeth Hartz, Sylvia Stein and Mary J. Giese welcome participants and encourage all to join in during future months. #WATWB is a blog hop on the last Friday of every month.

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64 comments

    • I’m with you on this one, Gwen. We have started to see the “Possible Spam” warnings show up. We still have a landline, so I hope they get that aspect working as well.

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  2. This is the first I’ve heard of this new law, Dan, so thank you for sharing for #WATWB. Yes, it is something good that’s being done by the government to stop what is a highly annoying practice. (The number of November calls is mind boggling.) With cell phones, it’s easy to not answer a call from an unknown number as has been my practice. I hope the FCC and phone companies help customers with landlines so they don’t have to worry about who’s on the other end when they pick up (even with caller ID).

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    • I’m glad you liked this, Mary. We are one of those landline holdouts. Several years ago, we lost power for 10 days. Everything failed except that landline phone. We didn’t have cell service at all for 3 days and then it was unreliable for the next 3-4. I doubt we will ever cut that cord.

      It’s one thing not to pick up when you don’t know, but we’ve been dealing with so any unknown numbers in this transition to retirement (healthcare) that we don’t always have the luxury to ignore the call.

      Thanks for co-hosting !

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  3. I despise robocalls and just yesterday disconnected our landline because of them. The GOP won’t stop calling here hourly, I don’t know why. I’m not paying the phone company more money for them to do that which they should have the sense to do to begin with: that is, stop robocalls. We don’t have to have a landline, phone company. Just saying…

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  5. Reducing the number of robocalls would be wonderful. Getting a “potential spam” warning would be even better!! Definitely good news.
    🐾Ginger 🐾

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  7. We’ve not had a landline in years, but the robo calls I get on my cellphone….!! And some of the numbers look like I am calling myself. And then they leave me a voicemail?! I am so over this….Thanks for the good news, Dan.

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    • I hope it works, Lois. I get more spam calls and text messages on my cell phone than we get on the landline (yes, we still have one). The texts are the worst, because it’s a 4-step process to block them, and you can’t block the ones that are generated from an email.

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  8. The first I heard of robocalls with political parties calling was from an American friend. Thankfully Brit politicians haven’t stooped that low (yet!) but we do suffer from a lot of automatec nuisance calls and the main phone company tries to deal with them – usually by upping their charges… But anyway, I hope this works for you. Peace of mind should be a given for living a good life with your telephone – whether landline or cell phone.

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  9. “nearly half of all calls to cell phones are scam robocalls” … in my case, that number is more in the range of 90%.

    Once upon a time, cell phone numbers were confidential. Now I believe the cell numbers are being sold to marketers just like the land lines were. It’s really quite irritating. Is there any other service we pay for as consumers, and yet marketers can use our service ‘against’ us EVERY. SINGLE. DAY?

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    • I remember the glory days when cell phone numbers were secure. Seems like forever ago, Joanne. I get so much spam there, it’s not funny. I hope they can implement these changes quickly.

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      • The sad part is they can only control companies within their borders. Many of these spam callers (at least here in Canada) don’t necessarily originate in Canada and prosecuting them for violation of the anti-spam laws is next to impossible.

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  10. Hi Dan – well we all probably suffer from similar problems – so if the problem can be helped, solved in the US it’ll filter across to us. They are pains in the butts … thanks for the update though – cheers Hilary

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  12. Another hold out on having a landline. Reason being we have children here daily and to not have access to call out in an emergency is not an option. (And it’s also a regulation for licensing) I hear rumblings of allowing us to opt out of landlines but I will likely hold onto mine just for the kids sake. But…..robo calls, political calls, telemarketer calls, are going to be the death of me. When they use our local hospital number for example, it’s kinda hard to not pick up the phone. Frustrating. Glad to hear the changes may be coming down the pike.

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  13. Fingers crossed that the new rules work as intended. Robo and spam calls are a big problem here too and our federal officials are working with our regulatory agency the CRTC to impose new rules on telecom providers to prevent this type of abuse. For me it’s the scam artists calling from overseas with spoofed numbers that are the most aggravating because they actually cause harm to those who get suckered into sending them money.
    I hope the new rules on both sides of the border cut down on unwanted calls once and for all.

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    • For yeasts, our carriers were required by law to put through every call. That law has been relaxed and I think they can identify most spammers. I just hope they can implement the technology soon.

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  15. This is good news indeed. Much better than the other news of the day. We have just unplugged the landline – as our children all have our cell phone numbers. But then they started hitting the cell phone! Urg.

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  16. About 80% of my calls are spamy. Fewer with texting. A couple days ago I reported a voicemail to the Social Security Admin which went, “before this goes to court, before you get arrested, call ….. ” Made me mad they were trying to scare old people (not me.) The SSA form asked what my cell phone company was which I thought was interesting. Anyway, it’s good to know there’s hope on the horizon!

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  17. Moving in the right direction for a change. I like it. Everyone hates the calls, too many of them are scams. I’ve never recovered from being called by my own phone number. That took the cake.
    It’s gotten so hard to answer. I never know if it’s the orthopedist or some voice of Ashley calling to get me to claim my award. Who should have to live like this?

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    • During the Medicare open-enrollment period, the calls were endless. “You’re qualified” “Let us help you decide” “We have a special offer just for you” I couldn’t hang up fast enough.

      The worst are the ones that ask “Is this Daniel?” If I answered, I would say “speaking” – they would say “please say Yes if this is Daniel.” We had read that some of the scams want to record you saying “yes” so they can process a change to your insurance or utility provider, or who knows what. These people need to be behind bars.

      Thanks for letting me vent more ;-)

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  20. Well, that’s a bit of good news out of Washington. I was under the impression that they were all on vacation. We have noticed that many calls to our cellphone display as ‘spam ‘ or ‘ suspicious’. Not sure if it is related, but it is helpful. Thanks for sharing good news!

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  21. Yes, it’s a start which I hope begins real soon. Sometime I get so frustrated with those stupid robocalls that I unplug the phone. People I know can reach me on my I phone. I would love to see the government do their job and serve the people instead of fighting among themselves. If they spent as much time and money on serving the people as they spend on their own selfish agendas our Country would be a far better place. Right now, I’m ashamed of our government.

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  22. We got rid of our land line to get rid of the calls. Then they found our cell phone. Now the text messages. I think we’ve received at least a couple of texts from each and every political candidate. I’m guessing the ‘off the grid’ folks are getting a real chuckle about what we’re dealing with right now.

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  23. We don’t get a lot of robocalls in Canada, thank goodness. My parents lived in California and they were constantly being bombarded! It came to the point where my father would blow a coach’s whistle into the phone to try and discourage them. I’m glad something is finally being done. Unwanted texts are fairly common, so I hope whatever happens in the U.S. to stop them will be adopted here.

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