FCC: Phone Companies Can Stop Robocalls
The Associated Press reports the Federal Communications Commission has told phone companies it's ok to block automated phone calls from your phone. I guess there was some confusion among phone companies as to whether they'd be violating other federal regulations by doing so. Some are saying the phone companies didn't want to bother with those calls to begin with as they were no problem for them.
I've wrote here before, as annoying as those calls can be, they don't really bother me that much. I usually just let the answering machine answer the phone. Robocalls usually hang up when they get an answering machine. If it's a call from someone I want to hear from, then I'll stop the machine and answer the phone.
Not so with the wife. She feels driven to pick up the phone every time it rings. Then she's all pissed off when it's a recording. She'll probably continue to do so.
Interesting tidbit of information in the AP article:
"When creating the Do Not Call Registry, politicians exempted themselves: Campaigns are allowed to blast your landline with the automated calls, but not your cellphone."
I suppose that should be no surprise. Politicians exempted themselves from a rule. It looks like this new ruling may change that a little, allowing phone companies to block or send pretty much all those calls to voicemail.
And am I the only one that actually enjoyed Rachel, from Cardholder Services? The story mentions her, too:
"One common example of a scam is "Rachel from Cardholder Services." The automated voice recording encourages listeners to press a number, which connects them with someone who might promise to lower their interest rates in exchange for an upfront fee. The FTC traced the original "Rachel" to multiple people inside the U.S. and demanded refund checks, but copycat scams continue."
She sounded like such a hottie. I always wanted to meet her. I bumped into a girl named Rachel a few years ago that lived on Herrick Avenue. I was pretty excited for a minute, but she insisted she wasn't the one from Cardholder Services.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:04 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've actually been GETTING calls from Cardholder Services". I end up just hanging up when they put me on hold to talk to
someone who I think might take a message to just quit calling me. Whatever happened to Do Not Call?
Connie does that every now and then. She'll wait and press whatever button to be taken off the list. It never works.
The people that do the calls don't pay attention to that and they have ways of blocking their number or making it seem as though they're calling from a different one. Be pretty hard to stop.
I wouldn't be surprised if, given the phone technology of the day, anything they do to try and stop telemarketers will end up blocking at least some legit calls as well.
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