Poll of the Day > FCC considers allowing telemarketers to go straight to voicemail.

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://gizmodo.com/fcc-considering-nightmare-rules-that-allow-telemarketer-1795788162

It’s a legal gray area that some companies are already taking advantage of, but the FCC is currently deciding if it wants to make it officially acceptable. Telemarketers and robocall services hope to take advantage of a loophole that would allow them to skip the call and just flood your voicemail inbox with messages.

New services are offering “ringless voicemail” services that surprise customers with voicemails without ever getting a ring on their phone. The age of telemarketing being an effective strategy has shifted in recent years due to consumers leaving behind their landlines in favor of smartphones.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 made it illegal for services that utilize automated dialing and artificial or prerecorded voices to contact cellphones without first obtaining consent. One major reason for this is that consumers would endure the related charges from their cellular service provider. But ringless voicemail companies like All About the Message have been leaving messages in consumer’s inboxes in defiance of the law because its operators believe that by skipping the initial call they are legally covered.

Now, All About the Message is petitioning the FCC to make the loophole officially recognized as an acceptable procedure. The petition reads in part, “The act of depositing a voicemail on a voicemail service without dialing a consumers’ cellular telephone line does not result in the kind of disruptions to a consumer’s life — dead air calls, calls interrupting consumers at inconvenient times or delivery charges to consumers.”

But critics believe this will ruin inboxes and waste consumer’s time. Margot Freeman Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center wrote in a dissenting letter to the FCC that this service “will likely overwhelm consumers’ voicemail systems and consumers will have no way to limit, control or stop these messages.” Even people who’ve added their name to the official Do Not Call list are targets. Saunders writes, “We read the law to possibly not apply if they are not considered calls.”

People wouldn’t just receive messages to enter a chance to win a cruise or to apply for a low interest rate credit card. Political messaging, debt collectors and anyone else who wants to send an unsolicited notification would suddenly have free reign to spam the hell out of your inbox. Have an important work voicemail you’ve been waiting on? You’ll have to listen to Trump explain that he needs donations to fight the deep state first.

Services like All About the Message would surely be fine with just existing in a legal limbo but its tactics have begun to cause trouble. An auto dealer that it provided services for is being sued by someone in Florida who received multiple voicemail messages. The company is asking to receive a waiver from any previous infractions if the FCC decides that the service is in violation of regulations.

The FCC isn’t commenting on the petition as long as it’s under review. No timeline is set for when a decision will be made, but the public is free to comment at this time. Of course, there’s no guarantee your comment won’t be crowded out by bots robo-commenting as we’ve seen in the debate over net neutrality.

Why does our government suck so much

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.
---

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

Because it's completely run by Republicans.

Maybe the next election, people will finally fucking learn that.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

Yep. I get voicemail without seeing a call and it's just spam calls.

This isn't great, not everyone has a large mailbox for messages and this could prevent someone from contacting you or leaving an important message.
---

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

What have they done wrong here
---

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

So, if the means to deal with it already exists, why even bother with an ineffective attempt at a ban?

Guess my voicemail is going to be permanently full from now on. No point in even deleting the spam, it'll just free up space for more spam to replace it.

Questionmarktarius posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

So, if the means to deal with it already exists, why even bother with an ineffective attempt at a ban?

It's pretty ineffective, especially in the age of VoIP, scammers can use tons of different phone numbers to harass people, and even if it were the old days that'd be annoying as hell to keep adding blocked numbers.
Side note: how do you block a specific phone number? Pretty sure I asked Verizon a few years ago and they said I can't

streamofthesky posted...

Guess my voicemail is going to be permanently full from now on. No point in even deleting the spam, it'll just free up space for more spam to replace it.

Questionmarktarius posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

So, if the means to deal with it already exists, why even bother with an ineffective attempt at a ban?

It's pretty ineffective, especially in the age of VoIP, scammers can use tons of different phone numbers to harass people, and even if it were the old days that'd be annoying as hell to keep adding blocked numbers.
Side note: how do you block a specific phone number? Pretty sure I asked Verizon a few years ago and they said I can't

Depending on what phone you have..


If android, it's usually call history > click the three dots in the upper righthand corner > blocked contacts ...

I have a LG flip phone from like 5 years ago.

http://www.thecellguide.com/lghowtoblock.php

Try that.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

Can't say I've had any like that and especially not the ones described as being straight to voicemail.

streamofthesky posted...

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

Because it's completely run by Republicans.

Maybe the next election, people will finally fucking learn that.

lolololololshittypropaganda

Keep in mind that the Dems had 8 years to ban the practice. In general, only idiots blame one party for the country's woes.
---

Zeus posted...

lolololololshittypropaganda

Keep in mind that the Dems had 8 years to ban the practice. In general, only idiots blame one party for the country's woes

But who's to say that the Republicans wouldn't have rolled-back that ban? They've rolled-back everything else.

Yeah, both the Republicans and Democrats in Washington fucked this country over.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what they even did wrong here. How can there be any finger pointing when nothing has been done?
---

streamofthesky posted...

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

Because it's completely run by Republicans

And having it completely run by Democrats would be so much better >_>
---

Questionmarktarius posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

I'm surprised that this isn't already widely being done, especially by the shady illegal as fuck scam ones based in Canada.

It is.

Every other day or so, I get robo-voicemail messages. I just delete them and block the number.

So, if the means to deal with it already exists, why even bother with an ineffective attempt at a ban?

Simple: Because having a number blocked is very easy and inconsequential for them to circumvent, while being drawn and quartered is a much more effective and permanent deterrent.

Johnny Eagle posted...

And having it completely run by Democrats would be so much better >_>

That would also not be very good. Balance is good, so you get the good of one side balancing out the bad of the other. Finding that balance is hard, though, especially where it frequently shifts.
---

This would be awesome as long as we all had 2 voicemail boxes. One for spam garbage that all of these messages are automatically sent to and one for real calls.
---

adjl posted...

Simple: Because having a number blocked is very easy and inconsequential for them to circumvent, while being drawn and quartered is a much more effective and permanent deterrent.

Annoying phone calls is not justification for invading India.

Johnny Eagle posted...

And having it completely run by Democrats would be so much better >_>

While most of our Democrats suck, Republican ideology doesn't really believe in corporate corruption.

The only good thing to come out of this election is it sent a strong message to Democrats that people won't keep voting for a robot Democrat owned by wall street. We actually have standards over here. If Hillary had any kind of running policy besides "beat hate" I didn't hear it.

Questionmarktarius posted...

adjl posted...

Simple: Because having a number blocked is very easy and inconsequential for them to circumvent, while being drawn and quartered is a much more effective and permanent deterrent.

Annoying phone calls is not justification for invading India.

You don't have to invade them. Just bring back a few capital offenders as souvenirs after taking a perfectly normal trip there.
---

About time

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

lolololololshittypropaganda

Keep in mind that the Dems had 8 years to ban the practice. In general, only idiots blame one party for the country's woes

But who's to say that the Republicans wouldn't have rolled-back that ban? They've rolled-back everything else.

Yeah, both the Republicans and Democrats in Washington fucked this country over.

If it was actually a law, it would be difficult to roll it back. The problem is when you try to just do EOs instead of passing laws. More importantly, it's the kind of thing they wouldn't bother overturning. You didn't see them try to touch the CALM Act. Frankly, there's little incentive for them to oppose banning the practice anyway. Remember that Republicans were responsible for CAN-SPAM.

Bugmeat posted...

This would be awesome as long as we all had 2 voicemail boxes. One for spam garbage that all of these messages are automatically sent to and one for real calls.

I imagine over time technology will find a way to handle that.
---

Zeus posted...

Remember that Republicans were responsible for CAN-SPAM.

Which is also completely useless and solves nothing.

I love when I get the IRS calls from some guy with a thick Indian or Middle Eastern accent named "Craig"
---

Zeus posted...

The problem is when you try to just do EOs instead of passing laws.

Like what Trump was doing?

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

Because money.
Anytime you let people write their own paychecks and accept lobbyist "donations", the system will fail.
Corruption is corruption, no matter how you spin it.

Would anyone actually object to making the politician's wage mediocre? I say do that and make lobbying treason.

Yup, still waiting for that revolution.. some day. >_>

Questionmarktarius posted...

Zeus posted...

Remember that Republicans were responsible for CAN-SPAM.

Which is also completely useless and solves nothing.

It stopped the legitimate companies from being awful, but fly-by-nights and scammers aren't going to follow that especially since scammers are already breaking laws.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Zeus posted...

The problem is when you try to just do EOs instead of passing laws.

Like what Trump was doing?

Anything a president issues by EO can be overturned by EO. While I'm not sure how viable overturning an overturn is, the next president can just put something into place and the guy after him can overturn it again. All things considered, you should try making laws instead of passing EOs since an EO is best used to overturn an EO.

Syntheticon posted...

SkynyrdRocker posted...

Why does our government suck so much

Because money.
Anytime you let people write their own paychecks and accept lobbyist "donations", the system will fail.
Corruption is corruption, no matter how you spin it.

lolwut? No, that's not the real problem. First off, lobbyists can't just hand people money. That's called bribery and it's illegal. Even unpaid gifts over a certain amount get flagged. When lobbyists provide money, it's not for personal use, it's for campaigns to keep their guys getting elected. Finally, most senators and congressmen are paid pretty well by the government but the real pay-off comes when they're out of politics and getting paid to lobby since they have contacts and the influence to convince people to do what they want. That's in addition to using your post to sell books, etc.

The broader issue is that government is inherently complex and you have a lot of different people with a lot of different agendas and fundamentally different core beliefs. This includes moonbats like Bernie Sanders who feel that the government should provide 100% of the public's need and charities should be abolished to quasi-anarchists who feel that libertarianism doesn't go far enough.

jamieyello3 posted...

Would anyone actually object to making the politician's wage mediocre? I say do that and make lobbying treason.

Yup, still waiting for that revolution.. some day. >_>

If you don't pay them enough, only the very rich (or the very corrupt) could afford to be politicians. That's not a great system.
---