Congress is finally doing something useful. Hope this works.

“The US House of Representatives approved a new anti-robocall bill by a nearly unanimous vote.

Called the TRACED Act, this law will penalize scammers and require phone carries to block robocalls and ensure all incoming calls are from real numbers.

The bill comes after complaints came pouring in about the scams, as more than 49 billion robocalls were placed just this year – 5.6 billion occurred in November alone.

The TRACE ACT, short for Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, was approved by a 417-3 vote and sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr, a democrat from New Jersey…”

https://mol.im/a/7760455

Cue the “It won’t make any difference” posts, but hopefully this will be the start of something, and long past time.

Thank God. I am glad that something is finally being done.

quote:

Representatives Justin Amash (I-Mich.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) were the three votes against passing the bill, as reported by The Hill.

Just forward all the robocalls to these three...

it won't make any difference

remember we did this with the 'Do Not Call Registry'

so full of holes as to be worthless

but the politicians are 'Doing Something' !!

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quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

The bill comes after complaints came pouring in about the scams, as more than 49 billion robocalls were placed just this year – 5.6 billion occurred in November alone.

Those numbers are crazy. Jesus.

And I 100% support this. I have a blocked list on my phone that is well over a hundred numbers now. Just ridiculous.

quote:

The TRACE ACT, short for Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, was approved by a 417-3 vote and sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr, a democrat from New Jersey…”

On a side note, I hate this prick...even if he was the one who nominated me to the Academy.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Those numbers are crazy. Jesus.

And I 100% support this. I have a blocked list on my phone that is well over a hundred numbers now. Just ridiculous.

Sadly, that doesn't even help very much, because a lot of the robocallers now use caller ID spoofing - in other words, the number that shows up on your phone isn't the number they're actually calling from. They usually use a random number from your local area code so that it looks like a real call.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Those numbers are crazy. Jesus.

And I 100% support this. I have a blocked list on my phone that is well over a hundred numbers now. Just ridiculous.

Sadly, that doesn't even help very much, because a lot of the robocallers now use caller ID spoofing - in other words, the number that shows up on your phone isn't the number they're actually calling from. They usually use a random number from your local area code so that it looks like a real call.

I know that. I think everyone now knows that. But the numbers still need to be blocked.

I don't know what is the answer but anything is a step up. As we all know the whole thing is out of hand and I blame some of this on the telecommunications industry.

I called Sprint two weeks ago, we were getting buried by trash calls, everything from Medicare information, extending my vehicle's warranty, the IRS. The Sprint rep blew me off, saying i needed to call another number that dealt with fraud. So I did,turns out that number was the FCC. The gentleman that answered said that I was shuffled (I knew this once I got the FCC intercept) and after he and I spoke a few minutes I filed a formal complaint against Sprint for the blow off.

Cell carriers in general have an extra charge service to deal with robocalls so if they can make money from additional services it makes financial sense to them, there's an excuse for them. And they are supposed to make money from incoming calls from what I also understand, there is their incentive not to stop robocalls.

BTW, Rep. Amash from Michigan, he "jumped ship" from the Republican Party recently and went Independent as he is against Trump, this was well publicized around Michigan even though he is not from our district.

Yes, I tried blocking a few numbers until I realized that there were always new ones. Only occasionally do they obviously repeat, and then it’s usually with a very short delay between calls. That seems to be just one method used to try to convince people to pick up: “Oh, it must be important if they’re calling back.” I’ve even got robocalls showing my own home number.

Not going to work. The only way is for everyone to go on the offensive like I did.

Call them back around 100 times in a row. Each time they answer, scream into the phone.

I did a few months ago...2 different times (I guess two separate scams called me). I haven’t gotten a call since.

Gotta take the fight to them.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Not going to work. The only way is for everyone to go on the offensive like I did.

Call them back around 100 times in a row. Each time they answer, scream into the phone.

I did a few months ago...2 different times (I guess two separate scams called me). I haven’t gotten a call since.

Gotta take the fight to them.

How do you call back a spoofed number?

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Not going to work. The only way is for everyone to go on the offensive like I did.

Call them back around 100 times in a row. Each time they answer, scream into the phone.

I did a few months ago...2 different times (I guess two separate scams called me). I haven’t gotten a call since.

Gotta take the fight to them.

How do you call back a spoofed number?

The times they called, spoof or not, it took me right to their call center. Try it.

I’ve found that the number only works for a day though.

A call center that was off this continent I bet.

Cue indeed. Until we make this an international law with cruise missiles as enforcement it will be dribs and drabs of reduction in the impact.

That, BTW, is a law I can get behind.

It's about damn time somebody held the FCC's and the Telcos' feet to the fire on this

Representatives Justin Amash (I-Mich.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) were the three votes against passing the bill, as reported by The Hill.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Not going to work. The only way is for everyone to go on the offensive like I did.

Call them back around 100 times in a row. Each time they answer, scream into the phone.

I did a few months ago...2 different times (I guess two separate scams called me). I haven’t gotten a call since.

Gotta take the fight to them.

I have heard as well that if you harass and berate them they will remove you from their system or flag your number to not call you.

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Not going to work. The only way is for everyone to go on the offensive like I did.

Call them back around 100 times in a row. Each time they answer, scream into the phone.

I did a few months ago...2 different times (I guess two separate scams called me). I haven’t gotten a call since.

Gotta take the fight to them.

I have heard as well that if you harass and berate them they will remove you from their system or flag your number to not call you.

Oh, I’m super flagged. I annoyed the fuck outta them.

Although I get thousands of calls from spammers just like the rest of America, I went through a couple months of hell on the other side. My number was spoofed for about a month by one of these SOBs and my phone was deluged with calls from angry callers or people responding to the call. Thankfully it has stopped but think before you call back as the receiver may be an innocent victim just like you. As to the new law I hope it will help but I have my doubts.

I hope it will work,hell yesterday they spoofed me with my own name.
I answer and always say what their mother is and they hang up

By forcing the calls from real numbers and blocking caller ID spoofing, this problem would go away.

Then your blocking action of certain numbers would work really well.