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Posted on 05/23/2019 11:47:43 AM PDT by jazusamo
The Senate on Thursday voted in favor of legislation that would levy hefty new fines for illegal robocalls, advancing one of the most prominent congressional efforts to crack down on the scourge of billions of unwanted calls that aggravate U.S. consumers every year.
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which passed by a 97-1 vote, had received more than 80 co-sponsors by the time it reached the Senate floor.
The bill, introduced by Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would give the federal government the authority to slap offenders with fines of up to $10,000 per call.
The legislation would also give regulators more time to find scammers, increase penalties for those who are caught, promote call authentication and blocking, and help coordinate enforcement to increase criminal prosecution of illegal robocallers.
Lawmakers during the previous Congress held three hearings and passed 13 bills aimed at curtailing robocalls, but the measure passed by the Senate on Thursday is the most significant piece of legislation to address the issue so far.
"It will make life a lot more difficult for scam artists and help ensure that more scammers face punishment for their crimes," Thune said of the bill on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, noting he hopes the House takes it up soon.
The TRACED Act has received the backing of all 50 state attorneys general, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission, a number of industry associations and multiple consumer groups. "This piece of legislation ... will help all Americans deal with the epidemic of robocalls which afflicts them and their families every single day of the year," Markey said on the Senate floor ahead of Thursday's vote.
"This question of robocalls and the role in American society — it's a daily deluge of calls Americans receive," Markey said. "It is a consumer protection crisis. Americans across the country face an epidemic of robocalls, bombarding landlines and mobile phones."
The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have said they receive more complaints from consumers about illegal robocalls than anything else every year. Robocalls often come from scammers seeking to steal personal information from consumers, and have particularly targeted vulnerable populations such as senior citizens.
In the House, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has offered his own bill to end the scourge of robocalls, signaling the lower chamber may follow its own anti-robocall legislative path.
Pallone earlier this year revived the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, which would allow consumers to opt out of robocalls at any point, ban more kinds of robocalls, require all calls to have caller ID information before they can be put through and lengthen the statute of limitations from one to four years when it comes to punishing those who violate robocall prohibitions.
The FCC, which plays a central role in both bills, has been urging the nation’s telecommunications providers to crack down on illegal robocalls. The commission will vote next month on a proposal to let phone carriers block certain calls by default.
Will this actually do anything?
The robocallers fake the calling number how will anyone find them?
The telecom companies could track the real origin of the calls if they wanted to.
Also, the numbers change constantly.....Now they are adding a name to the caller ID...Yesterday, I had a robocall from Jonathan Smith...
I got a ton of Spam calls on my cell phone and had moved so I finally switched to local area code thinking a new # would throw them off. It got worse. Talked to Verizon, downloaded their App, still no go. It makes my phone useless. So if you aren’t in my contacts I don’t answer, but the damn thing still rings
Ban robocop?
I’ll miss him :)
I sure hope this measure is more effective than the total waste of time and money called the “Do Not Call” registry.
I'll second that.
Conversation usually goes something like this:
Q: Are you calling from (name area code of caller ID)?
A: No, I'm calling from (usually names someplace in California or Florida).
Q: So you start off trying to deceive me and now want to sell me something? How is that supposed to work?
If they really are calling from the advertised area code, I can usually catch them in a lie by asking some innocent sounding question like "How is the weather there?" or "How far are you from Cheyenne?"
Is it possible these overpaid ‘public servants’ actually did something that could benefit everyday Americans?
Me too, for the first couple years the Do Not Call was effective, then it became a joke.
I sure as the heck hope so, at least this would be something. :^)
My default ring is silent. People in my contact list have a ringtone. If you're not in my contact list the phone is silent.
Oh, and I turned off voicemail.
Telephone companies have to track the country of origin of the call. Within the USA they can capture the real number used for the call. That information should be sent along with the phone number that is to be displayed on caller id.
Block by default is dumb and should not be considered.
I favor public execution for offenders.
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This is likely to be so watered down as these same politicians use the telephone networks at election time. They have gotta written a pass for themselves. Same crap, same source.
Since there is a whole infrastructure for 900 calls. Bill the callers from like the Bahamas.
I say implement this network to bill the solicitor’s account. Let the public touch-tone let say #999 and the caller gets billed $99 fine.
They have many options, it the will of the politician to stop it.
I have a land line so I don’t have long lists of numbers clogging my screen. When I answer a ring and say hello if there is no response for three seconds I hang up. That’s a robocall or a phone bank. Sometimes I pick up the phone and it sounds like a busy call center instantly and I hang up. I used to play games with the live ones but I don’t bother any more.
I don’t answer unless I recognize the number...If the call is important, they’ll leave a message and I will call back...If it’s a robocall, I have a program that shuts it after one ring...If it bypasses the program, I just erase the call later...I also have a land line...That’s where the calls come to...
Actually, I believe that this only affects robocalls spoofing the number.
We will see if they are able to enforce it.
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