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Everyone hates them – these boring, endless, often fraudulent automated calls from scammers and telemarketers. Striking day and night, they can drive you crazy, even if you carefully filter your calls.
Yet this year, Americans could be relieved. On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission announced its intention to crack down on automated calls. And the Congress can adopt its own measures.
Under the FCC's plan, the telephone companies would get permission – and encouragement – to block unwanted calls using the new "authentication protocol" technology. The telecoms have been reluctant to do so because the rules in force require them to make sure that all calls go by and fear to accidentally block important and wanted calls.
But if companies continue to resist, said FCC President Ajit Pai, to the news agency, which plans to make them use the new technology.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer said Congress had "its best chance" to pass bipartisan legislation to defeat automated callers.
Introduced by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) And John Thune (R-SD), the TRACED (Telephone Penal Complaints Act) would increase fines, give prosecutors more time to follow appellants and compel Phone companies to: use the authentication protocol to filter calls.
House Energy and Commerce President Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) also called for a bill to allow consumers to stop calls they had previously allowed and to require incoming calls to display caller IDs. verified callers.
Other proposals call optional "whitelists", which only allow pre-approved callers to pass.
It is hard to think of anyone except fraudsters and telemarketers who would oppose such measures. No one wants to be overwhelmed by, for example, sales pitches for new lines of credit, not to mention scams that push you to send money.
Even automated calls that you do not answer are annoying. And impossible to stop: YouMail announced last year 47.7 billion automated calls in the country, or about 150 per person in America, including infants. In April, Schumer notes, New York alone has received 290 million calls, or 112 per second.
And the situation is getting worse: last year, the number of automated calls in the country increased by 57% compared to the previous year.
Washington had already tried to control this abuse: it had first set up the register of excluded phone numbers in 2003. Yet, calls and "advances" to overseas like fast auto dialing and the ability to simulate the caller ID quickly made the registry almost useless.
Pai reports that the FCC is receiving more complaints about automated calls than anything else. "The American people are fed up," he says.
This should be enough to bring Congress into bipartite action. The nation needs effective, swift action before we lose our mind.
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