FCC Cracks Down On Robocalls - Comments Page 1

You didn't mention nomorobo.com, which does eliminate most of the robocalls. It's a great, free, service. They watch every incoming call, and, if it's a known robo spammer, answer the call for you.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Unfortunately, NomoRobo does not work with Google Voice.

Just checked out Google Voice and options are to add cellphone or create a new number - no landline option?
Thank you.

This is great.

Now I wish they would use the millions of dollars to somehow catch the ones who are calling illegally... Like "Cardholder Services". The problem is I think most of those originate from outside the US. I get 2 to 3 of those daily...and since they can spoof the phone numbers for caller ID, I don't know how they can ever be caught.

I use "Mr. Number" app on my Android which was free and works well for me.

I use "Mr. Number" app on my Android which was free and works well for me.

We never answer calls from numbers we don't recognize on caller id. My wife will call a number back out of curiosity. Invariably, a recording from the phone company says that the number is out of service or non-existent. How does one report these companies for calling numbers on the do-not-call lists?

I have been plagued by the political and charity calls. I give them all the same speech. "I do not support any entity that solicits by telephone" I keep a list of those callers and make sure I never contribute/vote for anyone on that list.

hi Bob
great article, this is a huge issue. Go FCC.

Don't forget: The FCC says you're entitled to collect $1,500 per call, if the robocall does not cease and desist. That's what I've been told by their consumer complaint division. Some lawyers are already at work soliciting clients.

Yeah, I've got a clever idea: Buy a phone system that allows you to block calls you don't like. They're inexpensive and effective.

Good call, Bob. (Pun intended.)

Nomorobo offers a FREE service that works extremely well if your provider offers a feature called "simultaneous ringing." I've used it for the last two years on both my business and personal landlines. This ingenious solution won an award from the FTC. Check the 88-second video at nomorobo.com. The fast-paced video also explains "simultaneous ringing."

The only downside is that my landline phone rings ONE time when a robocall comes in. I've learned not to jump to answer a call on the first ring, but to wait and see if there's a second ring. If not, it was a robocall, and I can go on with dinner!

Unfortunately, Verizon Wireless doesn't offer the "simultaneous ringing" feature, so I devised another plan for my cell phone.

1. I set up a contact in my contact list called "!Spam." (The exclamation mark moves !Spam to the top of my contact list.)

2. The first time a robocaller calls my phone number, I answer as usual, since I don't yet know it's a robocaller.

3. I hang up on the robocaller. Then I click the button on my Android-powered smartphone to add the number to my contacts, and I add it to the top name on my contact list--!Spam. Fortunately, my contact list seems to allow for a virtually unlimited number of phone numbers for a contact, because after doing this for almost a year, !Spam has a huge number of "alternate numbers" in my list.

4. The next time I hear from this robocaller, Caller ID shows the call is from !Spam. So I can simply silence it.

I thought that was a pretty good solution, until I discovered one more step that makes it even better:

5. I can tell my smartphone to Ignore All Calls from a given contact, so I've told it to ignore all calls from !Spam.

Voila! An almost-perfect smartphone robocaller blocker. The only downside is that I have to take the robocaller's first call, to identify it as "spam." But after a month or so, the number of robocalls that ring my smartphone has gone from eight or 10 per DAY down to three or four per WEEK.

Mac

I must say that Google Voice's attempts to transcribe calls into texts had led to some hysterically funny messages. If for that and nothing else, I enjoy Google Voice.

For call blocking I use PhoneTray Pro (Phonetray.com) You can block unlimited numbers & names, it can handle 2 lines at once, keeps a record of all calls you receive. You can sort calls by date,number,name ect & print them out.
All it takes to block a number is one click of your mouse. displays incomming calls on computer screen and voice anounces them.

I got a $1000 settlement from one telemarketer after suing for $2500 in small claims court. The statutory damage amount is only $500, but the law says you can collect from anyone who "makes or *causes to be made*" an offending call. So I sued the employee who called, her boss, his boss, the company president AND the corporate "person." Got a call from their attorney the day afte papers were served and had a certified check before 5:00 pm.

This guy has made thousands of dollars in such settlements, and explains how to do it: http://www.killthecalls.com/

Now, figure out how to get rid of the robocalls to my MagicJack number. I live in Germany and they rarely figure out the time zones correctly. MagicJack says you have to pay $20/year to get calls blocked. Maybe this will encourage them to be more reasonable.

When I get these calls, they don't make it easy to opt out. The option isn't usually given, so you have to wait to get a real person, meanwhile pretending you want the call. If I understand it correctly, the google voice option doesn't sound attractive as you don't get to answer the calls you want to answer; you have to return them after receiving voice mail in which case some desirable opportunity might be missed [I play duplicate bridge].

Every time a robo call is reported on the FCC "Do not call" site, the reporting party has to fill in a number of blanks of personal info to complete the report.
Quite some time ago I suggested to the FCC to issue an ID and password to each complainer and that way the login to lodge a complaint would be easier and much faster. The ID/password would automatically fill in the complainers ID info.
So far nothing has been done by the FCC to reduce the amount of info required to make each complaint.
It seems that this could be easily accomplished, since most of the sites that we normally access retain our ID and password and require them for logging in.
Incidentally, Comcast lets a customer block 12 phone numbers. While this doesn't stop all calls (only 12), it is helpful and the older entries can gradually be replaced with newer phone numbers as they occur. This greatly reduced my robo calls.

How about those so called calls from so called microsofts tech's.

Bob,
I can't believe you don't know about Nomorobo (http://www.nomorobo.com/). It's the best way to stop Robocalls if your VOIP service provider has the needed options to use it. In my case, Ooma actually has it integrated into their service as an optional choice in their blacklist options (https://my-beta.ooma.com/preferences/blacklist).
Stu

These callers have gotten quite sophisticated. Glad to see government action taken-something that is all too uncommon when it comes to protecting consumers.

I think this is a good time to point out that callers with less than good intentions can manipulate what shows up on the caller ID. It can show calls from legitimate sources, and even make it look like you are calling yourself. This is why a Google query is priceless, as Bob points out.

The VOIP phone company we use gives us the ability to blacklist disrupting calls. Once I put the number in the blacklist, that puts an end to the annoyance. It's a great feature to have.