Yes, It’s Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging.

District Court Enters Permanent Injunction Shutting Down Telecom Carriers Who Facilitated Hundreds of Millions of Fraudulent Robocalls to Consumers in The United States
August 26, 2020
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/dist...hutting-down-telecom-carriers-who-facilitated

 

Globex Telecom and Associates Will Pay $2.1 Million, Settling FTC’s First Consumer Protection Case Against a VoIP Service Provider
Globex’s former CEO and others who facilitated credit card interest reduction scheme will be banned from telemarketing to the U.S.
September 22, 2020
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...iates-will-pay-21-million-settling-ftcs-first

 

FCC's New Rules: Consumers No Longer Need to Pay for Caller ID Authentication to Avoid Robocalls As The New Implementation Prevents Surprise Charges
September 30, 2020
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...ller-id-authentication-to-avoid-robocalls.htm

 

EPIC Urges Supreme Court to Preserve Essential Robocall Protections
October 23, 2020
https://epic.org/2020/10/epic-urges-supreme-court-to-pr-5.html

 

FTC Releases FY 2020 National Do Not Call Registry Data Book
October 27, 2020
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...-2020-national-do-not-call-registry-data-book

 

"$300 Million Telemarketing Scheme Preyed on Older People

Sixty people have been indicted in a nationwide telemarketing scheme in which federal prosecutors say people were tricked into signing up for expensive magazine subscriptions they could not afford, did not want and often did not receive, and in which over 150,000 people were defrauded of more than $300 million...

The charges include conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and violating the Senior Citizens Against Marketing Scams Act of 1994..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/telemarketing-scheme-elderly-people.html

 

Consumer Groups Urge Limits to FCC Robocall Exemptions
October 27, 2020
https://epic.org/2020/10/consumer-groups-urge-limits-to.html

 

"Suspicious robocall campaign warning people to ‘stay home’ spooks voters nationwide

An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to 'stay safe and stay home' spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

 

FTC Warns Of New Robocall Scam Targeting Apple And Amazon Users
December 3, 2020
https://www.ubergizmo.com/2020/12/ftc-warn-robocall-scam-apple-amazon-users/

FTC: Fake calls from Apple and Amazon support: What you need to know

 

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Case Concerning Scope of Federal Robocall Ban
December 7, 2020
https://epic.org/2020/12/supreme-court-to-hear-argument-12.html

 

New FCC robocall rules promise monthly limits and new blocking tools
December 31, 2020
https://www.slashgear.com/new-fcc-r...nthly-limits-and-new-blocking-tools-31653101/

 

HERE is an intriguing web page by DoNotPay. It has a click spot for "solving" the robocall problem. When I floated my cursor over the click spot, it presented a small popup saying: "We will solve this issue within 24 hours. Click the button above to get started." I didn't click it (chicken!) but I'm hoping someone else did & will report back.

 

The button is harmless. If you hover your mouse pointer over it, you will see the link (probably bottom-left of your browser) as:

https://donotpay.com/report-robocall

 

I wasn't worried as to whether the button was harmless. I was wondering if the button led to remedial action or was merely a shill to sell something. So I finally got curious enough to click it myself. Sure enough, it's a nothing more than a shill to get me to buy a subscription to DoNotPay. And the beat goes on...

 

Haha, yeah that's what I meant, was that the underlying link was harmless.

 

"Robocalls May Get Worse Soon...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday issued an opinion that negates decades of work by Congress to shield Americans from the plague of automated phone calls. Specifically, the court chose to accept a narrow view of what constitutes an “autodialer,” also known as an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The court’s interpretation effectively limits that definition to only systems that target sequentially or randomly dialed numbers.

Under this definition, companies are free to employ automated dialing systems that target thousands or even millions of consumers, so long as the database of numbers they use isn’t pulled from thin air. Of course, the odds of most companies getting caught breaking that rule is infinitesimal, and the financial benefits of being a wanton violator may outweigh the risk of liability involved.

'Companies will use autodialers that are not covered by the Supreme Court’s narrow definition to flood our cellphones with even more unwanted robocalls and automated texts,' Margot Saunders, senior counsel for the National Consumer Law Center, said in a statement..."

https://gizmodo.com/robocalls-may-get-worse-soon-and-you-can-blame-faceboo-1846601707

Supreme Court case is:

FACEBOOK, INC. v. DUGUID ET AL.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-511_p86b.pdf

 

"The Legislative Battles Have Begun: Markey and Eshoo Vow to “Fix” The Supreme Court’s Facebook “Error”

Mere hours after the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Facebook v. Duguid was released, the legislative fight to overturn it began...

The pair issued a joint statement that calls the Supreme Court’s decision 'disastrous for everyone who has a mobile phone in the United States' and argues that 'the Court is allowing companies the ability to assault the public with a non-stop wave of unwanted calls and texts, around the clock.'

According to Markey and Eshoo, the Supreme Court’s decision, rather than enforcing the TCPA, actually ignores the 'clear legislative history' that the TCPA was meant to 'to ban dialing from a database'...

Markey and Eshoo state that they intend to 'introduce legislation to amend the TCPA, fix the Court’s error, and protect consumers.'..."

https://www.natlawreview.com/articl...and-eshoo-vow-to-fix-supreme-court-s-facebook

 

Since May, 2018 when I began using an AT&T Smart Call Block phone, the number of blocked calls has run between 75-125 a month.

AT&T began integrating Stir/Shaken (or SHAKEN/STIR depending on the writer) into their existing Call Protect service in January.

To date, there has been no change in that range for the number of blocks in my phone's log.

Though unlikely, it's possible the entire Call Protect service hasn't been applied to my basic Home Phone plan. So I'll see if anything changes beginning July 1.

Love coming on June 30? Doubtful...

Stir/Shaken, a pin prick on this a global robocall buttocks, "help curb" won't make a dent.

Given that all this brouhaha, fireworks and horn blowing about Stir/Shaken and federal regulations and acts, it's all about compliance by law abiding U.S. citizens and corporations. Robocall fines are a slap on the wrist and violators most often disappear into the shadows of their criminal realms and emerge elsewhere. And consider this outrage: without an intent to do harm, spoofing is A-OK. Proving intent is a quicksand prosecutors are rarely willing to step into.

As history shows, put up a blockade legality or technology and scofflaws will ignore the former or build new tech around the latter.

Then there's the SCOTUS opinion as detailed in hawki's post #219 and the near hopeless response to it, post #220, above.

Abandon all hope.

Cheers.