Robocallers Use Out-of-State Loopholes to Evade Strict California Regulations

Robocalls, even from a company or political platform that you feel connected to, can be annoying at the best of times. Recently, there was a controversial legal battle centering around freedom of speech, the conclusion of which was that the state of Montana technically has the legal right to pass a law banning robocalls, even those of a political nature. At the very least, this decision could help Montanans to crack down and have specific rules regarding such calls, in an attempt to reduce the number, if not do away with them altogether. Interestingly enough, discovers David Lazarus in his L.A. Times article, California has some pretty strict laws regarding robocallers. It just so happens that nobody follows them.

Politicians in California have found loopholes to get around the laws regarding robocallers. According to the California Public Utilities Code, every robocall within California is required to begin with a live person and the name, phone number, and address of the organization making the call. Then, the live operator has to ask permission and get consent before playing the pre-recorded message. Only if every single one of those criteria is met is the robocall legally permissible. Of course, because most people are so accustomed to illegal robocalls, a call meeting those criteria tends to resemble telemarketing more than robocalling, which, of course, has its own set of negative responses.

Californian homes get constant robocalls from the beginning of election season all the way to election day. The way that most get away with the robocalls without technically breaking state law is by designing the calls to originate outside of the state. If the robocall is coming from a computer server in another state, technically it doesn't require a live operator or affirmative consent or really any other regulations before playing the message. Of course, even though this strategy avoids breaking state laws, it may be breaking federal laws, although that doesn't stop much. According to federal law, robocallers can't call cell phones (again, something that still happens all too often), but the federal policy has no restriction on robocalls to landlines. Even though many people have given up their landlines over the years, there are still several million throughout the country that can be targeted.

As you can see, there are restrictions on when and how a political representative can place robocalls. However, those regulations can be easily side-stepped. There is a potential solution, though. Because the callers can avoid state regulations by making the calls from another state, this can be prevented by passing a regulation that prohibits political robocalls from being placed out of state. If the political groups have to place their calls from in state, they will be forced to follow the state regulations, which would reduce annoyance and frustration among many recipients. Of course, this would severely limit the scope of a political group's reach, but at least they would be able to better target voters interested in their specific platform.

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New FCC Rules Can Help Phone Companies Block Scammer Calls

No one likes getting dozens of calls a day from people they don't know. Whether from robocallers, telemarketers, or scammers, it can be annoying or even costly to deal with unwanted callers. Millions of Americans have placed themselves on the national Do Not Call registry, which makes it illegal for telemarketers to call you, but scammers don't care if they're breaking the law. Fortunately, according to an article by the Associated Press of the L.A. Times, the Federal Communications Commission passed a set of rules this week that will give phone companies greater ability to block unwanted phone calls from reaching their customers.

Before this week, phone companies could already block some unwanted calls. They were able to prevent scammers from using some types of technology that trick callers with fake Caller ID numbers. With the help of the FCC's latest update, they can also block calls that are likely to be from scammers. Some examples are calls from 911 area codes and calls from phone numbers that haven't yet been assigned to any customers. So, by leveraging the rules and some relatively simple computer programming, the phone companies can develop an automated way to block the worst of the scams from reaching you.

Tens of millions of robocalls are received throughout America each day. Some of those calls are legitimate, from pharmacies alerting you about a prepared prescription or from your local congressional representative trying to garner support in an upcoming campaign. The calls that people have more of a problem with are those that claim to be the IRS or tech support. Those calls can be annoying at best, and in many cases, can lead to identity theft and other costs, especially among elderly targets.

Some phone companies have developed databases where users can input information about calls received, which over time, can help future recipients to avoid and quickly block scam calls. They are also working on other technology that can determine if a call is actually coming from the person they're claiming to be. Either way, there is no definitive way at the moment to make 100% sure that you can't be contacted by a scammer. That being said, you can reduce your risk by avoiding answering the phone to numbers you don't recognize. You can also hang up immediately if a call sounds like a scam, and avoid giving any personal information. Be careful. Scammers can do a lot with any information you give them, so don't give them that opportunity.

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Telemarketers Aim to Scam via Social Engineering

Most people have experienced robocalls and telemarketers looking to sell them something. While such calls are annoying, up until recently, they were just annoying. Very few people actually bought the products being sold, but they sold enough to make robocalls economically feasible. Most recently, however, the robocallers have taken a new strategy: known as the "can you hear me" scam. David Lazarus, in his latest L.A. Times article, discusses the popular new telemarketer scam and what you can do to protect yourself from it.

Just as technology is constantly improving to make overall quality of life go up, that same technology can be used to make life more difficult for some. Technology similar to that used by Apple's Siri and Google's Alexa is now being used by computer programmers to make telemarketing calls by a computer seem conversational enough that the recipient doesn't hang up immediately. Because the technology is not perfect yet, the target will quickly catch on and realize that they're speaking to a computer, but in the first few seconds, they may say something that can be used against them.

The "can you hear me" scam is a feat of human engineering, where telemarketing companies demonstrate a thorough understanding of the dynamics of true human conversations. By using that knowledge, the computer is able to get a response they want, in order to scam the responder later. In this scam, the computer asks "can you hear me" with the same inflections as a human, which can usually cause the recipient of the call to respond "yes." Giving an affirmative response is the worst thing you can do in that situation, according to police officials.

When the recipient of the call says "yes," the computer already has what it needs to move forward with the scam. The affirmative response can easily be edited later to make it seem like the target was giving the company approval for a purchase of some kind. There have been several situations over the past months where people have responded to the question "can you hear me" and later found that their credit card had been charged for products they never ordered. A safe rule of thumb when dealing with telemarketers, especially those employing these tactics, seems to be to hang up immediately. If you're not sure if someone is a telemarketer or not, avoid affirmative responses and ask a lot of questions to determine if the answers seem like they are coming from a computer. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are just starting to boom, so be on the lookout for similar scams in the near future.

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Changes to FCC Regulations May Help Reduce Robocalls

The National Do Not Call Registry, run jointly by the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, was designed to be a way for consumers to avoid sales calls. Unfortunately, due to new technologies, so-called telemarketers have found ways to go around As Jim Puzzanghera discusses in his L.A. Times article, most people dislike receiving annoying and commonly fraudulent phone calls on a daily basis, which is why the FCC has proposed new regulations that could help consumers only receive the calls that they want.

The agencies receive about 150,000 complaints per month about robocalls, but there's not much they can do about it. Once your number is on the Do Not Call Registry, telemarketers are, in theory, not allowed to call you. However, as witnessed by many on the list, these calls still come through. By using internet-based phone numbers or routing calls through other countries, telemarketers are able to circumvent the law and contact those on the Do Not Call list. Until recently, consumers had to tell callers, in writing, that they no longer wish to receive sales calls. Under the new regulations, the calls can be stopped by asking the telemarketer "in any reasonable way at any time" to stop.

In addition to making it easier for consumers to stop sales calls on their end, the FCC's changed regulations will allow and encourage telephone providers to offer robocall-blocking tools to their customers. While robocalls can be annoying to those receiving them, they can also be costly. Some calls and texts rack up charges on a monthly phone bill. Many times, phone providers keep a significant portion of the fees charged by such third-party message services, a practice that has led companies like Verizon and Sprint to court in recent months. If the calls and texts were blocked in the first place, such charges would not be an issue.

Under the new rules, even if a company had previously received written permission from the owner of a phone number to make sales calls, the robocaller has to stop immediately once they find out that the phone number has changed ownership. In this way, the new owner will not have to be bothered by calls that were authorized by a previous owner. The new rules, however, apply to certain companies and not to others. For example, computerized calls from banks or hospitals are allowed if they are designed to help the consumer. Calls about possible fraudulent activity on a credit card or about medication refills are not considered"robocalls" in the classical sense by the FCC.

While law enforcement is working toward catching illegal telemarketers and putting a stop to some of the sales calls. the FCC believe that the most sensible way to stop the calls is directly at the source. If phone providers were to offer to their customers the variety of new services available to block such calls, consumers could at least avoid calls from the most notorious telemarketers. Some lawmakers worry that the new regulations could be harmful in that they prevent surveys and demographics studies from being performed on the general public. On the other hand, many consumers find survey-takers to be just as annoying as telemarketers. Altogether, these regulations could be a way to give consumers what they want. Stopping illegal calls and making consumers happy are the top responsibilities of the National Do Not Call Registry, and these new laws may help them fulfill their purpose.

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