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UK firm fined more than $500K for 100 million cold calls


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I wish the U.S.'s "Do not call" would do this... http://www.businessi...0000-ico-2017-5

 

Automated cold calls are one of the banes of modern life — and they can also be illegal.

A UK regulator has hit a company responsible for almost 100 million "nuisance calls" with a record fine of £400,000.

:clap: :clap: :clap2: :clap2: :thumbup: :thumbup:
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V.T. Eric Layton

Sadly, State and Federal no-call lists are relatively worthless. Only legitimate phone solicitors abide by them (reluctantly). The spammers, scammers, Nigerian bankers, etc. couldn't care less about no-call lists. And, unfortunately, political and charitable callers are exempt. The best way to cut down on trash calls is to have an unlisted number (it helps) and to utilize your phone provider's manual call-blocking features. I go to Frontier's website every week and manually block all calls that I've received from unknown callers. My phone rarely ever rings. It's wonderful. :)

 

Oh, and I read an article somewhere recently that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) that runs the no-call registry is over 100,000 cases behind in investigating violation complaints. U.S. tax payers' money hard at work once again.

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That's why I don't report the dozens of crap calls I get despite being on the Don't Call list. The FTC is overloaded beyond hope. And even legitimate charities just don't want to give up--I explain that I'm retired on small fixed income and can't give anything any longer and request to be taken off their list--they keep calling. I block and block--there's always more calls. :rant:

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V.T. Eric Layton

I even have blocking turned on automatically for any unidentified calls (blocked caller ID). It whizzes off some of my friends and family, though, because they're blocking IDs on their phones. Too bad. ;)

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V.T. Eric Layton

It's funny... when I was young, I loved the telephone. I thought it was the neatest darned thing to be able to pick up that thing and talk to people off at a distance (or maybe just next door). I was always enthralled with two-way radio, so phones were a natural for me. Real time communications at a distance has always been an interesting and convenient tool for humans. Where would we be without it?

 

Sadly, now that I'm an old f@rt, I can't stand the dang phone. I hate when it rings. It's such an invasion of my peace and quiet. Oh, and you.... YOU THERE! Get off my lawn! :angry:

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V.T. Eric Layton

That's why I use MrNumber on my cellphone. https://play.google....r.blocker&hl=en

 

Spiffy! But I don't think it'll work on my home phone. I don't get many calls on my cell... only a few folks know the number; besides, I leave it powered off whenever I'm home. I only turn it on and carry it with me when I leave the house. I've accumulated over 9000 minutes on it. HA! No one can tell me I'm taking advantage of the service. ;)

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I even have blocking turned on automatically for any unidentified calls (blocked caller ID). It whizzes off some of my friends and family, though, because they're blocking IDs on their phones. Too bad. ;)

Unfortunately, refusing anonymous calls doesn't work for me--caller id spoofing means that everyone sends an id--usually bogus. I get really blatant ones, like an alphabetic character followed by a long string of numbers. You know it's not legitimate, but your phone rings anyway. Edited by ebrke
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ebrke,

 

If your landline is a VOIP line, you can get a free service called NoMoRobo. When a robo-call comes in, your phone will ring once, then disconnect. It doesn't allow the robo-call to leave a voicemail.

 

You can get it at: https://www.nomorobo.com/

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abarbarian

I wish the U.S.'s "Do not call" would do this... http://www.businessi...0000-ico-2017-5

 

Automated cold calls are one of the banes of modern life — and they can also be illegal.

A UK regulator has hit a company responsible for almost 100 million "nuisance calls" with a record fine of £400,000.

:clap: :clap: :clap2: :clap2: :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

They should have been hit with something harder than a fine. :Smiley-IPB-400:

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ebrke,

 

If your landline is a VOIP line, you can get a free service called NoMoRobo. When a robo-call comes in, your phone will ring once, then disconnect. It doesn't allow the robo-call to leave a voicemail.

 

You can get it at: https://www.nomorobo.com/

I think my provider supports this or something similar. Problem I have to investigate is that I occasionally get robo calls I want, like emergency notifications from the municipality and requests to confirm doctor's appt.
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securitybreach

I am kind of surprised that there are as many of you who still have landlines. I have not seen a landline in many years at anyone's house I know except for one of my aunts.

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I've actually got two--one is the Comcast voip that replaced a landline I had in the house when I was self-employed. There's another landline that's still Verizon POTS that my mother always used. That one now supports the home security system, although I could go wireless with the security system if I wanted. I have a wireless backup function that dials out if the landline has no dialtone. The POTS also lets her pacemaker communicate with the doctor's website at intervals to send readings. So at this point I'm pretty much stuck with the POTS line, although I'm thinking about getting rid of the voip.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Unfortunately, refusing anonymous calls doesn't work for me--caller id spoofing means that everyone sends an id--usually bogus. I get really blatant ones, like an alphabetic character followed by a long string of numbers. You know it's not legitimate, but your phone rings anyway.

 

I actually received a ID spoofed call a couple months ago that showed the caller as being me... my caller ID. That was pretty unique. I decided I didn't want to talk to myself, so I didn't answer. ;)

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V.T. Eric Layton

I am kind of surprised that there are as many of you who still have landlines. I have not seen a landline in many years at anyone's house I know except for one of my aunts.

 

Landline here too. Although it's really VOIP in FIOS. They forced that on all of us in this area so they could begin the process of eliminating copper wire systems and the concomitant hardware necessary to maintain it.

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My mother's POTS has trouble in heavy rain losing dial tone. They're talking about moving it to FIOS because they say they're having trouble getting to the area to repair it (traced it to a manhole at the nearest busy intersection and refused to go further). I don't really know what's going to happen. We've got rain all day today--so far she has a dial tone but who knows.

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securitybreach

My mother's POTS has trouble in heavy rain losing dial tone. They're talking about moving it to FIOS because they say they're having trouble getting to the area to repair it (traced it to a manhole at the nearest busy intersection and refused to go further). I don't really know what's going to happen. We've got rain all day today--so far she has a dial tone but who knows.

 

Well that's not good. Hopefully there is another form of communication in case there is an emergency.

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Well that's not good. Hopefully there is another form of communication in case there is an emergency.

There's my voip with Comcast and our cell phones.
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securitybreach

Well that's not good. Hopefully there is another form of communication in case there is an emergency.

There's my voip with Comcast and our cell phones.

 

Good :thumbsup:

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  • 2 weeks later...

ebrke,

 

If your landline is a VOIP line, you can get a free service called NoMoRobo. When a robo-call comes in, your phone will ring once, then disconnect. It doesn't allow the robo-call to leave a voicemail.

 

You can get it at: https://www.nomorobo.com/

I think my provider supports this or something similar. Problem I have to investigate is that I occasionally get robo calls I want, like emergency notifications from the municipality and requests to confirm doctor's appt.

 

From the NoMoRobo site:

Legal robocalls, like school closings and prescription reminders, are allowed through.

 

I get these types of calls regularly with no problem.

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