Federal regulators on Thursday said they've identified "the perpetrator of one of the largest ... illegal robocalling campaigns" they have ever investigated.
The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $120 million fine for a Miami resident said to be single-handedly responsible for almost 97 million robocalls over just the last three months of 2016. Officials say Adrian Abramovich auto-dialed hundreds of millions of phone calls to landlines and cellphones in the U.S. and Canada and at one point even overwhelmed an emergency medical paging service.
Making prerecorded telemarketing phone calls to people without their prior consent is prohibited. So is making telemarketing calls to emergency phone lines and deliberately falsifying caller ID to disguise identity with the intent to harm or defraud consumers.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Friday June 23 2017, @11:11PM (9 children)
You would condone killing someone, for this?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:21AM (1 child)
Yes. Disregard of others on this level suggests the person is a psychopath or sociopath (whichever is the right term). In addition to the usual punishment, they should get life imprisonment until they can prove they are not. Without such a check, we are endanger of him doing the same, or worse, due to the lack of morals.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:29AM
That's not even how mental illness is diagnosed. I am gonna guess you're not actually qualified to diagnose anyone, actually. Sheesh...
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:07AM (1 child)
I don't. It lets them off way too easy. I like the other poster's idea about making them answer a telephone every hour, and getting an electric shock each time, and worse shocks if they don't listen to the call and input a number. If we do this to him 97 million times, then that's perfectly fair since that's how many times he harassed other people (and that's just for this 3-month period).
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:26AM
Okay, then. I can't say that I agree, but you keep bring you. I am not even sure if this is a criminal offense, actually. I think it may only be punishable with fines?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:50AM
Not killing outright, but tormenting so much that they would probably die as a side effect.
After all, he tormented millions of people. There's absolutely no punishment a living human could possibly endure that would equal all that he has inflicted on others.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday June 24 2017, @10:13AM (3 children)
How long to get to the phone, pick it up, listen for long enough to realise it's a useless call, hang up and go back to what you were doing?
I will assume an average of 20 seconds each.
20 x 97000000 / (60x60x24x365) = 61.517
He wasted sixty-one and a half years of other peoples lives. Logically that's about equivalent to murdering a 25 year old.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:38PM (2 children)
I am wondering if you've actually had any formal education in critical thinking. That is, shall we say, a very strange use of the word 'logic.'
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:39PM (1 child)
I'm guessing you, like me, recall a time when words had specific meanings. Protip: that's fading fast.
Now, "power" words are used in hopes of giving vacuous statements more cred. Examples:
Science proves light causes darkness.
That is literally the worst idea ever!
Sensible people all agree we need reasonable restrictions on [demonized tool or technology].
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @10:32PM
Valid point. *sighs* I don't even know, any more. They just make shit up.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."