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Congress Wants Harsher Penalties for Robocallers

posted by martyb on Saturday November 17 2018, @08:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the hope-it-helps dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/16/18098415/robocaller-congress-fcc-penalities-traced-act

The TRACED Act, sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), would dramatically increase the penalty per robocall to up to $10,000. Previously, violators were charged with up to $1,500 per call. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission can only prosecute violators over inauthentic calls that were placed in the past year. This bill increases that time frame to three years. In previous letters to the senators, the commission said that "even a one-year longer statute of limitations for enforcement. . . would improve the Commission's enforcement efforts against knowing and willful violators."

Earlier this year, the FCC inflicted a $120 million fine on a robocall kingpin. It was one of the largest fines ever implemented for robocall violations, and it signified that the federal government would prioritize lessening the burden of these calls on consumers. This bill generally gives the FCC more power to act on these calls, and this new power has the potential to dissuade others from placing them.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:38AM (1 child)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:38AM (#763290)

    when politicians do the robo-calling it's perfectly fine, reasonable, and hey! First amendment!

    Fuck these assholes. I don't want robocalls. I don't want an exception carved out for politicians. I remember, shit, 10? 15? maybe 20? years ago, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was calling me 2-3 times a day for who the fuck knows what. What I remember is fuck off Arnie, I'm sick of your shit.

    Oh yeah, how to solve the problem. I get a robocall I get $100 from the person making the call. If that person can't be found then the money comes from the telephone company. Cuz believe me, not only does the phone company know where this call is coming from and have the resources to block it, they're making money by letting it go through. So scorched earth the fuckers. You either solve the problem, or join the buggy whip makers on the pile of companies that couldn't adjust.

    --
    When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:59AM (#763306)

    https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=28629&page=1&cid=763265#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]