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from the You-may-qualify-for-a-medical-grade-back-brace-paid-for-by-your-insurance dept.
Yesterday [March 26] the FTC (Federal Trade Comission) announced that it had won court orders shutting down four separate robocall "Operations Responsible for Billions of Illegal Robocalls"
Settlements were obtained against
NetDotSolutions
Higher Goals Marketing
Veterans of America
PointBreak Media
The judgements include multimillion dollar penalties and require the various entities to stop all robocalling and some other operations.
The calls you should see less of that these companies provided include
auto warranties, debt-relief services, home security systems, fake charities, and Google search results services
No indication if this includes those medical back brace insurance scam calls that seem to have taken over lately, but here is hoping.
More coverage here
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @04:37AM (6 children)
Isn't this the FCC's domain?
(Score: 5, Informative) by number11 on Friday March 29 2019, @05:37AM (2 children)
Yes. And the FCC has fined them. $208M total. (Of that $208 million, the FCC has actually collected $6790. [boingboing.net]) The FCC says they don't have any way to actually collect.
The FCC predicts that nearly half of all calls in 2019 will be robocalls. It still has a way to go to catch up to the percentage of spam email, though.
(Score: 3, Funny) by SomeGuy on Friday March 29 2019, @01:02PM (1 child)
They could send it to one of those collection agencies that calls their number every five minutes until they pay up. :P
Or how about just cutting off their phone service until they pay up? Somehow ear shattering harassment won't result in that, but transmitting a Walt Disney movie will?!
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 29 2019, @09:51PM
Nailing telespammers may well be in the domain of the FCC...
Maybe have the IRS collect it.
If the shell company won't pay, go after its stakeholders.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @03:16PM (2 children)
This is the FCC's job.
But Pai's job is to prevent the FCC from doing its job.
The general pattern is to install heads of government agencies who will undermine that agency's regulatory mission.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 29 2019, @05:40PM (1 child)
Don't exaggerate.
Some people are put in place to make sure their agencies do the most comprehensive and painfully detailed investigation work possible.
On $other-party.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @06:31PM
I suppose that is true for agencies whose primary mission is to investigate and promote injustice.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.