Washington's New Anti-Robocall Law Won't Stop the Calls. Here's Why.

In a rare bipartisan achievement, Congress has moved to combat the scourge of robocalls inundating Americans. Just don't expect the phone to stop ringing any time soon. From a report: Lawmakers, industry and consumer groups say the bill represents significant steps forward, but they also concede that the calls are likely to continue -- a reflection of how a lasting solution continues to elude the companies and regulators that control the telephone system. "This isn't going to eliminate every robocall," said Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), one of the bill's prime sponsors, in an interview. "But we think it will go a long way toward getting at some of these not only annoying nuisance calls, but more importantly a lot of scam artists that prey on vulnerable populations." Even the new law's name -- the TRACED Act, for Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence -- makes clear the goal is to deter robocallers rather than eradicate them. Lawmakers have previously tried and failed to stop robocalls, most prominently with the opening of the National Do Not Call Registry about 15 years ago. (Criminals ignore the list of off-limits numbers.) Implementing this latest anti-robocall law is likely to take years, telecom industry executives and robocall experts say. New consumer-protection rules will take months to craft and longer to implement. Lawmakers also left aspects of the problem for future study, calling for eight new reports and two new working groups. Some of the billions of robocalls Americans receive are legitimate, such as calls from a pharmacy telling a customer a prescription is ready. The calls are illegal when used for scams, or when they violate consumer-protection rules such as those against calling someone without their permission using a recorded message.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8859861 https://ift.tt/2MxXkZz