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The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

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Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#3
post #2

Honestly I'm surprised they've managed to collect that much. Good job guys.

This is a market-based problem rather than a policy problem: The problem is the low cost of making calls.

Make calls cost money and the problem will naturally go away.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#4
post #2

Honestly I'm surprised they've managed to collect that much. Good job guys.

This is a market-based problem rather than a policy problem: The problem is the low cost of making calls. Make calls cost money and the problem will naturally go away.

Indeed. Same with messaging, email, etc.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#5
They had to build a call center to call the robocallers.

This was gonna cost $250M, so they decided to hire a firm to do it for them.

This firm was able to do it for $207,993,210 saving the government ~$43M.

Turned out the firm was the robocallers who got fined.

So they just called themselves 1 time, and paid the difference on the bills: $6,790!

/sarcasm

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#7
post #2

Honestly I'm surprised they've managed to collect that much. Good job guys.

This is a market-based problem rather than a policy problem: The problem is the low cost of making calls. Make calls cost money and the problem will naturally go away.

No, this is a problem where the necessary resources used to punish white collar crime are not being allocated.

If there was a known Florida-based drug dealer that was bringing in $120,000,000 of drugs/year, there'd be dozens of cops working around the clock to bring him in.

A Florida-based robo-caller, fined $120,000,000, who isn't paying a penny? Nobody cares.

I understand lack of enforcement against some robocall firm incorporated on Mars, or somewhere else beyond the reach of law enforcement. I don't understand the lack of enforcement against ones based in the US. Jail them, take their homes and cars, put their kids up in foster care.

Re: The FCC Has Fined Robocallers $208M, Collected $6,790

#9
post #2

Honestly I'm surprised they've managed to collect that much. Good job guys.

This is a market-based problem rather than a policy problem: The problem is the low cost of making calls. Make calls cost money and the problem will naturally go away.

I think the problem is that it's possible to spoof called ID. The fraud starts before you answer the phone.

Caller ID used to be an extra charge. The telcos needed it not to be mandatory. But now my land line is going away because it's become nothing but an annoyance. They could have prevented that but... but...

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