Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

lemonde.fr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 527 posts

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#211

Post by robertlagrant »

joenot443 wrote: post #182
embedding-shape wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Spain we have something called "Lista Robinson" (in Sweden exists something similar, called "NIX-registret") which are basically opt-in lists where you can enter your phone number, then once the new lists been distributed, the telemarketing companies cannot call you, if they're doing things properly. If they call anyway, you just mention you're on the list, they hang up, and remove your number from the list they h…

We have a similar list in America [1] and Canada [2]. Unfortunately, like any regulation, its efficacy is only as good as its enforcement, so my understanding is they're both routinely ignored. Particularly grim for the Canadian case - > In January 2009, numerous media and consumer advocacy organizations reported that anyone can use false information pretending to be a telemarketer and download a set of numbers from…

> anyone can use false information pretending to be a telemarketer

I suppose many people would wonder what the difference is between a legitimate caller you don't want and a fake one.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#212

Post by gunalx »

Never going to fix the inherent problem og spam calls though.

Even if all would follow the ban (witch they wont as i get frequent calls and am on a legally dont call list) thee is the inherent problem of foreign spammers also often masquerading as local numbers.

If noe positive thing the twlecompanies would het it å bit easier filtrering and the amount would be less.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#213

Post by vanviegen »

jareklupinski wrote: post #202
Kon5ole wrote: post #11

Great idea! Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage. A ban is the right idea but I wonder how they can handle it, logistically. I think there needs…

hospitals, doctors, and utility companies are the last ones i want to have direct contact to me :( they can continue to send me junk mail and unsolicited texts which already gets filed correctly friends and family only

I can imagine quite a few scenarios in which I prefer for those companies to be able to reach me.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#214

Post by black_knight »

embedding-shape wrote: post #166
Kon5ole wrote: post #11

Great idea! Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage. A ban is the right idea but I wonder how they can handle it, logistically. I think there needs…

In Spain we have something called "Lista Robinson" (in Sweden exists something similar, called "NIX-registret") which are basically opt-in lists where you can enter your phone number, then once the new lists been distributed, the telemarketing companies cannot call you, if they're doing things properly. If they call anyway, you just mention you're on the list, they hang up, and remove your number from the list they h…

Same in Norway. I have been on the list for decades, and I never receive any unwanted calls – except from my mother (j.k love you mum!)

I am not sure why it works so well here. I have vague recollections of news articles about it being ignored in the past. I guess they just struck down hard on those. Also, I imagine if you put yourself on that list you would be really grumpy if someone called to try to sell you something.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#215

Post by derfurth »

embedding-shape wrote: post #166
Kon5ole wrote: post #11

Great idea! Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage. A ban is the right idea but I wonder how they can handle it, logistically. I think there needs…

In Spain we have something called "Lista Robinson" (in Sweden exists something similar, called "NIX-registret") which are basically opt-in lists where you can enter your phone number, then once the new lists been distributed, the telemarketing companies cannot call you, if they're doing things properly. If they call anyway, you just mention you're on the list, they hang up, and remove your number from the list they h…

It was the case in France too, it was called Bloctel; you just had to register your phone number and telemarketing companies had a legal obligation to look it up and not call you.

So it worked for a time, legit companies stoped calling; however most people didn't knew about Bloctel as it was little advertised.

Meanwhile, spam calls turned into scam calls, and a real issue especially with the elderly.

So I think that banning all unsolicited calling kills two birds with one stone, spam becomes illegal and scams as a consequence becomes easier to spot as there are no more unsolicited calls.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#216

Post by paulluuk »

timoth3y wrote: post #198

This is a great move by France, but most of the rest of the world does not suffer from the telemarketing scam hell that Americans do. I am a US citizen living overseas. I have a US cell number that is only used for 2FA for US financial institutions. No one else has that number. I get more scam calls every day on that number than I do in a year on my local number. It's crazy. Most of the world has solved the worst of…

> Most of the world has solved the worst of the problem by simply not allowing caller-ID spoofing and by blocking bad actors

I live in the Netherlands, and I get several spoofed crypto-scam calls every day. I have also stopped picking up the phone for numbers I don't recognize. My own telephone number has been used to call others for a while, so I would get tons of "sorry I was busy, what did you call about?" return calls from random people when clearly I had not called them at all.

As far as I know, the only reason spoofing is even possible, is so that call centers in other countries can pretend to be calling from a local number, which.. why is that even a feature?

This feels very much like an example of "this should be run by the government" rather than letting this be run by companies.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#217

Post by jareklupinski »

vanviegen wrote: post #213
jareklupinski wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hospitals, doctors, and utility companies are the last ones i want to have direct contact to me :( they can continue to send me junk mail and unsolicited texts which already gets filed correctly friends and family only

I can imagine quite a few scenarios in which I prefer for those companies to be able to reach me.

it's always bad news with those guys; no thanks

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#218

Post by rightbyte »

embedding-shape wrote: post #194
ferngodfather wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries have these no call lists but they are fairly useless as there is no enforcement. I've even heard stories of some scammers exclusively using such lists, as they are pre-verified!

> Most countries have these no call lists but they are fairly useless as there is no enforcement What country are you in that it doesn't work in? I know for a fact it works in Spain and Sweden, but it'll really depend on the country. You'd help by others by being a bit more explicit :) > I've even heard stories of some scammers exclusively using such lists, as they are pre-verified! That does suck and seems counter-p…

It works versus serious companies cold calling you. Scammers and semi-scammers still call. There is some need to adress what it doesn't solve too.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#219

Post by dakial1 »

In Brazil no one uses common phone lines anymore because, in part, of the telemarketers and scams calls. Most people I know enable “silence unknown callers” and use almost exclusively Whatsapp for communication.

The government tried to control this with an official (no call list) that is usually ignored by companies who use third parties and disposable mobile numbers to do their dirty work.

Telcos have the power to control that but they are usually an internal mess and this is low in their priority list as they consider the voice calls a lost battleground.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#220

Post by tlogan »

The main problem and challenge with all these regulations is enforcement. How are they actually going to enforce them?

The U.S. already has very strict rules against unsolicited calls, yet I still get around 20 spam calls a day saying things like "press 2 to be connected" or offering some "$64K loan."

At the same time, I have not received a single unsolicited call from a reputable company.

The same is true for text messages. In 2023, the U.S. introduced stricter regulations, and companies like Twilio responded with very strict anti-spam rules. The rules are now so restrictive that we are forced to stopped using Twilio for text important notification to our my own team.

Yet I still receive dozens of spam text messages every week.

So the question is whether the regulations can actually be enforced against the people who are already ignoring them.

Post reply on HN