Live data from Hacker News

France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

lemonde.fr

251–260 of 527 posts

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#251
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its way different in the EU vs the USA. In the United States, the number of people with passports HAS dramatically increased in the past 30 years, going from ~5% to a little more than 50%; but we mainly use them for traveling once or twice / getting into bars when you’re a 22yo with a misplaced driver’s license. More relevant to the topic at hand, it’s extremely rare to receive an unsolicited call to an Ameri…

> it’s extremely rare to receive an unsolicited call to an American phone number from a number outside the +1 country code. Can't be THAT rare, can it? Isn't 15% of the current population in the US immigrants? Most of us immigrants do receive and make calls to our "mother country" every once in a while, even introverts like me. Or maybe you were excluding immigrants in that as you mention immigrants later?

> Most of us immigrants do receive and make calls to our "mother country" every once in a while,

Surely this would be covered by the fact that you're making calls as a "known number" not an "unknown number"?

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#252

I hope they can make it work We have a ban on telemarketing calls regarding insurance in Switzerland. But we still get them. So what happens is that insurance agents (which are required to be licensed) don't call them selves. Instead they use 3rd party call centers outside the country which make the calls. They "warmup" the clients to get a meeting in which the agent then in a visit can make the sale. For law enforce…

This sounds like the basis of a scam involving a company called Clark that I had the displeasure of dealing with in the past. From what I understand, they had/have an operation running in Spain, the purpose of which is to get people signed up for insurance-based pillar 3a products. I don't know what has happened with this subsequently.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#253

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…

I think in America at least the problem is most of these seem to be scams calls not legitimate. So they are criminals who don’t really care about the law

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Dude, what country? In Spain or Sweden, I literally don't receive any calls from unknowns anymore, scammers nor telemarketing. Please specify the country so we can know what country you're talking about, and what the name of the list you enrolled in is. Worth knowing for people who might not know; large telemarketing companies have campaigns on the internet to spread FUD about the effectiveness of these lists, so les…

Most people here are American, and your reply comes off as standoffish

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#257
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…

For all these countries that don’t get scam calls, it has nothing to do with your do not call list since these are criminals anyway. It has to do with the fact that Americans are Legion and have a lot of money.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#258
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…

I think you may be overthinking it. In Sweden we already have a registry where we can opt out of telemarketing[1] (as well as ads in our physical mailboxes[2]). Generally this works well. Yes I still get a couple of "this is Microsoft calling" in Indian accent per year. Two spam calls per year isn't bad though. And this has worked for decades here, without special technical measures.

(Companies with which you already have a prior relation are allowed to call / mail you though, but this is always possible to opt out of.)

[1] https://www.nixtelefon.org/

[2] https://nixa.nixadresserat.se/

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#259
post #180

Norway has the same law. I get no spam calls like this from Norway. What I do get is spam calls from abroad. Often with a spoofed Norwegian number. Why can't operators block this? I know call centers and various things need to "spoof" a number they own, and when I myself call from abroad my Norwegian number will come from outside Norway. But why can't they attest the numbers somehow? Owner of +47 XXXXXXX is currently…

It is technically possible, here in Finland such blocking (i.e. all inbound international calls with Finnish caller ID, except for roaming) has been obligatory for a few years now ( https://traficom.fi/en/news/obligations-regulation-come-effe... ).

Something similar is in place in Sweden. For landline numbers, it is of course easy. A number with, say, a Stockholm area code is not suddenly going to be in Nigeria. For mobiles it is trickier, because a Swedish mobile may very well be in Nigeria. Some additional database look-ups had to be added to the already rubegoldbergesque contraption that handles mobile phone calls.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#260
take a c-level position at a company and your cell phone (you work phone as well, but your personal non-work affiliated cell phone) will ring multiple times a day with sales people (recruiting firms, software companies, cleaning companies, consultants, financing or financial products etc.) because some asshole uploaded their address book so they could play some game or use some stupid app…
Post reply on HN