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France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

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Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#31
post #29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the US, VOIP providers (think google voice or twilio) interconnect with telephone companies similar to how landline/cellphone companies interconnect with each other, so #1 and #4 are essentially the same. The only difference is what the "from" number appears as. If you look at the price lists of voip providers, you'll note that the only factor that determines the price is where you're calling to, not wher…

That provider is either only providing service to one country (very likely because this is separately regulated in every country), is showing you prices specific to your country, or is doing #1 and making themselves liable for spam.

>That provider is either only providing service to one country (very likely because this is separately regulated in every country),

twilio can hardly be described as "providing service to one country", and has the same price list whether I'm using an American VPN or Dutch VPN:

https://www.twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/fr

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#32
post #18

Australia banned telemarketing a while ago, it worked pretty well. The only spam phone calls left are 100% illegal scammers. https://www.acma.gov.au/telemarketing-and-e-marketing they give out million+ dollar fines which sort things out. Just being a customer doesn't allow them to send marketing, you have to opt in.

It's the year 2026, I refuse to believe that phone companies cannot figure out who is a scammer and who is not.

If financial incentives align, we will be surprised how effective they would become.

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#33
post #31
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That provider is either only providing service to one country (very likely because this is separately regulated in every country), is showing you prices specific to your country, or is doing #1 and making themselves liable for spam.

>That provider is either only providing service to one country (very likely because this is separately regulated in every country), twilio can hardly be described as "providing service to one country", and has the same price list whether I'm using an American VPN or Dutch VPN: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/voice/pricing/fr

You see how it says "local"? That means a local call.

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#35
post #25

what does HN think are the better alternatives to cold contact? businesses obviously keep doing unsolicited telemarketing calls because it works to some extent

There does not need to be an alternative. It just needs to stop.

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#36
post #18

Australia banned telemarketing a while ago, it worked pretty well. The only spam phone calls left are 100% illegal scammers. https://www.acma.gov.au/telemarketing-and-e-marketing they give out million+ dollar fines which sort things out. Just being a customer doesn't allow them to send marketing, you have to opt in.

It's the year 2026, I refuse to believe that phone companies cannot figure out who is a scammer and who is not.

Many scammers use internet telephony to call someone and some even spoof the caller id. In India, the mobile companies request subscribers to report any international call which shows local spoofed caller ids to them, so they can investigate it. So I am guessing it is trickier than we believe to track them ...

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#37
post #26

You can ban these practices as much as you want, but what we really need is ENFORCING. I have to be able to report a phone number that called me, and have them either fined or blocked at the national level for spam.

We have that in France already it is called bloctel

Re: France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

#38
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

International rates are just a consumer thing.

Explain how this can exist concurrently on the front page with this, then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183953

That's very different, that's a "botnet" style where you leverage consumer hardware and use them without their knowledge, similar to how you'd run a botnet farm for residential proxies (what Perplexity and so-on are using).

There is many ways of doing spam/fraud, think also that some are not very clever nor have good financial literacy, they just don't know the best mechanisms due to lack of education in tech (and the dark side).

For example, some would pay an infected residential network for $5 per GB, and some will only pay $0.10 per GB, depending on how knowledgeable they are.

Most calls/bulk SMS can be done cheaply by just buying Stolen VoIP enterprise accounts (available on a ton of forums), a "scam" operation will resort to any way possible because they don't have any law affecting them as they do so already illegally, it's not the same as "marketing calls".

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