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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

#361

Post by technotarek »

Diesel555 wrote: post #310
lukebuehler wrote: post #274

A lot of people point out that telecom companies should do something but aren't because it's lucrative for them or too expensive to fix. Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves with this in the long term? People will stop using phone numbers altogether. Using the phone has become such a pain, at least in the US, that whenever I can, I used different ways of communicating. WhatsApp, iM…

"Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves" After seeing cable companies fail to get into the internet, I'm convinced companies try to stop progress instead of embracing it. They don't see progress as an opportunity, but rather as a threat. They don't realize how much they are hurting themselves. I read an interesting article on here about the rise of the cell phone camera, the amount o…

Somewhat related, can anyone explain why in the world Fox would allow the entire World Series to be sponsored by YouTube Live? They have to be a competitive threat, no?

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

#362

Post by dredmorbius »

oswald wrote: post #349
_akei wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are indeed hurting their business for short term profits. Due to a number of robocalls I receive, I decided to ignore and block all calls from landline numbers. 99% of landline call I receive, are from robocalls these days. If someone wants to call me with a landline number, they must inform me first and I will store their number on my phone.

That's pretty clever, I didn't even consider this as an option. How do you block landlines? I currently have 'do not disturb' on and whitelist my contacts but it's not ideal.

Blocking all unknown numbers is fairly standard.

Defining a silent ringtone by default, and a non-silent one for your contacts, is another.

Better management tools on phones themselves would be a bonus.

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

#363

Post by falcor84 »

rlayton2 wrote: post #357
tooney712 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The go to example of this will always be Kodak. Steven Sasson invented the first digital camera (and a device to display it on) in 1975 while working at R&D at Kodak. He had a fully functional DSLR by 1989, complete with memory cards. Kodak never released his work, never manufactured that camera. They kept the patent of the work and sat on it, and when others tried to innovate and create a digital camera, Kodak sued…

A "use it or lose it" clause would be great for patent law. While I appreciate how hard it would be to implement properly, I don't think that should be an impediment to getting the process started.

>While I appreciate how hard it would be to implement properly

Isn't that part of what it means to acquire a patent? Trying to get a patent on something that I don't yet know how to actually implement should be denied, right?

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

#364

Post by tssva »

technotarek wrote: post #361
Diesel555 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves" After seeing cable companies fail to get into the internet, I'm convinced companies try to stop progress instead of embracing it. They don't see progress as an opportunity, but rather as a threat. They don't realize how much they are hurting themselves. I read an interesting article on here about the rise of the cell phone camera, the amount o…

Somewhat related, can anyone explain why in the world Fox would allow the entire World Series to be sponsored by YouTube Live? They have to be a competitive threat, no?

Fox probably has very little choice. YouTube TV's sponsorship agreement is with MLB. I can't imagine MLB's World Series broadcast contract with Fox gives them much if any say in the matter.

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

#365

Post by pm7 »

nordsieck wrote: post #139
pm7 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's give Facebook full control over worlds communication? And allow them to cut people off from communicating with anyone? I don't think it's great idea. We really need federated communicator.

> We really need federated communicator. Federation has enormous downsides: since anyone can join the network and send messages, there aren't good ways to police bad actors. The two largest federated communications networks today are email and PSTN. They're both infested with spammers.

Yes, there are downsides to federation, but I would argue spam is not inherent to federated communication.

There are many ideas to stop spam like proof of work.

Main reason for spam in email and PSTN is legacy protocols, which were created long time ago and cannot be significantly improved without breaking compatibility.

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

#367

Post by jbottoms »

tooney712 wrote: post #327
Diesel555 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are telecom companies not realizing how much they are hurting themselves" After seeing cable companies fail to get into the internet, I'm convinced companies try to stop progress instead of embracing it. They don't see progress as an opportunity, but rather as a threat. They don't realize how much they are hurting themselves. I read an interesting article on here about the rise of the cell phone camera, the amount o…

The go to example of this will always be Kodak. Steven Sasson invented the first digital camera (and a device to display it on) in 1975 while working at R&D at Kodak. He had a fully functional DSLR by 1989, complete with memory cards. Kodak never released his work, never manufactured that camera. They kept the patent of the work and sat on it, and when others tried to innovate and create a digital camera, Kodak sued…

That is one of several reasons that innovation in the U.S. is mortally wounded.

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

#368

Post by GordonS »

teddyh wrote: post #307

So many knee-jerk “obvious” solutions in comments here, some with gratuitous violent fantasies to boot. Might I suggest that you look at how your proposed solution compares to other, older, suggestion on how the then-new email spam problem used to be suggested to be fixed: https://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt Also, this is a mostly exclusively a U.S. problem. In Europe, we basically just don’t ever get “robocalls”…

UK person here - while I can't speak for the whole of Europe, robocalls and fraudulent calls are a big problem here.

At least for the fraudulent calls, they seem to exclusively come from India, so I presume they mainly target English speaking countries. Typically they claim to be from BT, Microsoft or "your ISP", and try to convince you to install dodgy software on the basis that "your computer has been sending out viruses". This software then messes up your PC or at least makes it look like it, so you shell out some cash for the fraudsters to "fix it". My understanding is that if you fall for this kind of thing, your number also gets passed on or sold to more serious fraudsters.

Robocalls here for the past 5 years or so seem to mainly be from scummy ambulance-chasing solicitors ("we've been notified you were in an accident, contact us now about your claim", that kind of thing).

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

#369

Post by Dumblydorr »

tamalpais wrote: post #27

I enabled the Silence Unknown Callers feature [0] in iOS and haven’t answered a spam call since. The downside is that it sends every call from unknown numbers to voicemail, including legitimate ones. It’s a worthwhile trade-off. [0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207099

No one worthwhile even calls me that is not in my contacts. If I have a new friend, I text them, we add as contacts, boom that person will always be a contact. For business related calls, I'm always fine with those going to Voicemail and responding when convenient.
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