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France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

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Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#71

Post by petepete »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #27
riffraff wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many door to door salesman do you encounter? Where do you live, if you can share? I haven't seen one in decades, and even then it was usually some pamphlets or books to support a cause or the other. On the phone (Italy), OTOH, I used to get daily scam call to buy "Amazon stocks" or change utility providers or install water filters. That seems to have massively faded out due to new regulations tho.

Jehovah's Witnesses, across Europe, still even nowadays. Some other minor religious sects targeting elderly, usually offering care or attention followed by vicious takeover of real estate. Only because you have not been profiled as lone and vulnerable, doesn't mean the practice doesn't exist:)

I get several a year (UK). So far in 2026, I've had:

* Jehovah's Witnesses

* people offering to steam clean my roof/drive

* the local Fibre company trying to sign me up.

* well known scammers who claim to be on some kind of prison release scheme selling overpriced kitchen/household tat

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#72

Post by ValentinPearce »

eru wrote: post #57
vjk800 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There doesn't need to be any kind of technical solution. If a telemarketer wants to sell something, they must declare the name of their company. The company name can be reported to police (or whatever authorities are going to handle this) who can then fine the telemarketers.

What if the business says 'That wasn't me?' I mean, everyone can call anyone and name any company already.

I assume ownership of the caller's number can be logged/checked.

I haven't had too much trouble with telemarketers lately but there is a crowdsourced app in France called Saracroche that can be easily installed on your phone and blocks spam numbers by becoming the caller id service. You can also use the app to report a number and help build the huge database.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#73

Post by petu »

eru wrote: post #57
vjk800 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There doesn't need to be any kind of technical solution. If a telemarketer wants to sell something, they must declare the name of their company. The company name can be reported to police (or whatever authorities are going to handle this) who can then fine the telemarketers.

What if the business says 'That wasn't me?' I mean, everyone can call anyone and name any company already.

Phone number always belongs/registered to someone?

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#74

Post by Raudius »

Gigachad wrote: post #39
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…

I wonder how much we even need international calls from unknown numbers. In my life I have literally never legitimately had a call from an unknown number outside of the country. I guess it could be different if you have many connections or business deals internationally. But I feel like the average person could restrict inbound international calls to contacts only and be better off for it.

In the EU its not uncommon to receive phone calls from other countries. Just the other day I received a large package and the driver called with an international number to make sure I would be home to receive it.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#75

Post by Xmd5a »

mcv wrote: post #64

That's great. Netherland banned them a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I still receive them. Sometimes a lot. A year or two ago, I received calls almost every week from a major TV/internet provider (Ziggo-Vodafone; total crooks). I told them not to call me again, I complained to the regulator, but as far as I can tell, nothing was ever done about it. So banning it is great, but you still need to enforce that law.

>Sometimes a lot. A year or two ago, I received calls almost every week

4-5 a day here.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#76

Post by mcv »

stymaar wrote: post #18
ZeWaren wrote: post #8

The previous system never blocked scams because scammers didn't bother to check if your phone number was in the block-list before calling you. That new law is not going to change the number of spam calls most people will get, as they're not from properly registered businesses.

It's not about scams, it's about commercial telemarketing calls. Scams have been heavily hit in January when the French regulator mandated the telcos to implement a complete block of spoofed phone numbers (it's not an actual hard block, but unauthenticated calls will be market as "private number" which are ignored by most people already). There will always be scammers who register an actual phone number to run their…

> the French regulator mandated the telcos to implement a complete block of spoofed phone numbers

That is really great. I've had a lot of trouble with calls from spoofed numbers a couple of years ago (it ended when I installed a scam blacker on my phone), and when I looked into it at that time, my impression was that phone companies couldn't block spoofed numbers. On the other hand, if the scam blocking app can block them, there clearly must be some way to detect them.

Phone companies need to do a better job protecting their customers against this abuse.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#77

Post by 72deluxe »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #70
72deluxe wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know JWs go door to door but I don't think they sell anything nor do they ask for donations - all their stuff is free? To qualify as a salesman you'd have to be selling something, surely? My local C of E cathedral sent out a mailshot during COVID asking for donations with a range from £50 - £1000 options on the card (yes, really). I've never had anything like that from JWs. I get visits from the local air ambulance…

DON'T APPROACH ME WITH YOUR RELIGION. PERIOD.

I understand the sentiment but I don't understand why you're shouting a response at me; I was trying to highlight the difference between charities and salesmen.

I think your issue is with religion, not sales people, which is what this article is about.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#78

Post by conradfr »

mcv wrote: post #64

That's great. Netherland banned them a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I still receive them. Sometimes a lot. A year or two ago, I received calls almost every week from a major TV/internet provider (Ziggo-Vodafone; total crooks). I told them not to call me again, I complained to the regulator, but as far as I can tell, nothing was ever done about it. So banning it is great, but you still need to enforce that law.

In France it's multiple calls per day.

Especially on landlines mostly used by older people.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#79

Post by docdeek »

xenator wrote: post #4

Article is not clear. Does this law blocks B2B calls? If so then it can cause damage to the business.

A business can call another business it there’s an existing relationship. This means you can introduce an upgrade, a new product line, or something unrelated to their current contract - but the contract needs to be there first.

Other than that, the business needs the call receipient to opt in. They can dop this on a webform, a physical form, or by initiating the contact and, say, leaving a message for the vendor asking to be called back. It means the business needs to concetrate on avenues other than cold calling for getting themselves in front of a prospect.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#80

Post by redsocksfan45 »

stymaar wrote: post #18
ZeWaren wrote: post #8

The previous system never blocked scams because scammers didn't bother to check if your phone number was in the block-list before calling you. That new law is not going to change the number of spam calls most people will get, as they're not from properly registered businesses.

It's not about scams, it's about commercial telemarketing calls. Scams have been heavily hit in January when the French regulator mandated the telcos to implement a complete block of spoofed phone numbers (it's not an actual hard block, but unauthenticated calls will be market as "private number" which are ignored by most people already). There will always be scammers who register an actual phone number to run their…

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