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FTC to Finally Put the Kibosh on Robocalls

by Tim Stevens on December 10, 2009 at 10:10 AM

FTC Wants to End RoboCalls -- FinallyIt's debatable whether the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 really has had any impact on the volume of unwanted e-mails received -- our inboxes are as cluttered as ever. So, forgive us if we weren't exactly hopeful when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) effectively made robocalls, automated messages from political parties and other unwanteds, illegal a few months ago. But, there is hope, with the FTC filing suits against three offenders earlier this week.

Those firms are Economic Relief Technologies LLC, Dynamic Financial Group Inc., and JPM Accelerated Services. As of September, the FTC made it illegal for automated calls to be made to recipients who did not opt-in to such calls, in writing no less. These three were caught ringing up people at random and attempting to sell interest rate reduction programs and other verbal spam. They now face fines and other penalties, but we'll have to wait to see just how harsh it will get.

In other news, 191 million numbers are now listed on the Do Not Call registry. Are you one of them? If not, you're just a click away. [From: FTC, via Tech Daily Dose]

Tags: Federal Trade Commission, FederalTradeCommission, ftc, robocalls, telemarketing, top

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