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The FTC is finally cracking down on those scummy robocallers

It’s about damn time.

Phone being held by a robot for robocalls
Image: The Daily Beast

The FTC and law enforcement have joined forces to cut down on robocalls. Operation Call It Quits” was aimed at a group of companies that allegedly were responsible for over a billion robocalls.

A billion. That’s 3 calls for every person in the US today. Those calls were pre-recorded scam scripts which spoofed the caller ID to make them look like local numbers.

The FTC calls the crackdown “Operation Call It Quits”

We all hate robocalls. Everybody. Probably even the people responsible for them hate them, but they’re lucrative. Everything from credit card interest rate scams to medical alert systems or making-money opportunities (read: for the caller) are pre-recorded and robo-dialed to our phones.

The scammers make it look like it’s from a local number, increasing the likelihood that you’ll pick up. Those calls also harvest personal information, which is used in other scams.

  • According to the FTC, we get “tens of billions” of robocalls every year
  • The operation included 94 actions over 9 months, with enforcement ranging from warnings to fines to charges
  • That takes the total of cases brought by the FTC against illegal robocallers and Do Not Call violators to 145

There is still a long way to go before robocalls are a thing of the past (unless voice assistants like Google’s Duplex counts?). Still, with the FTC having more of an active role, and the FCC pushing cell phone companies to institute call verification methods, maybe the end is in sight.

I look forward to being able to answer my phone in peace (just kidding, I always hit that voicemail button).

What do you think? Glad to see the FTC doing something about robocalls? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.

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