AP
Robocalls would be effectively banned in the state of New York under legislation proposed by lawmakers who say the irritating, relentless calls are a top complaint from constituents.
The measure, which passed a Senate committee Tuesday, would prohibit telemarketers from using automatic dialing technology to contact a New Yorker for commercial purposes if they don’t have the person’s prior consent.
Companies that violate the rule could face fines of up to $2,000 per call.
Additionally, telephone companies would be required to offer free services to consumers allowing them to prescreen and block robocalls. The bill would allow the state’s attorney general to fine telemarketers who violate the restrictions up to $2,000 per call.
“It’s time we hang up on these annoying, misleading and sometimes dangerous scams,” said Sen. Brad Holyman, a Manhattan Democrat and one of the sponsors of the legislation, which has not been scheduled for a vote.
Nearly 48 billion robocalls were placed in the U.S. last year. Lawmakers say they’ve heard from constituents who have been specifically targeted for certain robocalls because of their age or ethnicity. The calls often seek to sell a product or, in some cases, perpetrate a scam, such as claiming a person owes money for back taxes or has won a free vacation.
This law has no teeth, since they are going after the telemarketers and not the business whose product they are promoting. The telemarketers can be based in Timbuktu and are hard to track. The only effective way to stop this would be to go after the business which they are promoting.
The Robo calls are merely annoying.
Hackers steal info and sometimes use it to threaten and deliberately harm those who’s phones and computers they hack into.
But if you are not a well known politician or big celebrity, the authorities don’t care about being hacked.
They make a big deal out of talking about spam and robo calls, but refuse to even address, the hacking that can do far more damage.
I had missionaries call me last week!
It will be impossible to track down the callers. Nearly all of these calls indicate a fake spoofed number on caller ID.
All the prerecorded tzedaka appeal calls that came in on Purim? Is a Yid allowed to. report those or it considered mussering?
Does that mean that us in Montreal will stop getting those annoying calls from 718, 347 and 845 area codes?
BS”D Finally