Federal Government Agrees To Fight Robocalls
By AlpLocal News
November 20, 2019
Washington D.C. – The U.S. House and Senate found common ground in which to agree on something, fight robocalls. Soon a bill to fight robocalls will be sent to President Trump. The bill will have far-reaching effects on both the calls and the phone companies.
Both houses of Congress agreed in principle to complete their work on two bills and combine them into one bill. What will be in the final bill is still to come. One source says the bill will require phone companies to verify that phone numbers are real and block the “fake” numbers for free.
The bill also puts the scammers who use “spoofing” or hidden original or the real phone numbers in the cross-hairs. The government will be able to act more aggressively against the scammers. Phone companies are using more tools to verify that the numbers showing up in customer’s phones are real.
Often these numbers are faked to look like they’re coming from government agencies or they’re made to look like they’re from the same area code. It is hoped that this legislation will work without customers having to buy blocking technology. The FCC gave permission to phone companies to turn on blocking by default in June 2019.
Robocalls are a real national problem. It’s estimated that half of all calls (50%) made in 2019 were calls made by scammers. Tech giant YouMail says there were 5.7 billion calls from scammers in October 2019. Telemarketers, debt-buyers, debt collectors and others are among the most offenders. Some calls are really wanted, like calls from your dentist confirming an appointment.
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