I understand how email spam is hard to trace to its source, but phones should be possible.
I’d like the FCC to impose a fine for spam messages that are paid for the company advertising with spam. I think the issue now is that the spam calls are lead generators that then collect info and forward to “legitimate” companies to sell warranties, insurance, whatever.
The “legitimate” company should be fined and then let them sort out the scammy firms that are spamming to generate leads.
A law that says "you are responsible for the business practices of the people you contract to generate leads for you" would be great. But how does the lead-generation ecosystem work? I'm imagining some sort of open lead-generation system, where the legitimate company doesn't have an ongoing relationship with the spammers, but is willing to pay out if they show up with bunch of leads.
So, I could see a law where we say, "well, if you accept the bundle of leads, you, legitimate company, are responsible for the business practices of the lead-generator."
But would it be possible to launder these things?
Shady company uses illegitimate means to gather leads.
"Sells" only the successful leads to third party that's just popped up for this transaction and, as a result, hasn't really engaged in any practices at all...
I dunno. Seems like a big headache for regulators, although I guess they sort out this kind of stuff all the time (or at least try to).
Since companies must pay out to lead generators, I assume this means they have to know them with taxids and whatnot if they are paying out large sums.
By fining the companies using the leads it takes the headache away from the regulator and puts it on the company. Set up some sort of statutory damages process where I record the call and get to the point where I get transferred to someone who says “I work for FooCorp and sell warranties, please give me your credit card.” I send that recording to a regulator, fines the company $300, keeps $50 to fund itself and pays me $250 as the victim.
This seems like it will quickly make companies strictly vet their lead generations.
It seems pretty bad that any company exists based on cold calling genera consumers. All those companies should go bankrupt for sucking.
Potentially, but then there would be the paper trail to show conspiracy, etc if a company made false leads to their competitors.
This may also be a choice of whether I want to get 35 calls a day from spammers or assassinate all shady car warranty companies. The companies are already shitty as they allow these spam-generated leads, so I don’t have much sympathy for their continued existence.
If we had the email and text and app equivalent of a Do Not Call list, we would have everything we need: after perhaps a first time slap on the wrist, companies that continue not to run their lead lists against that registry deserve everything that happens to them.
That would be nice...if carriers had actually implemented STIR/SHAKEN with no exceptional conditions that political organizations could use. As currently done, the National DNC list is basically useless.
No, the problem is that a string of spam calls could be a false flag attack. If you wanted to drive your competition out of business, you’d just pay some spam callers to dial everyone on the do not call list and lie about who hired them
I’d like the FCC to impose a fine for spam messages that are paid for the company advertising with spam. I think the issue now is that the spam calls are lead generators that then collect info and forward to “legitimate” companies to sell warranties, insurance, whatever.
The “legitimate” company should be fined and then let them sort out the scammy firms that are spamming to generate leads.