What You Need To Know:
There’s help for those frustrated by those inane robocalls — that would be most, if not all of us. Earlier this month, Donald Trump signed an anti-robocall bill into law. A robocall is described as a phone call that uses a computerized auto-dialer to deliver an automated message. Some calls are used by city departments during an emergency or businesses like pharmacies regarding prescriptions ready for a pick-up. But most of the robocalls are scams.
Many behind the measure admit the reality is to reduce the number of unwanted calls, but not likely to eliminate entirely — that’s even in the name of the bill. The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence or TRACE Act will increase the fines on robocalls from $1500 to as much as $10,000 per spam call.
Why You Need To Know:
Under the anti-robocall law, phone carriers must block the robocalls without additional charges on customers. Phone companies must also use technologies to make sure that calls are coming from real phone numbers, not “phishing.” Those are phone numbers doctored to appear as a number in your community or from a government office.
The FCC is also being pushed to help the curious among us by stopping the One-Ring Phone Scam. The robot calls a phone, lets it ring once before hanging up. Many of us will call back and thus rack up phone charges going to scammers. It’s not a perfect law, but it may reduce scamming, especially among the elderly and frustration for the rest of us.
