There is at least one issue that can span the great partisan divide of this era. Each and every American can agree that robocalls are a pain in the, uh, neck.
It’s a topic on which even Congress can agree. Both the House (417-3) and the Senate (97-1) overwhelmingly approved the TRACED Act, and President Donald Trump signed it into law last week.
The new measure wisely requires phone companies to roll out automated-call-blocking services and stop the ringing in our ears. And it prohibits carriers from passing along the cost to their customers.
It also rightly increases the fines for fraudulent robocalls from $1,500 to as much as $10,000 per call.
And it requires the Federal Communications Commission and service providers to develop systems to identify “spoofed” calls, the ones that trick your Caller ID to look like they originate locally, and trick you into answering.
The sheer numbers of calls, made possible by new and inexpensive software, are staggering.
More than 2,000 robocalls are made every second, according to a report by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. And Americans were bombarded with more than 48 billion automated calls in 2018 alone, according to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Many of the calls are simply irritating, offering you a break on your interest rate, or soliciting donations. Others are insidious scams that bilk consumers out of millions of dollars by making vulnerable people believe they’re in trouble with law enforcement or the IRS.
The new law only addresses automated calling systems. Human telemarketers are still free to pester you, legitimately or not, unless you sign up for the national Do Not Call Registry.
And the robocall problem won’t be solved overnight.
But this legislation gives phone companies and regulators the ammunition and impetus to give consumers a break, and hang up on robocallers once and for all.
