Who are the Robots and Why are they Calling me?
As documented by the AARP in their publication, Weapons of Fraud, con criminals are experts at using the telephone as a weapon, much the same way as Willie Sutton used a gun to rob a bank.
Recently, the Voice Mail Broadcasting Company requested that the FTC allow pre-recorded messages be allowed to be delivered to customers that the company had an established "business relationship" with.
But, according to the Wall Street Journal, the FTC response was to put in place stricter rules for 'Robo Calls'.
If it were easier and cheaper to deliver a pre-recorded sales message, than using a live operator, would consumers be worse off if these messages were allowed?
According to the FTC, explaining their rejection of the Voice Mail Broadcasting Company's proposal, one "reason for rejecting the proposal is that the comments showed that neither consumers nor industry support safeguards in the proposed amendment designed to ensure that consumers who receive calls delivering a recorded message could assert a company-specific do not call request as easily as they could when they receive calls from an in-person sales representative."
What is wrong with hanging up?
Apart from the massive consumer revolt against the proposal, the FTC also cited concerns that "the use of low-cost pre-recorded message telemarketing coupled with the use of such technologies as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) likely would spur an upsurge in prerecorded calls. The dramatically lower cost of telemarketing in this way could make it much more economically feasible for sellers to call consumers with whom they have an "established business relationship."
So we don't want to have cheaper trades between willing sellers and buyers, we would much rather increase transaction costs? Again, the purpose being what? So that the Federal Government is screening your calls from telemarketing companies? At what cost?
The alternative is much cheaper. Just as if you don't want your house broken into, you buy an alarm system; if you don't want to listen to telemarketers live, buy a $10.00 answering machine. This alternative is much better than loopholes in the FTC's Don't Call Registery. I don't care if you call me, I am just not listening to you at your beck and call when I have an answering machine.
Even better would be an answering machine with security devices built in,something akin to if I don't have the equivalent of your RSS feed, your message is going straight to te bottom of my list.
It is time for people to realize that the telephone is not your friend. Someone who is calling you, robo call or live, has to pass over a gateway to get your attention. Your attention should not be free.
