Back in April, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives that would force phone service providers to make it simpler for customers to block unwanted prerecorded and automated calls. The ROBOCOP Act has been sitting idle for a while, but now, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has brought the ROBOCOP Act before the Senate. If successful, the Act would compel the FCC to require that telephone service providers give their customers access to optional technology to block unwanted robocalls.
Despite the National “Do Not Call” registry, robocalls are still an annoying problem for telephone customers, and telecom companies are simply taking too long to find an adequate solution. An epidemic affecting both landlines and mobile phones, unwanted phone calls from scam artists and telemarketers have gotten worse. This is because the registry only protects consumers from unwanted phone calls from legitimate telemarketers who heed the Do Not Call list – it does not provide any protection against identity thieves and others who don’t care about breaking the law.
There are some software and hardware-based methods of blocking unwanted phone calls, but not many have been rolled out on any significant scale. So far, the widest deployment by a telecom provider has been Time Warner Cable’s integration of a free service called Nomorobo, which won the FTC Robocall Challenge. Verizon is currently working on a similar integration.
If you have joined the National “Do Not Call” Registry and are still getting unwanted robocalls after at least 30 days, you may have legal recourse. Contact a Chicago consumer attorney at Atlas Consumer Law to talk about your case and whether you are eligible to pursue compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). To speak with an attorney at our firm, please call (312) 313-1613 to schedule a consultation.