As one of his final acts of 2019, President Trump on Monday signed into law major anti-robocall legislation.
The TRACED (Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence) Act aims to curb unwanted interruptions and thwart the scammers behind them.
Despite its swift adoption by Congress and the White House, don’t expect immediate results: It will take at least 12 to 18 months for the ordinance to kick in, at which point it should begin to lessen the overall number of spammy calls.
Nearly More than 58.5 billion robocalls were placed nationwide so far this year—up from 48 billion in 2018, 31 billion in 2017, and 29 billion in 2016, YouMail reported. That’s equal to roughly 164.4 calls per person affected.
Following their passage in the Senate and House this summer, two separate anti-robocall proposals were reconciled as part of a bipartisan, bicameral agreement: the TRACED Act.
The bill requires that carriers adopt technology to help identify legitimate (or not) calls and let consumers opt in or out of blocking—at no extra charge. It also allows the government to step up enforcement actions against unlawful robocalls, prosecute the criminals generating them, and hand out penalties of up to $10,000 per call.
“I am glad that the agency now has a longer statute of limitations during which we can pursue scammers,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “And I welcome the removal of a previously required warning we had to give to unlawful robocallers before imposing tough penalties.”
I thought my twice-monthly “Unknown Number” calls were annoying.
But, as The Washington Post pointed out last month, these disruptions are more than a nuisance: They endanger hospitals, flood phone lines, and scare patients.
In response, Congress included a clause in the TRACED Act that protects patients, doctors, and hospitals from unlawful robocalls.”
“I thank the American people for never letting us forget how fed up they are with scam, spoofed robocalls,” Pai said. “It’s their voices that power our never-ceasing push to fight back against the scourge of robocalls and malicious spoofing.”
More on Geek.com:
- New FCC Rules Target International Robocallers
- FTC, Law Enforcement ‘Call It Quits’ on Robocallers
- FCC Empowers Carriers to ‘Aggressively Block’ Robocallers
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