---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <1E1CE1F2-E894-4B64-AB50-85D8C3B2FE5D@roscom.com> Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 09:21:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: TCPA Fax Judgment Health One Medical Center v. Mohawk KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. Some questions seem to arise only in class-action lawsuits. Here, a seller of prescription drugs sent junk faxes to various medical providers, advertising the seller's prices on various drugs. The question presented is whether - for purposes of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which makes it unlawful "to send . . . an unsolicited advertisement" to a fax machine - the manufac- turers of those drugs "sent" those faxes even though they knew nothing about them. The district court answered no, and so do we. http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0089p-06.pdf ***** Moderator's Note ***** FAX machines - the ubiquitous replacement for the formerly ubiquitous TELEX or TWX machine - are so important to some businesses that the FCC dictated that VoIP services must include the ability to handle FAX calls in their devices. Here we have a "victory" for big pharma, where an appeals court decided that two major players aren't liable for unsolicieted advertisements because they didn't 'send' them. However, it concerns me, for the obvious reason: it's a short step from "Don't send unsolicited fax messages" to "Don't get caught hinting that your distributors can do it for you." Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <barmar-C65FC3.10464310052018@reader.eternal-september.org> Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 10:46:47 -0400 From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> Subject: Re: Yes, It's Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging. In article <kmt5fd119ghn77qdsvl92ifb73jh3h4hgs@4ax.com>, Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote: > Last several months I have been getting more and more calls where the > CallerID is on the same exchange as my cell phone. I've noticed the same thing. These days I mostly get robocalls on my cellphone. Most are in the same exchange, and many of the others are in the same area code. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ Message-ID: <g6hcse-ct9.ln1@coop.radagast.org> Date: Wed, 9 May 2018 17:43:28 -0700 From: Dave Platt <dplatt@remove-this.coop.radagast.org> Subject: Re: Yes, It's Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging. > Does anybody know if some of the perpetrators are spoofing CallerID > on a call-by-call basis? > > Last several months I have been getting more and more calls where > the CallerID is on the same exchange as my cell phone. > > If so, it seems like a workable way to defeat NoMoRobo and other > crowd-sourced solutions. Almost certainly, yes. I've noticed this pattern for roughly a year. In particular, there's a "This is the Marriott Hotel, you've been selected for a special deal" scammer who uses this a lot. Certainly seems intended to help get by any "accept local calls but reject calls from out-of-state" phonespam blockers. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180510001401.188B726563D9@ary.qy> Date: 9 May 2018 20:14:00 -0400 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Yes, It's Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging. In article <kmt5fd119ghn77qdsvl92ifb73jh3h4hgs@4ax.com> you write: >Does anybody know if some of the perpetrators are spoofing CallerID on a >call-by-call basis? Yes definitely. >Last several months I have been getting more and more calls where the >CallerID is on the same exchange as my cell phone. Like that. These days if a call on my mobile isn't from someone in my phone book, I don't bother to answer because it's all junx. ***** Moderator's Note ***** No! NO!! PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!!! Sigh. (Takes deep breath, considers changing above to lower case, decides against.) When you get a marketing call, *please* do what I do: Take One For The Team! *You* have already been bothered. *You* have already had your quiet enjoyment of your day stolen. Fight Back! There are now two layers of screening between you and the actual salesmen whose time is valuable: 1. An auto-attendant that tries to get you to punch a digit to be "removed," although all the advice I've read says that it's just a ploy to get you to confirm that your number is valid. 2. A voice-from-India that asks you screening questions designed to separate the smart from the gullible. If you miss a question, they hang up. IMNSHO, you should do anything it takes to get to the closer and waste as much of his/her time as possible. Their minions have lied to you already, and treated you like a fool - it's only fair to return the favor. Trust me on this: they LOVE folks who don't answer, because that means that they are statistically that much closer to finding a mark. There are websites which will generate a "valid" credit card number that will pass the checksum test. When they say they want to "qualify" you, give them one of those numbers. When they say the charge didn't go through, ask them what the hell they're doing trying to charge the card when they say they were going to "validate" you. Just remember NEVER to say "Yes," since I've read reports of some con artists excerpting that one word and pasting it into a "conversation" where you "gave consent" to be charged. Instead of "yes," reply "tell me more, " or "how much does it cost, again?" Etc., Etc. The object is simple: waste as much of the saledroid's time as possible. If even a small percentage of victims fight back, the whole industry will be bankrupt inside a year. You can smile and know that *you* helped to make it happen! Or, if that seems too far out there for your taste (it's OK: going 15 rounds with an experienced boiler-room operator isn't for everyone), you can pick up a pen and paper (it has GOT to be a handwritten note! Trust me on this!), and write your Congressman and demand that (s)he get of his/her butt and pass legislation against caller-id spoofing that has real teeth in it. Either way, you'll make a difference. Take One For The Team! Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 11 May 2018