Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] is planning to introduce legislation in the Senate that would require telephone service providers offer robo-call blocking technology to all of their customers.
Called the Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones, or ROBOCOP Act, Schumer’s bill mirrors similar legislation that was introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jackie Speier [D-Calif.]. The objective of the bill is to enhance the Federal Trade Commission‘s Do Not Call registry. The Do Not Call list is for consumers who do not want to receive telemarketing calls, but the “growing” problem is from companies that either ignore the Do Not Call list or organizations that are operating illegal scams and do not care about the Do Not Call list.
According to one report: In 2015, the Federal Trade Commission received almost 3.6 million complaints from people on the registry who’d been called. The FTC is on pace to receive more than five million complaints in 2016.
“Robocalls are one of the things that annoy Americans the most and the ROBOCOP Act will finally help put a rest to these dreaded calls that are interrupting family dinners—or worse—scamming people out their hard-earned money,” Schemer said in a statement. “Despite the existing ‘Do Not Call’ registry, the robocall problem has returned in a serious way. It’s an epidemic that we’ve got to stop—whether it’s the landline OR the mobile phone. It’s taking far too long for telecom companies to act, so that’s why I’m introducing the ROBOCOP bill which will finally require all major landline and mobile carriers to work towards making robocall blocking technology available to all consumers. Now is the time for phone carriers to answer the call and free consumers of these dreaded robocalls.”
Some telecom and technology companies have started deploying robo-call blocking technology already. A service called Nomorobo
