TMCnews Featured Article

As customers, there are many things that make us angry: long hold time, multiple transfers, incorrect information, or a lack of follow-through on the part of companies that make promises. A lot of these issues are because of human error. Some of them, however, should be focused on the abuse of technology. The interactive voice response (IVR) system is helpful for routing calls and providing customers with a self-service channel for basic information. Unfortunately, many companies use their IVRs as a well to keep customers out. Long menus, rambling marketing messages, static-filled elevator music and a lack of a means to escalate to a live operator are some of the largest pet peeves when it comes to the IVR. Despite this, the IVR has been supplanted by an even more-hated consumer technology: the robocall.

Technically called an automated outbound telephone message, robocalling is the recorded voice at the other end of the line when we pick up a call. It may be offering useful information, such as a delayed flight, a prescription ready to be picked up or a school cancellation. Chances are, however, that it’s “Rachel from Card Services,” or “An Important Message about Break-Ins in Your Area.” Wait to connect with a real human being to challenge the call, and you’ll be quickly hung up on. There’s a reason for this: this latter type of robocall is illegal and in direct violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a piece of legislation that lays out restrictions on automated outbound calls and messages. 

The problem of illegal robocalling is getting out of hand. Each month, more than 150,000 consumers file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC (News - Alert)) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about robocalls alone. The days of live outbound phone calls interrupting Americans at dinner seem almost quaint compared to the scourge of unwanted robocalls on land lines and cell phones. According to Consumer Reports, robocalls aren’t only annoying, they’re expensive.

“Robocalls do more than negatively affect quality of life: They are a way in which scammers prey on unsuspecting consumers,” wrote Consumer Reports. “Telemarketing fraud—which often begins with a robocall—is estimated to cost consumers $350 million per year.”

Voice over IP technology, while offering a broad array of benefits to users, also offers benefits to scammers. Thanks to VoIP, it’s cheap and easy to generate millions of outbound robocalls from abroad and obscure (or fake) the source of the calls. Telecom carriers, who should be leading the charge to help counter the abuses with new technology, have largely fallen down on the job, perhaps anxious not to offend business lobbying interests. The FCC (News - Alert) – which once crowd-sourced a solution for unwanted robocalls that resulted in a solution called Nomorobo developed by freelance programmer Aaron Foss – is putting the telecom carriers on notice that they not only have the right, but a duty to address the problem.

“One of the biggest hurdles to the widespread adoption and implementation of call-blocking technology has been those industry leaders, which took the position that their legal obligation to complete all calls precluded their offering to block any, despite their customers’ increasingly frantic pleas,” wrote Consumer Reports. “But in a significant ruling this past June, the FCC brushed aside the companies’ objections and gave permission for carriers to provide call-blocking technologies.”

Until these solutions become available, according to Consumer Reports, telephone subscribers are on the hook (no pun intended) for finding solutions themselves, whether it’s through call blacklisting apps for mobile phones, or solutions such as Nomorobo (which is available only for VoIP call services). By then, the same scammers who once flooded our e-mail inboxes with Nigerian bank schemes will have moved onto something else.