New controversial twist to robocalls: You get voice message, but no ring
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office, fresh off an announced shutdown of a major robocall operation this week, faced questions Tuesday about a controversial twist on such automated calls: voice messages pumped in mass numbers to phones that do not ring.
Ringless robocall messages have been defended by the Republican National Committee as not technically phone calls since there’s no ring, plus they represent political free speech, according to its written filing. A Florida car dealer also has used such services.
Officials in New York, Massachusetts and Kentucky said this week they want the Federal Communications Commission to stop ringless messages. The states argued in a joint comment letter the messages only worsen a robocalling “plague,” the No. 1 consumer complaint to the FCC, by undermining cellphone users’ “best defense,” call-blocking apps. How about Florida? Republican Bondi’s office did
not immediately respond to a request to explain its position on ringless messages, if it has one. A spokeswoman told The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday the office was unaware of the filing from the other states. Asked if the RNC’s position affected its consideration of the issue, the spokeswoman replied, “No.”
In these calls, the phone never rings and consumers don’t realize they received anything until see they have a voice message.
That can defeat many call-blocking apps, impose unwanted costs on people with limited cell plans, mailbox limits or charges for checking messages, and add to a flood of automated calls that averaged 2.4 billion a month in 2016, opponents said. It can even represent a way around “Do Not Call” lists, they contended. “Granting companies a free pass to push ringless voice messages to consumers’ phones just adds more robocalls and causes significant financial harm to those who are charged for checking their messages,” said Massachusetts Attorney Gen. Maura Healey.
A company called All About the Message has argued in a petition to federal regulators that ringless messages deserve a place in the market. There is no formal timeline for an FCC decision, The New York Times reported.
“The act of depositing a voice mail on a voice mail service without dialing a consumers’ cellular telephone line does not result in the kind of disruptions to a consumer’s life — dead air calls, calls interrupting consumers at inconvenient times or delivery charges to consumers,” the company wrote.
An early user of such services has been a Naples car dealer that was the subject of a lawsuit by an annoyed consumer, The Times reported.
The Republican National Committee asserted directto-voicemail messages do not constitute a “telephone call” that is subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. In addition, the RNC said, restrictions exceeding the scope of the law “unduly burden political speech in contravention of the First Amendment.”
Meanwhile, Bondi and the Federal Trade Commission said this week they obtained permanent injunctions halting purveyors of more traditional robocalling — an Orlando-based operation hawking what they called “worthless” services to reduce credit-card interest.
“This massive robocall operation bombarded consumers with millions of unwanted calls and misled victims into purchasing ineffective financial services — but thanks to our joint investigation, this scheme has been permanently shut down,” Bondi said in a statement Monday.
Permanently barred from telemarketing and related services were All Us Marketing LLC, formerly known as Payless Solutions LLC; and Global Marketing Enterprises Inc., formerly known as Pay Less Solutions Inc., officials said.
Also subject to the court order, according to state officials: Global One Financial Services LLC; Your #1 Savings LLC; Ovadaa LLC; Royal Holdings Of America LLC; GRR Financial Services LLC; Auto Guardian USA, LLC, Premier Marketing International LLC; Gary Rodriguez; Marbel Rodriguez; Carmen Williams; Jonathan Paulino; Fairiborz Fard; Shirin Imani; Alex Serna, Christian Serna, and Kimberly Coarse.