This law professor came up with a brilliant way to halt the epidemic of annoying robocalls

[TheBlackAdder]

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Americans are being bombarded with robocalls. It’s an epidemic, and it’s getting worse. By a recent estimate, 71 million of these scam calls are being placed per hour, often completely illegally. In fact, I was robocalled while writing this article.

Robocalls make up the top source of complaints to both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), both of which in theory have power to police robocalls. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. Scammers can easily set up software to robocall people, often with spoofed caller ID so that people mistake the malicious calls for a friend or neighbor. The companies behind these calls can change names, legal classifications, and set up shop wherever they can to confuse law enforcement. The FCC did actually create a new set of rules to address robocalls under the Obama administration with some modest success, but a federal court struck them down last year.

But Roger Meiners, a professor of law and economics at the University of Texas at Arlington, has a brilliant proposal for how to defeat robocallers once and for all: just levy a 1-cent tax on every outgoing phone call.

Most taxes aren’t popular, but this one will be. Call it the Penny for Sanity Tax: a 1-cent tax on every call made. Fifty billion robocalls would cost $500 million—a powerful incentive to stop.

Because the tax would apply to all calls, it would avoid litigation about what can be legally disfavored. It would be impossible to evade by sneaking around classifications of calls. And it would not necessitate hiring more bureaucrats to enforce a complicated rule.

You and I would pay the tax too, on our legitimate phone calls. But we don’t make many calls, so the tax would be a pittance, hardly noticed among the many charges that appear on our monthly bills. Even a chatterbox who makes 50 calls a day would pay a mere $15 a month. And if a penny a call isn’t enough to stop robocalls, make it a nickel.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/law-professor-came-brilliant-way-halt-epidemic-annoying-robocalls/


Make it 2 cents and you've got a deal! The tax going to relief for those in the lower-income brackets.

Or, have the tax offset your phone bill, for the maximum of the monthly cost. This way, those who are not abusing the system, would see a phone bill reduction, so their net outlay remains the same--but those making a hundred calls a day, from cell phones, internet or land lines, would only save as much as their monthly cost for that phone! The tax offsets the phone bill, only up to the monthly cost a of a monthly plan.


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[California_Republic]

1. I'm in.

[marylandblue]

2. Lately, most of my robocalls have been marked "scam likely"

Even if they are from spoofed numbers. They know exactly who is making these calls and where they are coming from. Why can't they just block calls from known spammers?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

12. the phone companies likely want to do away with landlines for efficiency.

I recall hearing someone say that. Don't know if it's true, but sounds plausible.

[KT2000]

27. it is true

that is what the 5G effort is all about. It is already underway.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. What about overseas calls? How can we tax calls from India without India's cooperation?

[pnwmom]

10. That was my question. nt

[IronLionZion]

13. Those still go through an American server to act like local calls

I don't know exactly how that works, one way is caller ID spoofing. But those calls from India are not international calls, they show up as local calls somehow. Long distance phone charges are much higher than the 1 cent tax.

[TreasonousBastard]

19. Yeah, but my point is how to tax the callers. One way might be to tax the local servers.

[IronLionZion]

21. Absolutely, it would help to discourage local servers

I wish they could do something legally or technology-related about the caller ID spoofing. Many of us don't even bother answering local numbers we don't know.

[genxlib]

4. I'm onboard

I just don't love the idea of paying extra when AT&T drops my call and I have to call back. I know it is petty and a meaningless amount of money. It's the principal of the matter.

[delisen]

5. Dear Roger, great idea if first 1000 calls tax at zero

or in so low can't be collected.

[USALiberal]

8. That would allow loopholes. Making 1000 calls from 1000s of numbers. Nt

[delisen]

9. Would a tax credit for a certain level above poverty line work?

[llmart]

6. Why can't we make the phone companies more responsible for dealing with the robocalls?

I have no idea what I'm talking about, but there must be a way for AT&T, etc. to fix this.

[safeinOhio]

7. NSA can trace and listen to calls

all over the world. Don’t tell me they can’t bust these folks.

[Cold War Spook]

20. Back in the 60s,

they could only listen to and/or record calls if at least one party was outside the US. As for busting people, you don't want to bust ordinary scammers and robocall entities because every time they bust one of them they might give away some of the classified ways they are doing it. The NSA,s job is protecting the US, not busting a bunch of crooks.

[Hotler]

11. I'm thinking the FCC and the PTB know...

who are making the calls and where they are located, but choose to do nothing.

[Revanchist]

14. My home phone has a call block feature

But if it didn't I would pay the buck a month for the jolly roger phone service

https://m.

[NotASurfer]

15. Add a punitive surcharge for spoofed caller ID and shut 'em down

Lived in Texas for years but cell phone number was an area code from a different state I'd lived in years ago. I've ignored calls "from" that area code for years. Clear case of robocall spoofing

Don't think figuring out when something comes from a server that modified information is an intractable problem

[zaj]

16. Just auto-forward these calls to...

[phone]

[Lonestarblue]

17. How many legitimate purposes are there for robocalls?

I can think of only one, and that is an emergency call to residents warning them of severe weather., and those calls would be coming from local government. If there are no other legitimate purposes, and I do not consider even calls from nonprofits legitimate, then why not just outlaw robocalls as an invasion of personal privacy and make the phone carriers responsible for ensuring that the policy is followed. The politicians would still want to call, along with political pollsters, but how many of us really want to hear the robocalls from politicians?

[forgotmylogin]

23. I get them for confirming doctor appointments.

But by now I have all of them in my phone book so they're not unrecognized.

[thesquanderer]

28. They will never outlaw robocalls from politicians.

But there are some legitimate uses. School closings comes to mind.

Many robocall companies are already breaking laws.So making them "more" ilegal won't change their behavior. I think many originate from out of the country, besides. Whether your local phone company can tell whether an incoming call is legit or not, I don't know.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. The calls I hate the most are the ones where no one is there

when I answer.

I always answer my phone by saying, "Hello, this is Poindexter". Then several seconds later someone comes on the line and asks to speak to Poindexter. I usually respond by saying, "You clearly weren't listening to how I answered the phone. I'll hang up and you can call back but this time listen to how I answer."

I know full well that delay is because of an automatic dialing system, which doesn't put the caller through until the system thinks a real person has answered, and I totally DESPISE that. I especially despise it when the call comes from an organization I might actually be okay talking to.

[certainot]

22. good idea but i'll be republicans will never vote for it!

[lpbk2713]

24. The payday lenders are evil and they have an effective lobby.

They have several pols in their pockets including Marco Rubio. It wouldn't
take long for telemarketers to pay for and acquire similar representation.

[forgotmylogin]

25. I finally had to take drastic measures.

I was adding all the numbers I got robocalls from to a block list, but now they spoof a random different local number every time to subvert that.

I finally had to be that guy. I scheduled my phone to go in "do not disturb" mode from 7am-4:30 which only lets recognized numbers ring my phone, and recorded a tremendously long outgoing message (god I hate long outgoing voicemail messages) saying "If you're not in my contact list, I won't answer, so if you don't leave a message you'll never get through to me...if it's an emergency, call back immediately and my phone will ring..." The unsolicited calls are definitely from a wardialer though, which doesn't hear the message, and only if you pick up live will they queue you to a real person. If you don't answer, they're allowed to call back again later since they technically "didn't make contact."

The stupidest one starts with "Please stay on the line, this is the last time we will attempt to contact you about lowering your student loan debt...this is a limited time government opportunity..." I've never had a student loan. I was routinely hanging up on it, but then if I ignored it in the morning they'd try again at night. They were calling once a day on average, from a different "local" number.

I stayed on once to let them know this was an error, but when the live person answered, I said, "Hey, just wanted to let you know, I don't actually have a student loan, so can you remove--" (click). Bitch hung up on me. (Not actually her fault - I've been in customer service for 15 years, and there's no reason for them to stay on the line if they're not pitching.) Next day, same call, "Please stay on the line, this is the last time we will attempt to contact you..." (liars.)

This works well, and I'm not motivated to even look at my phone if it is silenced. My contacts can get through, or if someone calls twice in a row from the same number it will ring.

My dad takes the opposite strategy. He will keep a live person on the line for an hour and discuss everything before finally saying "Oh, no, I've already got an insurance plan, but give my best to your kids!"

[Generic Other]

26. A tax I could support

I never call anyone.