Develop way to stop robocalls and FTC will pay $50K Telemarketers are annoying and when one is assailed with robocalls, which are as annoying as they are illegal, it's even worse. The Federal Trade Commission has had it with robocallers and to that end, is offering a bounty on robocalls. If any person can produce a way to block robocallers, the FTC will pay them $50,000. Source for this article: FTC
A brand new way to get around regulations
There is a reason why the “Do Not Call” list exists. Not every person likes to be solicited by telemarketers and is perfectly pleased with their current phone plan, thank you very much. However, telemarketers have since come up with some nasty tricks to get around laws and pester people while they're eating dinner.
There are “robocalls” out there that are pre-recorded messages, and these kinds of calls are happening a lot regardless of a 2009 law that made it illegal to use robocalls without authorization from an individual. According to Daily Finance, it is unlawful and the Federal Trade Commission is done dealing with it.
There have been increasingly more grievances about this, which is why the bureau is providing a $50,000 prize to everyone who can come up with a method to block robocalls from phones.
Great for customers
The “FTC Robocall Challenge” was started because the FTC got 2,260,021 grievances about robocalls between Oct 2011 and September 2012, according to ABC. That is an enormous increase. The winner will get cash and retain intellectual property rights to the solution. The challenge will be open from October 25 to Jan 17, 2013.
It is really hard to track down all the corporations since a ton of them use “number spoofs,” where a local number is used on the caller ID regardless of the fact it is from someplace else. A ton of offices are located overseas too to be able to keep them from getting raided.
The Federal Trade Commission is hoping a technical solution will be created because it is really challenging to track them down otherwise. Corporations can participate, but if they have 10 or more employees, they cannot win the cash.
Some lawful
Robocalls are not always illegal. In fact, there are many instances where it is entirely legal, such as when charitable organizations contact you or when airlines contact you with data about a postponed or canceled flight. It is also lawful with political campaigns or voter registration drives. Make sure you know if it is legal or not before complaining.
There are unlawful calls made that are masked with those things before getting to the real issue, according to Daily Finance.
Sources:
Daily Finance
CNN
ABC | 
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