(GLOBALINTELHUB.COM) – 6/2/2017 Robocalling is out of control.  Once the domain of sophisticated telemarketers, now it has spread to include cyber fraud, international telemarketing, and some unknown services that just ‘dial’ numbers with no reason (this appears to be the most bizarre).

The spam phone calls have become so out of control, it’s even common now for people to get a landline or other number just to use as their phone number, in that case what’s the point of having a phone?  The issue here needs to be looked into at the network level, by telcos like ATT (T), Verizon (VZ), and others.  How spammers, fraudsters, and barely legal telemarketers (who often cross the lines of ‘regulation’) use the networks to harass legitimate users needs to be stopped.  The ‘Do Not Call’ list is a joke – it’s not enforced and not used.  Registration will stop a small percentage of legitimate telemarketers who use the lists and go through the compliance process, but the problem is that it doesn’t protect anyone from the ‘black’ side of the robocalling industry, which is organized largely outside of the legal borders of USA.

Global Intel Hub interviewed our parent company about this issue, Elite E Services.  EES has many registered domains, for more than 15 years with a Godaddy reseller FX System Hosting (a brand).  Godaddy is now a public company Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY), so they are subject to the same complaints and oversight as any public company.  And Godaddy needs to be careful, as this is a potentially toxic legal issue.

Godaddy sells ‘privacy’ for each domain, making the owner of record ‘private’ – showing only a proxy company operated by Godaddy “Domains by Proxy” – it’s possible to break this veil of privacy only in extreme cases such as a subpoena or matters of national security.  But why would the average domain owner want to keep their records private, especially since the idea of having a website at all is usually for the purposes of marketing (or at least, having your business information become public).  Recently, the answer has been in order to stop the spam calls and emails.  Godaddy makes the whois records public, which are somehow picked up by these foreign robocallers automatically, and the calls start.  They don’t know what is DNC and they don’t speak English.  Half of the time when you actually answer these calls they just disconnect.  Other times, a scratchy connection as one would hear when calling Afghanistan in the 80s from a phone booth, a man speaking broken English is asking if you need website design.  An agent of Elite E Services asked for this man’s name and address to which he replied “Sector 5, Calcutta – Justin Smith” – with a little Google research at least Sector 5 really is a real place.  Justin Smith, doesn’t sound like an Indian name though.  When confronted with this fact he says “My fathers’ name is Joseph Thomas Smith we are Christian” – maybe, but anyway who is to know?  And why are they calling a number that is on the Do Not Call list?

That’s not all.  Another ‘foreign’ US caller, when asked that we be removed from their list, said “No, no no no.. no – NO .. no no no .. I WILL NOT remove you from my list (click).” at which point the really aggressive calls started, saying that we could be arrested due to an IRS issue, call this number immediately, 202 334 4562 (has been shut down).  “Sometimes we can get 20 or 30 spam calls a day,” says an anonymous agent working for Elite E Services, “Sometimes, they will call 2 or 3 times in a row, you can’t block them – they use another number.”

Supposedly, Trump’s appointee is doing something about this:

Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman appointed by President Trump, called robocalls a “scourge” in a blog post earlier this month. He noted that an estimated 2.4 billion robocalls are placed to Americans each month.

“There is no reason why any legitimate caller should be spoofing an unassigned or invalid phone number,” Pai wrote. “It’s just a way for scammers to evade the law.”

The FCC currently prevents phone companies from proactively blocking calls. The new rule would let phone companies block any robocaller that uses a number that has not been assigned to any customer or that has a nonexistent area code.

The FCC’s approach was developed in partnership with a “robocall strike force” of tech, cable and telecom companies formed last year. Members include Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Google(GOOGL, Tech30), Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30), Verizon (VZ, Tech30) and AT&T (T, Tech30).

The rules probably won’t be finalized and approved for at least a few months.

Meanwhile, the calls continue.  And since most of the callers are hiding behind the international wall of stupidity erected around the USA’s legal system, there’s little US phone users can do except turn off their phones.

This is a bad sign for the telecom sector and for Godaddy, at a time when the ‘telephone’ struggles for its place in a busy digital world.  

If you would like a free consultation from a consumer rights law firm, visit Fortis Law Group @ www.fortisconsumerlaw.com

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