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We all hate them... But this year we are getting some action.

At the end of 2019, President Trump signed the TRACED Act into law allowing the Federal Communications Commission to protect consumers from robocall scammers.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/476335-trump-signs-law...

And for something funny, check out youtuber "Kitboga". This guy pranks the scammers.

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The German equivalent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Network_Agency has such power. They receive 200.000 complains per year (nice accessible online form) and force providers to block numbers. Also if it turns out to be fraud, e.g. you made a contract with the fraudser over the phone, then the contract is void and the company has no legal standing to demand money. If they operated a premium number (calling back costs you money) the provider has to void the amount. Pretty solid, I haven't received a spam call in 5, maybe 10 years. Of course still plenty others do, thus the 200.000 complains per year, and foreign numbers can't be blocked or tracing the calls leads nowhere. For the US it might be a great improvement.

That seems like a half measure. Carriers still aren't liable for letting garbage on their network, they just have to let me block it without charging me anything for the privilege.

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