Schumer: Telemarketers who violate laws could to face tougher fines
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By MYFOX NEW YORK STAFF
MYFOXNY.COM -
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced a new legislation that will dramatically raise fines and impose tougher punishments on telemarketing companies that violate current Federal 'Do Not Call' rules.
The ‘Do Not Call' rules say companies are prevented from using machines that automatically dial numbers and then play pre-recorded telemarketing calls, unless given written permission by the recipient.
The number of unwanted telemarketing calls, especially from the illegal automated calling systems, has exploded despite these regulations.
Schumer said there were over 200,000 complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just in April alone, compared to 65,000 in October 2010.
The rise in complaints can be contributed to the minor penalties against those who break the existing laws and use automated dialing machines. Under Schumer's legislation, the use of automated dialing machines would go from being a misdemeanor punishable by a small fine and no jail time to a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and $20,000 fines per call.
Schumer says many of the automated calls involve scam artists and callers are often masked behind "caller id spoofing," the practice of displaying a different number on the recipient's caller id system. The FTC and FCC have attempted to crack down on such scam artists and robocallers, but have been hamstrung by the minor penalties they can impose.
"A family has the right to get through dinner without constantly being interrupted by phone calls from mortgage companies, credit card firms or even worse, scammers," said Schumer. "Congress has enacted the laws to fight back against these nuisances, but the companies are using new tricks, and now we must enact stiffer penalties to make sure the laws have teeth so the regulators can bring the rogue firms to heel."
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