62 pointsby geox8 hours ago6 comments
  • mkj38 minutes ago
    Australia banned telemarketing a while ago, it worked pretty well. The only spam phone calls left are 100% illegal scammers.

    https://www.acma.gov.au/telemarketing-and-e-marketing they give out million+ dollar fines which sort things out. Just being a customer doesn't allow them to send marketing, you have to opt in.

    • ActionHank27 minutes ago
      It's the year 2026, I refuse to believe that phone companies cannot figure out who is a scammer and who is not.
  • jordiburgos4 hours ago
    It happened in Spain months ago. Then the "marketers" start calling from international phone numbers.
    • inigyou3 hours ago
      Let them pay international rates. One dollar a minute, eh?

      If they're calling from within the EU then a cross-country judgement is still enforceable, so I assume they aren't doing that.

      • gruezan hour ago
        "International rates" aren't a thing anymore since the advent of VOIP. It doesn't matter whether you're connecting from France or Fiji, with VOIP you pay the same rate.
      • pixel_popping36 minutes ago
        International rates are just a consumer thing.
      • nxm3 hours ago
        Is it though in practice?
    • hollow-moe3 hours ago
      Then most people can just block all international numbers. Hope to see phone number whitelisting soon.
  • lifestyleguru5 hours ago
    What's the status of discounts granted in exchange for marketing consent? Because that's how they bait many older consumers into receiving these calls.
    • dolmen3 hours ago
      Marketing consent is granted via sweepstakes.
  • nephihaha6 hours ago
    There is a grey area here of calls from businesses which the customer is signed up to, or has had previous dealings with. Many will be unsolicited but not all will be.

    Many of these calls are coming out of the Third World countries which are barely regulated in this regard, so good luck with enforcing it.

    • kotaKat3 minutes ago
      I'd like to see forced legislation requiring marketers to disclose the exact source and campaign they acquired your data in.

      I've been getting a barage of non-stop harassment via unwanted magazine subscriptions. People Inc claims some company called "Subco" signed me up and won't allow me to cancel, only "Subco" can do that. "Subco" then claims they got my information from someone else down the line. They then blame someone else, someone else...

      ... and I still have no clue who the hell decided to sign me up for 20 magazines in the mail.

    • greggoB5 hours ago
      > There is a grey area here of calls from businesses which the customer is signed up to

      Pretty much exactly how it is in Switzerland. I once had a rather unpleasant experience with my old internet provider (Sunrise) where I asked the telemarketer who called me not to do so again, and was told they "had a right to do so, because I was a customer". I immediately cancelled, quoting this as the reason why (Sunrise would later try to tell me this never happened, but that's another story).

      With that said, I think it does make a difference: if some random company calls, they can't lose my business because they don't have it; if a company I am a customer with calls and refuses to stop when I ask them to, they risk losing my business. I don't know if this is the reason why, but I barely get any telemarketing calls (never heard of anyone else here who has either).

      • bonesss3 hours ago
        Another moment of potential irritation: companies being bought out or losing their network supplier giving that third company a business relationship with you.
    • pjmlp5 hours ago
      Which is why nowadays I never take calls if the prefix is from a country I don't have connections with, it is private, or doesn't map to any of my contacts.

      If it is someone that I actually know, they will be aware how to actually reach me.

    • TitaRusell5 hours ago
      Companies aren't allowed to do cold calling in my country. Wiped out an entire industry and nobody wept.

      Scams are not what I would define as "telemarketing" though.

      • bookofjoean hour ago
        It would be helpful to know your country in this thread.
    • 5 hours ago
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  • alexbelyanin4 hours ago
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  • mhrsntrk7 hours ago
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