question

jones1234567 avatar image
jones1234567 asked cathie-eason answered

Fax Spam

Does it do any good to call the opt out number on these spam faxes? Or, does it just make matters worse?

fax
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J.B. Ferguson avatar image
J.B. Ferguson answered
Jones,

Usually it will make matters worse. They then know that the number is a good working number which has someone replying (the unsubscribe/opt out) on the other end. I can't say that is the case for all spam numbers but I personally wouldn't take the chance. Your mileage may vary.
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danno147 avatar image
danno147 answered
I concur with @Jan - Just block them as they come in.  At least they are not eating up toner and paper.
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jay-nichols5644 avatar image
jay-nichols5644 answered J.B. Ferguson commented
I disagree.  There is a Federal law covering this.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. 227, restricts the use of the facsimile machine to deliver unsolicited advertisements. Specifically, the TCPA prohibits the use of any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine. The TCPA applies only to those facsimile messages that constitute unsolicited advertisements. he statutory prohibition applies to such advertisements ent both to residential and business facsimile numbers.

In 2005, the Junk Fax Prevention Act amended the TCPA to permit the sending of unsolicited facsimile advertisements to individuals and businesses with which the sender has an established business relationship (EBR) and to provide a process by which any sender must cease sending such advertisements upon the request of the recipient. On April 5, 2006, the Commission adopted rules to implement the Junk Fax Prevention Act. Among other things, 47 C.F.R. 64.1200 requires the sender of fax advertisements to provide notice and contact information on the fax that allows recipients to opt out of future fax transmissions from the sender and requires senders to honor opt out requests within the shortest reasonable period of time, not to exceed 30 days.

The faxes I get with an opt-out number or fax are usually legitimate and are complying with the law.  I have gotten a few with no opt-out information and have called the business to let them know they are in violation of Federal Law.  This usually gets their attention.  Neither of our fax numbers get that many unsolicited faxes, but I've never gotten another one from a company I've opted out from.
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J.B. Ferguson avatar image J.B. Ferguson commented ·
That's all well and good but I speak from experience. I opted out of a spam fax a few years ago and it became a nightmare. Even though I should have known better I did it. After I "opted-out" from that number I would get the same faxes from a different number. It became never ending. While there is a Federal law against it, there are literally more cases than investigators can handle. They go after the "big fish" spammers, not the occasional spam faxes from different sources. Many of their cases are class action suits against large telemarketers. I retired as a law enforcement officer/investigator in charge of my department's Information Technology Unit. We couldn't keep up with the number of cases in our city alone, let alone an agency covering country-wide abuses.

When you have the ability to block a number from the get-go, as RingCentral provides, in MY opinion it is more judicious to do so rather than opting out from a fax of unknown origins. Having said this, if you get an unsolicited fax from your local hardware store and you opt-out or call them as you have done, there should be no issue.

I equate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Junk Fax Prevention Act to the No Call List. It keeps the honest people/businesses honest. Unfortunately, and speaking from experience, there are more dishonest entities out there than honest ones.

All situations are different, which is why I advised Jones, " Usually it will make matters worse....I can't say that is the case for all spam numbers but I personally wouldn't take the chance. Your mileage may vary."
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cathie-eason avatar image
cathie-eason answered
my pay for service account is depleted 100% by spam calls.
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