After reading the article about state legislation to require telemarketers to identify themselves at the start of a call — dubbed the “Seinfeld bill” since it’s based on an incident in the sitcom — it was apparent how ill-informed and naïve the bill’s backers are.
Such a law would have no effect whatsoever on the large percentage of “telemarketing” callers who are scammers, especially if it involves the same so-called enforcement as the Do-Not-Call registry— which is also virtually zero.
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In spite of being a Do-Not-Call subscriber, I typically received well over 10 scam/phishing calls per day. Perhaps one per day was from a “legitimate” telemarketer. I dutifully reported the calls to the FCC until I realized how impotent its enforcement was. What makes state Sen. Jon Bramnick, R-Union, and other sponsors think a “Seinfeld” law would be any different?
Is it realistic to assume that these scammers, who are already spoofing their source phone numbers, will suddenly find religion? They are so brazen that I have even received calls that displayed my own number on caller ID!
The phone companies are capable of filtering out calls that come from spoofed numbers, yet they choose not to do so. So why not aim new legislation at these providers to force them to finally act on the consumer’s behalf?
Verizon, in my case, would not...
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