Robo text from 1(240)239-2914

Price is not shown... I wonder how much???

 

My garmin GPS has the collision and lane warning features via its front facing camera (which also records) in addition to speed limit change warnings, railroad track crossing, etc. It has both visual and audio cues (both can be turned off). Great for cars that don't have them built in like my Gen 2 since a warning is better than nothing.

 

Was it sent to you legally, or illegally?

 

Was it from or through a source that has permission to contact your cell, or was it a cold-call message? Have you put your numbers(s) on the FTC Do Not Call list? Does the message come from or through a business with which you have a business relationship, or through some app that has permission to deliver such messages?

E.g. all my household's phones are listed on the FTC-DNC list. Therefore, all the cold-call marketing calls to them, real or scam, are illegal. Cell phones automatically have this legal 'protection', for what little good that now does. The majority of calls coming in on my landline have long been illegal, but just this year that has become true on my cell phone too.

Text messages may be in legal limbo on this, but I treat them the same as voice calls. I've also heard of some legal squabbling about silently delivered (no phone ring first) voice mail messages, i.e. do they fall under the current DNC list law? Some businesses are trying to use this for advertisement delivery, and trying to establish a legal interpretation that they don't fall under the current DNC-list law. I haven't received any of these, yet, but will challenge them if it happens.

While it does seem like a losing battle, I do pick up a sampling of the junk calls to keep abreast of the current scams. When reaching a human, I challenge them about working for a criminal enterprise. So far, I've identified just one real, local company that must have been unfamiliar with the FTC-DNC requirements, ending up with a compensatory gift basket.

FWIW, we don't have unlimited cell service. Our phones have prepaid buckets of minutes, so every call and message costs incremental money. So, unlike the land line, junk calls and messages to our cells are actual theft of service.

 

Being uninformed on law, I cannot imagine that anyone sending an SMS text to anyone could be illegal.

Quite a separate matter - I have Huawei smartphone in China. I receive numerous 'cold calls' from businesses, but somehow the software (supported by citizen reporting it seems) identifies them as spammy so I just push the red button.

Is this a thing for smartphones in other countries? I have no idea.

 

Here's an amazon link with pics of the warnings of the unit I got:

I got a refurb last year for $129 and it looks like one can still be had online for that price. It's a good one stop solution for older vehicles that don't have nav, bluetooth, or a dash cam. Add in the driver assist warnings, lifetime maps/traffic, voice control (so you can use it like adding a destination while moving), and it's a very feature rich device.

Cons: voice control can be hit or miss sometimes (isn't that always the case?) and the update reminders can get annoying on the software's host computer (win/mac).

 

That's because it's not.

Telephony is regulated quite differently than the wild-wild west that is the internet, and as they said in the old western movies...There's no law west of Dodge and no God west of the Pecos!
This is why it's so much easier to get an IP (VOIP) telephone than it is to get something a little more coppery.

It's not a 'law' problem.
It's a jurisdiction problem.

 

Assuming your phones are smart phones, you should check into apps that use user community ratings to outright block the calls before your waste minutes. This includes SMS messages. There are several with good features but a few months ago I started using "Should I Answer" and have been very, very pleased. It's very configurable and I no longer get the big time spoofed number calls. Occasionally I'll get a regional or local call that hasn't been classified yet and you can give specs and feedback on it good or bad to add to your and their block list. You can set it to be as light as you want or very heavy handed. The heavy side would be accept zero calls unless they're in your contact list. I keep mine on the lighter side and love it. The Should I Answer Personal Edition keeps a local database so it's available with zero data usage and only updates when you connect to WiFi if you want.

Even if you don't use their app, you can use their web page (see link above) to do look ups to see what others have reported.

The app manual is here.

 

I bought a phone one time when I was three states away from home, and it's turned out to be the best anti-spoofing tool that I have.
This is because....mysteriously, people are still voluntarily geo-linked to their local area codes.

SO....
If I get a call from a 931 area code....I may presume quite accurately that it's a spam call, since I do not live in middle Tennessee and those that I know who do are already in my contact list.
If I get a call from my local area code that I do not recognize, there's a much greater chance that it's someone who actually knows me, and occasionally I will answer since the chance that somebody would spoof a TN number to fool a recipient in my AC would be statistically zero.

....or not.
If it's important enough to call me about?
It's important to leave me a message.
Since I started working for Big Phone almost 20 years ago I've developed this amazing super-power that enables me to completely ignore ringing telephones, urgent emails, and annoying SMS messages.
No one ever believes this when I tell them....but sometimes when I'm driving from office to office???

I'll even turn off my phone!

 

I too use prepaid plan for my mobile phones. Mine cost $10 top up for every 90 days. There is a $1/month service charge. After 90 days, if I don't top-up minimum of $10, the service will stop and I lose my number. I hardly ever use mobile phone, but just for emergency and once in a while when I have to use mobile phone, I have been feeding $10 every 3 months. So, the cost comes out to be $3.33/mo for my mobile. I almost never answer a call from someone who is not on my contact list, but unwanted SMS do sometimes get to my phone. I just installed the app @Mark57 mentioned above. Thanks for that info.

 

It is illegal in the US. The site quoted below says texts are illegal too.Apparently the US government does not differentiate between texts and emails

See Text Message Spam | Consumer Information

 

LOL....
Key words: In the US.

 

...where you and most of the users here are located. So is Bob, the original poster in this thread.

 

You are very welcome. Be sure to walk through the settings carefully, as that will control your experience with the app. I start light and only then crank down settings if need be.

I read through several "2018 best call blocker app" lists and read through at user ratings before setting on this one.

 

We use Vonage at home, and I have Vonage Extension App installed on my mobile. Most of places I go, I have WiFi connection and use Vonage to make or receive a call. They have nice block-call feature as well. I don't give my cell phone number to anyone but only to close family members, so I am OK to block any calls or SMS that come from number not in my contact list.

 

but maybe caller or texter are from out of the states??? Like many of customer service call centers located outside of US for major retailers.