Congress Passes Another Anti-Robocall Bill.

“The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or the TRACED Act, empowers the federal government with new abilities to go after illegal robocallers. Once TRACED is enacted, the Federal Communications Commission could fine robocallers up to $10,000 per call. It also would require major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to deploy a new technology called STIR/SHAKEN into their networks, which will make it easier for consumers to know if they’re receiving a call from a spoofed number.”

— “Robocall fines rise to $10,000 per call under newly passed law,” Makena Kelly, The Verge

More:

“Senate passes anti-robocalls bill; Trump expected to sign,” Tali Arbel, Associated Press

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FTC Cracks Down on Vintage Quackery

The Federal Trade Commission will now require homeopathic “drugs” to bear labels admitting they are pseudo-scientific frauds. The products, essentially small vials of very expensive water or alcohol, are found in the “attention suckers!” aisles of health food stores, Whole Foods Markets, and CVS stores (which should know better). Substances they contain are so diluted that the products are essentially placebos.

Why, you may ask, doesn’t the FDA regulate this kind of bunkum? An original Senate sponsor of the “Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” was a dean at a Homeopathic Medical College, and made sure the act identified all homeopathic swill as drugs. Existing FDA regs are, appropriately, watered-down. Since umpteen-hundred scientific studies show that homeopathic medicine doesn’t work, even the woo-woo department of NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, points out that homeopathy is bunk.

No More Robocalls

The Federal Trade Commission offered a $50,000 prize for techniques to block robocalls. What? Only $50,000? That deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Committee members have their work cut out for them, though — there were three winners.

Here’s one of them:

Cell Phone Robocalls?

Wouldn’t it be nice if telemarketers could call you day or night, at your own expense, on your cell phone? Big business thinks it would be lovely, and is behind a Congressional bill that would make cell phone robocalls legal.

If you enjoy intrusive and unwanted robocalls to your cell phone, do nothing. If not, tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee not to refer the bill for a full House vote by signing the petition here and sending this link to your friends — http://bit.ly/twzZZk

More:

“Telemarketers, Collectors Could Target Cells Under “Mobile Information Call Act”: Chuck Schumer,” NY Daily News

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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