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Posted by aziaziazi 5 hours ago

France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls(www.lemonde.fr)
450 points | 274 commentspage 5
somid3 1 hour ago|
The US should do the same!
londons_explore 2 hours ago||
Phones could be set to "allow incoming calls from contacts only" by default.

Then a spammer has to persuade you to add them to contacts before they spam you

ChrisRR 4 hours ago||
I suspect the data may be misleading. Unsolicited sales calls from genuine businesses are not the same as spam/scam calls
Raed667 4 hours ago||
i don't want either, unless you're calling about a legitimate transaction i initiated, don't ever call me unsolicited
shakna 4 hours ago|||
Spam is generally defined as "unwanted and/or unsolicited communication". Which I'm pretty sure an unsolicited sales call, from a genuine business, still is.
Telaneo 3 hours ago|||
The pictures are identical.
jamesnorden 1 hour ago|||
They are to me.
williamdclt 4 hours ago||
not the same as scam, but how is it not spam?
AussieWog93 2 hours ago||
I run a few small businesses and quite regularly get unsolicited emails/calls.

There's absolutely a real, qualitative difference between contact from a real human being who respects everyone's time and has done actual research, and someone who is just playing the numbers game and blasting as many people as they can (regardless of how "warm" the leads are).

It's a bit of a spectrum, but if someone has taken the time to handwrite and research an email or call, I'll at least try to give them the courtesy of a response.

nf-x 3 hours ago||
some of the third-party apps can show if a number is potentially a spam or a business. it's handy when your phone number is listed in the business directory to avoid those annoying calls.
karim79 1 hour ago||
I just don't answer calls if I don't recognise the number, and especially if it's from an "unknown caller". If someone has my number, they can text me. If they know who I am and who they are reaching then they probably have my email address as well.

This shit needs to stop.

SpecialistK 4 hours ago||
Are calls originating in France a major source of these unsolicited calls? According to the article, a lot of the calls are coming from Morocco, outside of their jurisdiction.

I'm in North America and most of the calls I get are using local numbers, often spoofed from (I suspect) South and South East Asia. Good luck enforcing Canadian or American law in literal slave camps on the China-Myanmar border.

johncoltrane 3 hours ago||
Morocco is just where lots of french-speaking call centers are located. The industry generates a non-negligible part of Morocco's GDP and most of the clientele is from France. So yeah, Morocco may be right to be concerned by an eventual shrinking of the market.

The call centers themselves are in Morocco but the calls never come from +212.

fryanyway_swe 2 hours ago||
>Morocco is just where lots of french-speaking call centers are located.

"just"?

Or is it deliberately done because it is cheaper?

Why not have these in France proper giving jobs to French people?

johncoltrane 1 hour ago||
Yes, "just". Because the Morocco bit of the article is mostly inconsequential. Those unsolicited telemarketing calls are extremely annoying no matter who is calling and from where. That's what this is all about.

> Or is it deliberately done because it is cheaper?

Well, of course it is.

> Why not have these in France proper giving jobs to French people?

Because you would have to pay them French wages, which would make no economical sense. If anything, the fact that most of that industry is abroad probably makes it easier to pass such a law.

fryanyway_swe 1 hour ago||
>Because you would have to pay them French wages, which would make no economical sense.

So, same for any profession. Why have any jobs in the EU at all then?

AnssiH 3 hours ago|||
If a legitimate French business contracts with a Moroccon call center, they will then of course follow French law since the French business is liable.

As for international scam calls, not sure what the situation is in France and what measures they have in place, but one relatively easy way is to block international callers from spoofing a local caller ID, which decimated these calls in Finland a couple of years ago: https://traficom.fi/en/news/obligations-regulation-come-effe...

maeln 4 hours ago|||
So, this is specifically for telemarketing call, not scam call. In the context of telemarketing, it doesn't matter that the company call center is outsourced in other country. The company who contracted them are in France, trying to sell their business in France, they are responsible. So if you get a telemarketing call from RandoCallCenterCo S.A trying to sell you on BusinessABC Ltd., they have been contracted by said company to do so and BusinessABC Ltd. will be on the hook.
tuetuopay 3 hours ago|||
All calls at least appear with a Caller ID from France (+33). Are they really from france or just spoofing them is anyone's guess (not really, former French colonies in the Magrheb like Morocco make good money running call centers for French numbers).
lefra 3 hours ago|||
My anecdotal experience is yes, most spam calls come from french numbers.
jplrssn 4 hours ago|||
Is there a technical reason why phone numbers would be easier to spoof in North America than other places?

Anecdotally I’ve not heard as much about it being a problem in other places such as the UK.

nephihaha 2 hours ago|||
It is possible to "spoof" numbers in the UK. I've seen it. Calls from outside the UK masquerading as UK numbers. They tend to use London numbers which is the main giveaway.
kotaKat 3 hours ago|||
I'd say the deregulation of the telephone industry in America, breaking up the baby Bells, etc would have probably been the biggest hand.

We broke everything up and let any old player enter the telco world over here which broke the entire sanctity of the security of the telephone network.

nephihaha 2 hours ago||
In the UK, a lot of the calls were coming from India and vsrious countries in Africa. I think India has cleaned up its act, but it's prevalent elsewhere. The callers pretend to be UK-based but there sre a number of giveaways.
Cider9986 4 hours ago||
The problem is Phone numbers. No Band-Aids will fix them.
Gigachad 3 hours ago|
There have actually been a number of band aids which have been fixing it. A few years ago I used to receive multiple malicious text messages and phone calls a day, then the Aus government cracked down on verification requirements for senders and I get zero.

I still get constant unsolicited sales calls but these are technically legal.

realmoravec 3 hours ago||
Has anyone tried https://www.donotcall.gov/? curious, if folks have other lpts. These calls when they happen are relentless.
reaperducer 1 hour ago||
How is this possible?

We have been chided over and over and over again on HN by the fine citizens of the E.U. that unsolicited telemarketing calls are purely an American problem, are completely unheard of in Europe, and that this never happens in "civilized" nations with "a functioning legal system."

p1dda 50 minutes ago|
Why haven't politicians stopped this before? It has taken advantage of the elderly for decades yet the fucking, lowlife politicians has done NOTHING!
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