fax.com Finally Fined $5M For Fax Spam 123
originalhack writes "If you are tired of getting calls in the middle of the night with nothing but a fax calling tone, you will celebrate this. Fax.com, who is well known for wardialing in their search for fax machines and for sending junk faxes, has finally actually been fined. The long arm of the law often moves slowly, here is the order. If you don't want to wait for the feds to stop your favorite junk faxer, you can try your luck in small claims. Federal law passed in 1991 (known as the TCPA) makes it illegal to send any material transmitted via facsimile that advertises the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services which is transmitted to any person without that person's prior express invitation or permission. If the fax was deliberately sent to you (as most junk faxes are), Federal law entitles you to recover a minimum of $500 and, depending the judge's discretion, up to $1,500 for each such fax that you receive. More info at junkfax.org."
Finally something for the treehuggers to celebrate (Score:4, Informative)
Simon.
Re:Finally something for the treehuggers to celebr (Score:2)
Re:Finally something for the treehuggers to celebr (Score:2)
Re:Finally something for the treehuggers to celebr (Score:2, Insightful)
After all, the immorality or varying amounts of illegality of spam wouldn't slow them down compared to war-dialing for fax in the middle of the night.
If you're in the UK and get junk faxes (Score:5, Informative)
After 1 May 1999 it became illegal to send faxes to individuals without prior consent, and businesses have the right to 'opt-out', which is what this list manages. I used to get dozens of junk faxes a week, after registering in August 2001 I have had no more than 2 or 3, so it definately works - although it takes 3-4 weeks for the block to become active.
Obviously, as it's a marketing industry-run scheme (which they had to do to prevent government-enforced action), they don't go out of their way to advertise this list, but it does work.
Jolyon
Re:If you're in the UK and get junk faxes (Score:3, Interesting)
It's because of this that self governed schemes always make me nervous - you never really know if they've put an expiry on the block, and will just try again to see if you're still o
Re:If you're in the UK and get junk faxes / Postal (Score:2, Informative)
As with the FPS the MPS is also a Third Party only legal requirement. If you have given your details to someone, they have the right to continue to send you material by Fax and Post, just they cant rent it out to anyone else.
There is a legal requirement for all list owners (! there is such a professional title !) to clean their data against the MPS and FPS. If your name is on the list, and you get some
Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:5, Funny)
1) Build an email -> FAX gateway with catchall domain.
2) Put semantically overloaded email addresses into OPT-OUT/Cancel/Remove links on various web sites.
3) Wait for FAXES to print out.
4) Start legal procedings in small claims.
5) ...
6) Profit.
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:1)
Wouldn't work as the emails would probably be spammed by untracable people from far away.
Whereas actual faxes always have the senders number on them making them a lot easier to trace back to the source.
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Really? Why faxes compared to any other phone call with caller id blocked? (The phone number on the fax itself is generated by software. Trivial to remove or change.)
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Our dialup networking PRI at work always reports a calling party number for inbound calls. In some instances its bogus as it represents an outbound trunk number or some other number you might not immediately associate with the calling party. However, there's a number associated with every incoming call on the PRI, so, depending on what kind of incoming line you have you may get a number whether the calling party tries to hide i
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:2, Informative)
First, the person who stated the number in the header of a fax is software driven is mostly correct. There may be newer faxes that use CallerID, but each and every fax machine I have used or seen to date sends it's own number with the fax (which is then inserted in the header).
Ever since people figured out how to cheat pay phones by phreaking and sending tones (by whistling, or use black boxes held u
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:1)
The Lucent 5ESS switch, which is very prevelant, has an Executive Call Processor (ECP). If a law enforcement agency provides adaquate subpoena paperwork (or electronic equiv.), the phone company can go into the ECP for the 5ES
One followup (Score:2)
I wonder if "Caller ID block" is something that applies to PRIs, or if its only applies to analog caller ID.
I just wish they'd give us enough money to upgrade our voice switch to use PRI. I'd love to get incoming FAX spam numbers for revenge calls.
Re:One followup (Score:1)
Not always. Sometimes you'll need to talk with the maintenance group of your local telephone company. The information the telco switch has is correct, but sometimes it may not be passing along the information in a way that your PBX can interpret.
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:1)
interesting
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:1)
You can share in private if you fancy, just mail me at pcmanjon@swbell.net
Re:Maybe we need a email - FAX service ... (Score:1)
If only.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Quote of the day (Score:4, Insightful)
We have no doubt that the TCPA provides more than such reasonable clarity and precision for persons of common intelligence.
It was appaling to read about fax.com's arrogance while reading through the ruling, though it really shouldn't surprise me. It's nice to see the law working.
Re:Quote of the day (Score:2, Interesting)
Our latest success story,... On July 26, 2002...
Looks like it been a bit lean for them recently
From http://www.fax.com/Company_profile/our_business.as p [fax.com]
Fax.com has identified over 30 million untouched fax numbers
What ever that means (aside from how they may have accidentally found them)
That fast! (Score:3, Funny)
What are they doing about Telex spam? When are they going to fine telex spam?
M
Re:That fast! (Score:1)
Re:That fast! (Score:2)
Only $5m? (Score:2)
Ounce of prevention... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ounce of prevention... (Score:2, Funny)
PDF version of the order (Score:2, Informative)
Read it here [192.104.54.24]
MOD PARENT UP ! (informative) (Score:1, Informative)
I just hope it will not switch to a goatse pic once upmodded.
Yet again, (Score:1, Funny)
Fax.com might not have been doing something that made people feel all warm and gooey inside, but it was contributing to the economy and giving people valuable employment. Like all government intervention in business, this will lead to inefficiency and stagnation. The free market should be left to decide these matters, not lawyers and government departments.
Re:Yet again, (Score:1)
Re:Yet again, (Score:2, Funny)
(I can't figure out if your post has a hidden smiley. Can you figure out if mine has one?)
Re:trolling (Score:1)
Re:Yet again, (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yet again, (Score:3, Insightful)
Part of the free market is that the advertiser pays for the advertising. Faxing shifts the cost of the advertising to the recipient (in paper and ink).
If somebody agrees to receive this stuff, then there's no problem with it. That's a private contract between two parties.
Using your example, we shouldn't go after muggers because after all, they are part of the economy (redistribution of wealth, and hell, it'd create bodyguard jobs for wealthy people).
Tel
Re:Yet again, (Score:1)
They were breaking the law. Intentionally. This isn't the first time they've been busted.
The law was created because fax-spammers use other peoples machines, paper, ink, and phonelines to send them unwanted crap. Fax.com knows they are breaking the law, and that the vast majority don't want it.
They are "contributing to the economy
Wait a sec... (Score:3, Funny)
"We will not rest" !? (Score:4, Interesting)
Uhm... wow, all hail Michael, here to save us from junk-faxes. Is this guy for real? Is he running for office, and/or trying to cover up the fact that they really can't do much about junk mail?
Re:"We will not rest" !? (Score:1)
Re:"We will not rest" !? (Score:2)
Hmm. (Score:2)
Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:1)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
How can this be, given how easy it is to forge faxed documents?
Recently heard on the radio that there is currently a scam running where fraudsters pretend to be vacationers wanting to reserve some holiday accomodation. They ask the prospective landlord for an account number (to pay the rent), and for a signed confirmation of reservation.
Some quick pasting work, and the landlord's bank gets a signed fax asking to transfer all money out of
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
The main reason fax machines still exist is that the learning curve is steeper for scan-attach-to-e-mail than it is for faxing. People who work with documents alot are not the ones who are interested in new technology. And it typically has to be deployed across the entire industry, not just between individuals. The lack of cheap, automatically feeding, low resolution scaners is also a deterrent.
As a parallel, real estate agents are just s
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Are you suggesting a networked scanner? Or does the whole office have to use the same computer to scan? Unless you're suggesting one of the above alternatives, yes, it takes 50 scanners to replace one fax machine. That's why there are so many fax machines out there. These folks aren't total idiots, no matter how much we like to think so.
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, because it puts much more of the burden of the cost of the fax on the sender: they may use up your consummables (unless you have a fax-modem attached to a computer which receives and displays faxes digitally [and a large HD]), but they also [generally] have to pay to phone you. Unlike email whereby the junk mailers use other people's machines without their permission.
Plus, with dialer identification at the recipie
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:5, Informative)
For a very simple reason - many businesses don't have internet email, but almost everybody has faxes. The pharmacy that I am the frontshop manager at does not have internet access at all, just it's own intranet. We simply cannot get email. (Head office people, of course, get whatever they want, including net access.)
Faxes are a huge part of our business - prescriptions are legal documents, we can only accept originals or copies faxed directly from doctor's offices (and for some drugs, even those are not allowed). Many doctor's offices also refuse to business by phone at all, but strictly by fax, simply so they, like us, can keep paper trails for everything. Without signatures or copies of signatures, we'd be up sh*t creek in case anything were to go wrong.
And no, *gp-signed email is not an answer. As a pharmacy, we are regulated by various provincial and federal agencies. They don't recognize a lot of stuff without hardcopy in the form of originals or faxes.
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Maybe you should move to Florida. Somehow, our favorite V1*gr
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:4, Insightful)
Faxes are legal documents, emails are not. (Score:2)
Also I think you need to read up on faxes. They do not "send uncompressed TIFFs at 14.4kbps; they send CCITT compressed monochrome images at some pretty low speed, depending on the fax machine, as low as 300 baud (there are still many very slow machines out there).
The fact is that a fax machine requires no infrastructure and works as long as the phone system works. Like it or not, your "cheap email to paper gate
"protected-by-federal-law" (Score:2)
Re:"protected-by-federal-law" (Score:2)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Also it is still uncommon for everyone to have easy access to scanner, and then the abaility to enter your handwritten signature.
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:1)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Re:Why do Fax machines still exist (Score:2)
Words couldn't be clearer (Score:4, Informative)
The Commission also stated that Fax.com's "primary business itself constitutes a massive on-going violation" of the law, and that Fax.com's citation responses, as well as publicly available information contained on its website, suggested that Fax.com apparently intentionally and willfully violated the Act and our rules and orders....As a result, the Commission determined that Fax.com was apparently liable for a proposed forfeiture of $5,379,000, the statutory maximum.
So they've been slow, but thank goodness they haven't minced their words or pulled their (legal) punches.
Now if only we could move onto email spammers who, without a doubt, cause much more nuisance, grief, and cost to network maintainers (and ultimately us).
Re:Words couldn't be clearer (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's another little snippet from the FCC's Order:
Section 227(b)(1)(C) of the Act prohibits any person from using "a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine."
It's interesting that the act doesn't allow you to send unsolicited ads from a computer to a fax machine, but doesn't go as far as prohibiting sending them from a computer to a computer (even if it was receiving faxes).
It seems like this act could have been used to kill off email spam long ago, if only it was worded slightly differently. What a pity.
Re:Words couldn't be clearer (Score:2)
Yes it does. Read the law itself, part of which says:
"The term ``telephone facsimile machine'' means equipment which has the capacity (A) to transcribe text or images, or both, from paper into an electronic signal and to transmit that signal over a regular telephone line, or (B) to tra
Re:Words couldn't be clearer (Score:1)
If you had an email account set up to automatically print any incoming messages (similar to a fax machine) you might be able to get it in under this law. However, I don'
Re:Words couldn't be clearer (Score:2)
The law only says that the system must be "capable" of transcribing a signal carried by a telephone to paper, not that it does it without human intervention (whether to load paper or to designate a particular transmission for prin
Where are my junk faxes from? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Where are my junk faxes from? (Score:2)
So, first they empty your toner cartridge with their spam, and then propose you to sell a new one. Smart businessmen!
Re:Fun gone wrong... (Score:1)
my usual reply to unwanted faxes ... (Score:5, Funny)
The most amazing thing was that some of them even replied. In which case I did send teh fax again (in 512 point again offcourse, making them pay another solid 6 meter of paper and half a fax cartridge) One of them seemed smart enough to send back a message in 512 point size too, which costed me nothing since I received faxes on my mac. Nowadays many spammers use this feature too, or don't let the fax machine accept my reply. I gave up faxing a long time ago anyway
Re:What is the law in Canada? (Score:1)
Wardailing junk faxers (Score:4, Insightful)
Kinda nice for sales types who are always on the road. Which would be great, except we were developers, who hardly ever even used fax at all. If we were lucky, the phone would ring, we would pick it up and, like, "beep beep beep" (thank you Ellen Feiss). The unlucky wouldn't be at their desk, it would get stored in voicemail, and their number would get registered as a "live fish", to be dialed again.
If you don't have the time to go to small claims.. (Score:1)
$500 (Score:2, Funny)
I need to buy a fax machine...
Re:$500 (Score:2)
Sue the faxers...you'll win! (Score:3, Interesting)
About two days later we got a call from a guy who said he was going to sue us.. The powers-that-be said, "Hyuck, hyuck, go ahead buddy..." and he did.
He won pretty handily in court too as I recall. The company ended up paying a $500 fine for the fax, a $100ish fine for court costs PLUS $500ish in legal fees to the plainiff.
Needless to say, the-powers-that-be NEVER tried junk-faxing again (never mind it was a stupid idea in the first place).
Is there a similar fax law in Canada? (Score:2)
Re:Is there a similar fax law in Canada? (Score:2)
Tom Martino is on the junkfax warpath! (Score:4, Informative)
If you're getting a lot of junk faxes and don't have time for small claims court, you can sic Tom Martino's army of lawyers on them. The details are on a site he set up for just this purpose at faxwars.com [faxwars.com].
Tom is a consumer advocate who has a radio program during the day (although some stations, such as KEX [1190kex.com] tape-delay the program to the evenings). The show's web site is troubleshooter.com [troubleshooter.com].
Nathan
Less E-mail SPAM lately? (Score:2)
56M Jan 2 03:10 syslog.0
72M Dec 26 03:10 syslog.1
87M Dec 19 03:10 syslog.2
89M Dec 12 03:09 syslog.3
88M Dec 5 03:10 syslog.4
100M Nov 28 03:10 syslog.5
135M Nov 21 03:10 syslog.6
114M Nov 14 03:09 syslog.7
Does anyone else see this happening?
Re:Less E-mail SPAM lately? (Score:1)
As a foulness shall ye know them. (Score:2, Insightful)
From what I've read of fax.com, they make spammers look like upstanding citizens.
The hubris of the junk faxers is beyond the pale. Their attitude is simply, "Try and stop us. We're making a lot of money. Fine us if you want, shut us down, we'll change our business name and continue. Just try and stop us, 'cause you can't."
That's an attitude that befits an organized crime operation, which is basically what fax.com is. They commit the same federal cr
So, do we get some of the money? (Score:1)
The law summary is wrong. (Score:2)
Re:fax.com (Score:1)