Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

U.S. FTC - The Federal Trade Commission - Illegal Robocalls

It is difficult for offshore call centers to provide their services by using a legal way. On one side they need to work lucrative on the other side they need to keep themselves on the law and government regulations of the destination country of their calls, what makes their work very difficult.

If you are watching the following video or read the transcript from the FTC attorney Kati Daffan, then you’ll get it that you are not allowed to greet the called one with a recording and if the center likes to sell something – what is in the most cases the reason for the call from an offshore call center – then the client of the center needs to have a written permission of their victims, which should get called.

The first problem with the greeting done by a life person can get easily handled by adjusting the dial system that every time is at least one free agent is available who can take the call immediately and greet the called one.

If the client provides calling data the second problem can get solved too. In respect to the data protection law is the client not allowed to provide more detailed information as can get found in a public phone directory. In any case should keep the center a copy of the data transmission or the email with the access to the data for having a proof. The center shall keep the proofs at least 10 years in evidence.

We can find the following explanations from the FTC attorney Kati Daffan about Robocalls at the homepage of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):

Few things can be more annoying than answering the phone while you're in the middle of something — and then being greeted by a recording.

If you receive a robocall trying to sell you something (and you haven’t given the caller your written permission), it’s an illegal call. You should hang up. Then, file a complaint with the FTC and the National Do Not Call Registry.

Transcript from the video above:

If you have a telephone, robocalls may be ruining your day. I'm Kati Daffan, an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. If you answer the phone and hear a recorded message instead of a live person, it's a robocall. If the recording is a sales message and you haven't given your written permission to get calls from the company on the other end, the call is illegal period.

So when you get an illegal robocall, here's what to do. Hang up the phone. Don't press one to speak to a live operator. And don't press any other number to get off the list. If you respond by pressing any number, it will probably just lead to more robocalls.

You might consider contacting your phone provider and asking them to block the number and whether they charge for that service. Remember that telemarketers change caller ID information easily and often. So it might not be worth paying a fee to block a number that will change.

Finally, contact the FTC to report your experience. You can do that online at ftc.gov or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP. To learn more about illegal robocalls and what the FTC is doing to stop them, visit ftc.gov/robocalls. That's ftc.gov/robocalls.

Source: The Federal Trade Commission

Another video from the FTC attorney Kati Daffan give some more information:

Transcript of the video above:

If you have a telephone, it probably seems like illegal robo calls are out of control. I'm Kati Daffan, an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. If you pick up the phone, and hear a recorded message instead of a live person, that's a robocall.

Consumers are getting more and more robo calls, and they are not happy about it. As the number of calls has multiplied, the number of complaints has, too. The reason for the spike in robo calls has to do with technology. Companies are using auto dialers, that can send out thousands of phone calls every minute, for an incredibly low cost.

What's important is that the companies that use this technology don't bother to screen for the numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. If a company doesn't care about obeying the law, you can be sure they're trying to scam you. You've probably gotten robo calls about candidates running for office, or charities asking for donations. These robo calls are allowed. But any robo call that's trying to sell you something probably is illegal, unless you've given your written permission to get calls from that company.

The FTC has stopped billions, yes billions, of robo calls in the last two years. Tracing these calls is a tough job, and there are a few reasons for that. One, is that many different companies use the same, or very similar, recorded messages. Another, is that they fake the caller ID information that you see on your phone. That's called caller ID spoofing, and new technology makes it very easy to do. And the third, is that the robo callers often place the calls through internet technology, that hides their location.

At the FTC, we're continuing our aggressive enforcement efforts. And we're also looking for innovative, technological solutions to the robo call problem. For more information, please visit ftc.gov/robocalls. That's ftc.gov/robocalls.

Source: The Federal Trade Commission

Don’t forget that the fines in the U.S. are very high. Everybody who needs to defend himself in front of the law court will think first about himself and will very fast forget his given promises only for the reason that the fine will be a little bit less drastically. Your client will be coming first into the focus of the investigators, because you are selling his products. So your client or broker will in the best case provide the contact details of his partner in crime to the state attorney for getting a better deal for his own judgement. He will even try to make you alone guilty for his own fails. You need to have in this case proofs for your own protection and defense.

 

Different kinds of dialer for call centers

Preview Dialer: In Preview mode, the agent starts by himself the next call (semi-automatic preview dialing) on a software-based selection process. The preview dialing ensures that the call center staff can preview the record from the customer database. If the agent triggers the call attempt by himself, he has also opportunity to prepare for the interview and detailed view (for example the contact history). The employee initiates the call either by using software or by manually dialing the telephone number.

Power Dialer: The dialer software automatically dials the next phone connection as soon as the processing of the previous record was completed by the agent. This can be done by the software on the client or on the central server. It can be set with an "overdial factor" that not only one but several telephone lines per agent get to be established. The dialing attempts are doing mostly displayed in the selection preview on the workplace of the agents. The first successful selection is presented. Other successful dialing attempts are distributed by chance on the next available agent. In the calculations involved, that usually not all numbers dialed indicate a dial tone, but might be busy or unavailable for other reasons. 

Predictive Dialer: Even with predictive dialing the telephone numbers of the contact list or database of the company or service provider get selected automatically. In addition, the dialer software monitored by mathematical methods continually in several ways, such as the current availability or the average call duration of each employee, and includes this in the calculation for the selections. The Predictive dialing is thus a forward-looking, self-adjusting dial. The predictive dialer controls the number of dial attempts per agent, taking into account the current and historical accessibility of customers and on the basis of the derived prediction. This not only minimizes the waiting time between two contacts of the agent, but also provides the ideal case that as many calls as possible are made without call attempts must be canceled. Lost connections causing the called phone rings, after picking up is no caller on the other end available or it rings only for a very short time (dropped call). Consumers perceive this as harassing or threatening.

Regulations:

In the UK, Ofcom requires that predictive dialers abandon less than 3% of answered calls on a daily basis. Ofcom also requires that if an agent is not available within 2 seconds the call is considered "abandoned" and an automated message is played. The automated message must identify the company making the call, the purpose of the call, a free phone or basic rate phone number to call back on and must not contain any form of marketing. A phone call to the return number must not be treated by the company as an opportunity to market, but to be removed from the calling list. In the UK "abandoned" calls must not be called back within 72 hours unless there is a dedicated agent available.

In the USA, if someone answers but no agent is available within 2 seconds of the person's greeting, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations consider the call "abandoned" and require the dialer to play a recorded message. The FCC requires that predictive dialers abandon less than 3% of answered calls.

In Canada, the maximum abandon rate is 5%, and calls cannot be made to numbers registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, emergency or health care providers.