Disallow Illegal Robocall DIP Fees

Illegal robocalling is a multi-million dollar industry. A purely technical solution to block the calls will eventually be thwarted. When a profit can be made, someone will game the system to their advantage. The key to solving the illegal robocalls is to control the money. When the profits go away, the robocalls will also. My solution effectively blocks robocalls on landlines and mobile phones and can operate on a proprietary or non-proprietary device or platform. It works, is easy to use, and can be rolled out in a few months with minimal cost. The customer will not be impacted and the telephone companies will save millions of dollars. The illegal robocaller profits from “DIP fees”. The telephone company for the consumer who receives the illegal robocall must pay the CallerID database for the right to “dip” into the caller ID database in order to retrieve the “calling name” information that’s displayed on the phone. Arrangements between the CallerID database company and the illegal robocaller share this fee. The DIP fee is a faction of a cent per transaction, but with a large enough volume, profits can mount up to millions of dollars quite quickly. My solution is to provide the telephone companies with a tool to challenge (not pay) illegal robocall DIP fees. Nobody should profit from illegal activity. Without this illegal revenue, the CallerID database companies will terminate the arrangements with the robocallers and the calls will stop. In addition, the telephone company for the consumer benefits by saving the DIP fees incurred by the illegal robocall. There is some administrative overhead and technology required by the CallerID database and telephone companies to identify and challenge the illegal robocall DIP fee. This could be accomplished by:

• Creating a “Robocaller Black List”, a centrally managed database of robocallers (phone # and Cnam) compiled from FTC customer complaints about robocaller and data mined from DIP fee logs. This database could be administered similar to the black list for email spammers.

• Regulating the CallerID database companies to not charge phone companies for DIP fees when a caller is on the Rebocaller Black List.

• Fining the CallerID database if a DIP fee associated with the Robocaller Black List is charged and challenged by the telephone company.