How to Stop Rampant Junk Fax? 38
Fascist Christ asks: "The company I work for, like many other companies, uses a fax machine. We get an annoying ammount of advertisements by fax and are looking to find an effective way to stop it. We have tried requesting to be removed from the lists, but we get too many to do this every time. One company told me that they get there info from infoUSA. Does anyone have any experience with this or other companies and know how to stop this activity without getting a lawyer involved?" How difficult would it be to set up a fax system that would use caller-ID blacklists before answering the line? At the very least you can block identifiable spammers by something that's harder to change than their email address: their phone number.
Computer (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
$500 fines, work real good!! (Score:3, Informative)
eFax.com Just got fined $24Million for doing this. It was on
Do a search in the article archive next time before wasting time posting.
Re:$500 fines, work real good!! (Score:1)
fax.com is in the sole business of junk faxing.
Junk fax is highly illegal in the U.S. (Score:2)
If you are clever you should also be able work out a good set of claims against solitications to your cell phone using that section of the USC, too.
Reading the letter of the code, it should also apply to spam, but lawyers seemed to have dropped the ball on that one.
Change your number. (Score:1)
Change your number.
Tell the people you want to fax you. Change your ads etc.
Re:Change your number. (Score:1)
Plus, a lot of companies like to be able to publically publish their fax numbers...
Re:Change your number. (Score:2)
- A.P.
Free tools to do the trick (Score:2, Interesting)
Set up Hylafax. [hylafax.org] to retrive your faxes and notify you by email when they come int.
By default fax programs use tiff files which are not very web friendly. Most people prefer pdfs which is why the fax2pdf [sourceforge.net] project exists.
With a little bit of effort you can set up a machine that retrieves all your faxes and delivers them by email. You print only the ones you want, delete, or archive the rest.
best way to get even.. (Score:1)
Re:best way to get even.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:best way to get even.. (Score:1)
1) YOU can then be busted for going vigilante. If I remember, this is kept under a different category than junk faxing, but is a malicious act on your part. The phone company gets in on it, as it falls more under the "threatening phone call", etc. thing. I think they threaten to cut off your phone, too.
2) No guarantee you're faxing the right person. If they aren't requesting a response via fax, then you're really guessing at their fax number.
3) As noted by others, they probably don't have a real fax machine.
Best solution (as noted, also) is to sic the law on them. A few people have actually collected those fines, too!
Lawyers (Score:2, Insightful)
Just because they have a reputation for being lying, theiving, conniving lowlifes, lawyers actually do perform a real function. It seems that if you've got a problem with harrassment, it makes sense to seek the advice of a lawyer.
Write to your politicians (Score:1)
If you're not in California, well, you can still write to your local politicians.
Re:Write to your politicians (Score:1)
Orthanc
Re:Write to your politicians (Score:2)
Most junk faxers are small businesses who contract through a faxing service. The faxing service uses special fax servers to send, so the old black construction paper trick won't help. At best you tie up a channel on their PRI.
Others have mentioned that you can use various laws, including the TCPA to go after the small businesses. You may also try contacting the major mass-fax houses. Ask to be added to any dontfax list they have. From what I recall the TCPA does not require the mass fax houses themselves maintain a list. You may try to get around this by asking to be added to the dont send list of all their clients. At the very least it would be a headache for them and some documentation if you ever wanted to sue. It's a longshot, but you never know.
websites and mailing lists (Score:2)
There are a couple of resources for you and your lawyers to get started with. junkfax.org [junkfax.org] and http://www.junkfaxes.org [junkfaxes.org] are two separate websites dedicated to the cause, the second has an excellent mailing list where you'll find advice and experience on going after junkfaxers with the TCPA law.
Ask Slashdot: How can I stop a stalker? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Ask Slashdot: How can I stop a stalker? (Score:1)
You just need two things: (Score:1)
1) A really big black TIFF file
2) A little creativity >:)
Decent phone or phone system... (Score:1)
- Rob
Politely inform them of the consequences (Score:2)
Notice that there are no lawyers involved in any of the above steps. The law is involved, however, which is why it's effective. And, if your fax-spammers refuse to stop you can make some easy money on the side, again with no lawyers involved (in CA, anyway).
Re:Politely inform them of the consequences (Score:2)
Re:Politely inform them of the consequences (Score:2)
The solution to this problem in the UK is... (Score:2, Informative)
If you're concerned about the amount of tree-ware spamming you through your letterbox then sign up for the Mailing Preference service while you're at it.
Finally, you can also sign up to the Telephone Preference service and foil those legalised war-diallers that phone you up and then hang up on you when they realise they can't connect you to a sales drone.
Re:The solution to this problem in the UK is... (Score:1)
I did this six months ago for another number and it's working very well - overnight we went from about 5 junk faxes a day to zero. We've had about two since then.
Check with your phone provider... (Score:1)
... 'cause I know Verizon can add a list of accepted phone numbers to any line at a low cost (like 5-10$ a month I think?). Apparently, someone who calls who's not on the list can leave their name, and then you can check through the list of names rejected and okay or reject people permanently. Just tell whomever's faxing you to call first, because you've installed a new system.
I'd bet other providers offer the same.
Brings up an interesting question (Score:2)
Re:Brings up an interesting question (Score:2)
I pay plenty of cost as the reciever of junk email...
The power to run the computer, bandwidth charges...just to start...
You didn't say email (Score:1)
Perhaps you should apply to be a