2001connections-article0031 Shut down junk faxers now!!

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2001connections-article0031
Shut down junk faxers now!!

I have received up to several attempted junk fax transmissions per day. Including to my cellphones, which obviously are not fax machines. And to my answering machine number, which I generally had not given out as a fax number. At least not recently, and not often. Clearly, these pests are rolling the dice. Dialling a bunch of numbers many times over, hoping to score a few hits. Junk faxers are almost as bad as pickpockets. Some strong legislation is clearly needed to deal with this problem.

I propose modifying criminal law everywhere to recognize the transmission of junk faxes as a form of theft. Perhaps indirect theft or some other definition, who knows, let the lawyers sort out these points. Resources deemed to have been stolen in this manner may include: fax paper, fax toner, electricity, telecommunications bandwidth, as well as human energy and time, lost productivity. Additionally, I believe some lawsuits may be feasible, against a few of the most notorious bulk senders. For example, a small enterprise with only 1 fax machine and 1 dedicated phone line might sustain business losses if important contacts are unable to get through because the fax line is busy due to junk senders. Or if the machine went down because of the high volume of junk received. Moochers and freeloaders have been hitching a free ride at the expense of honest, paying consumers and businesses for far too long now. We should all tell the pikers and slackers to pay their fare or get off the bus.
The time has come to stamp out all forms and variations of “postage due” marketing. Suppose a store mailed you an envelope advertising their products and you were required to pay postage upon receiving the promotional material. You would probably be outraged. Perhaps even raise hell.

[[Attention, wimps: please replace “raise hell” with “raise heck”.]]

Consumers and businesses alike, need to adopt a similarly tough, unforgiving attitude in the area of electronic communication. Enough is enough. No more free ride for idlers tagging along without charge on the telecommunications network.

Here is one possible defence I dreamed up against junk faxers. The design of telecommunications apparatus could assume a greater role in protecting us from incoming clutter. As a new industry standard, I propose that some or all of the following types of function buttons could be added to fax and phone and answering machines.
[[01]] “Locally reject all calls originating from this phone number”.
[[02]] “Send electronic request to the phone company to automatically block all calls originating from this phone number”. Obviously, implementing this kind of feature and some of the following ones might require some upgrades and standardization among various telecommunications carriers.
[[03]] A stronger command than the above. “Send electronic request to the phone company to automatically block all calls originating from this phone number and to log this caller for possible prosecution”.
   [[04]] A stronger command than the above. “Send electronic request to the phone company to automatically block all calls originating from this phone number and to log and initiate prosecution of this caller as soon as it becomes feasible to do so, in the estimation of the phone company”. Feasibility of prosecution may depend on numerous factors, including but in no way limited to, the following. Local laws. Location of the sender. Location of the recipient. Opinions expressed by legal counsel retained by the phone company. Track record of the sender. Quantity and frequency of complaints registered by recipients against the sender.

If we make a collective effort, we can probably, eventually eradicate the nuisance of junk faxes, junk email and similar annoyances. Or at least, I hope we can significantly alleviate this problem. Believe it or not, I actually have a compartment near my desk which I have titled “Junk faxers to prosecute”. I’m not sure whether I will actually get around to initiating appropriate proceedings personally against the numerous offenders who send or attempt to send unsolicited and unwelcome faxes to me. But I reckon, the more material I retain as potentially useful evidence, the better. And I want to keep the “fight-back” option ready to implement, as much as possible. Just in case, if at one point, these pests simply provoke me too much.

    These sheets of unwelcome junk are just intolerable. One 3-page incoming transmission carried a title “Health and safety in the workplace” or similar. As if the senders mistook my residence for a factory or some other type of industrial establishment. The incident occurred before I decided to keep my fax machine disconnected almost all the time. This particular transmission lacked a return fax or phone number. Nor was there any intended recipient fax number printed on the page. A typical blatant bulk sending. Apparently these shady outfits find fax numbers by chance. Or sometimes they call up numbers one by one, thus usually reaching destinations without any fax machine connected at the receiving end. It’s all outrageous!
    In another case, the last 4-digits of the originating fax number changed dozens of times, according to my call display device. But the printed sheet itself contained no originating fax number whatsoever. Other times, the sender was a blocked number at 2 o’clock at night. It all borders on harassment, in my opinion. Lawmakers around the world, please take note.

End of
2001connections-article0031
Shut down junk faxers now!!

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