1. Unsolicited Fax Nightmare
I have one phone line, primarily used for voice. Once in a while I
may receive or send a fax to/from a family member, and my fax machine
is also my answering machine. Naturally it is always on, although the
fax function is transparent to voice calls.
I was away for a few days (in the hospital). When I came home, I
found a blank sheet of fax paper on the fax machine. Completely
blank. The next day, it started. The phone would ring and it would
be a fax machine. I let the fax machine take a few, and you guessed
it: fax ads. Apparently my number is now known as a fax number, and I
am doomed. The phone numbers printed in the ads only end up at a
voice mail system, and there was no way to find out who called. The
number was "unavailable" of course from *69 service.
I switched on the anti-junk feature of my fax machine to reject
unknown fax machines. It does not receive the fax if the fax machine
number is not in the speed dial. (I'm not sure what will happen if I
have the number as 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx in the speed dial, and the friendly
fax machine is set to xxx-xxx-xxxx yet). So at least I won't be
wasting fax paper on these losers. Of course it still connects to the
fax machine to get the transmitting fax number before it disconnects.
I have my modem set to disconnect when it detects call-waiting, so
that I don't miss a call. Naturally it is very annoying to be
disconnected only to find it is a fax machine.
I did fill out online complaint forms with both the FCC and my state
(MA). I don't know how much it will do though, with only their 800
numbers on them. MA just passed a telemarketer do-not-call list law,
although it is not yet implemented. Hopefully that will help,
eventually. I noticed that PA's new law gives the do-not-call numbers
to the DMA, who they contract with.
So I better send this before another junk fax call disconnects my
Internet connection. Are there any tricks I can do to stop this
nonsense? I really don't want to have to change my number.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Better list them in your speed dial
both as number and 1+number to get them both ways. Also, use any
wild-card features your speed dial has to eliminate unwanted messages.
You might also try adding a front end answering machine to your line,
one that gives the three SIT tones (such as what Mike Sandman sells
through sandman.com followed by a short message saying 'this is not a
FAX machine. To reach a human, please hold a few seconds' then arrange
to pick up the line after the SIT tones and message. That will get
rid of a few more. And save those scraps of paper with the caller ID
numbers and send them in on your complaints. Remember how years ago
people used to complain that caller ID was an invasion of privacy. I
see it as a valuable tool in cases like yours. PAT]
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