FTC offers $50K for stopping robocallers

Do not call. It's a simple request made by more than 200 million Americans. Many say they are still getting unwanted phone calls even though they are on the Do Not Call list.

The Federal Trade Commission gets thousands of complaints a day about the Do Not Call list. This year, it took action four times stopping billions of calls, yet consumers say they haven't seen a decrease in calls.

So the agency is now offering a reward to whoever can come up with a high-tech way of hanging up on automated robocalls.

$50,000 award if you can stop calls

The FTC will award $50,000 to whoever can come up with a program that will stop robocallers from changing or hiding their numbers, which is how they work their deceptive ways.

The Federal Trade Commission took action against a credit card robocalling operation in 2010, that was responsible for millions of unwanted calls from "Rachel."

"Hello. This is Rachel from Cardholder Services calling in reference to your current cardholder account," the FTC phone recording stated.

That was two years ago. But Rachel is still calling.

"It's almost certainly a different company doing it now," said FTC Cleveland Staff Attorney Michael Milgrom.

Milgrom is a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission office in Cleveland responsible for tracking down violators. It's a tough job because technology is making it easy to spoof or fake the number you see on caller ID.

So, the Federal Trade Commission decided to make this unusual offer after holding a brainstorming meeting last week.

"We are hoping this summit will result in ways to find solutions to this problem and get more of the robocallers," Milgrom said.

Reminder about campaign calls

Meantime, during this election season remember that political campaigns are exempt from the Do Call List, so nothing will stop those calls.

As always, don't waste your money.

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Don't Waste Your Money is a registered trademark of the EW Scripps Co.

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