Junk advertising - I get it on my cell phone, I get it on my email. And since I opened my law office in 2004, I've been getting on my fax machine.
Of all this spam, the most irritating to me are the junk faxes.
I have received hundreds of junk faxes at my office. When I worked for the City of Vancouver we'd receive them there too, sometimes several a day. In fact, every office I have worked in over the last 10 years has been blasted with junk faxes.
If you work in an office, or if your home phone number has found its way onto the call list of a fax blaster, you share my pain.
Unlike spam email, junk faxes cost MONEY. They cost me 3 1/2 cents per page for paper and toner. That may not seem like much, but multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of fax machines in the U.S. That's a real cost to the economy. Not to mention, a massive waste of trees.
All to advertise "services" which seem to be, without exception, scams.
Junk faxes are illegal. Unsolicited advertising faxes are against the law unless you have a prior business relationship with the advertiser. Junk faxes violate the federal "Junk Fax Prevention Act." 47 U.S.C. 227.
Junk faxes also violate the Washington State Consumer Protection Act, which provides for damages of a minimum of $2,000 per fax plus attorney fees. RCW 80.36.540 and RCW Ch. 19.86.
At this point, you may be wondering why I'm not making an easy living suing those bleepity-bleeping fax-blasters, collecting $2,000 a page. It is because the laws may work a little too well.
You see, these laws have been very effective, but not at protecting U.S. citizens from gazillions of junk faxes. These laws have apparently been effective at chasing the fax-blasters out of the United States and into Canada.
Oh, you can't hide behind those maple leaves. Washington (and all states) has a "long arm" statute which subjects anyone doing business - or violating the law - within our state to our jurisdiction. I am confident our Superior Court would gladly give me a judgment. But collecting, well, that's another thing.
But some days my patience runs a little thin, and one of these days I'm going to find a good Canadian collections lawyer and give it a go.
Meanwhile, here are my tips to end junk faxes:
1. Add your number to the Canadian Marketing Association's "Do Not Call" registry. Whether they honor your request is up to them, but hey, we're all friends here, right?
2. Get rid of your fax machine! I have figured out how to make my incoming faxes go to PDF files on my computer, so I won't have any more scam spam faxes print out without my consent. You could also use online fax services for a monthly fee.
3. Get more information at this website: www.junkfax.org.
O Canada, We Stand on Guard for Thee! Just return the favor, okay?
Posts
GeekWire Summit in Seattle on March 7
1 hour ago
1 comments:
I have been driven berserk by junk faxes in recent years. I get that at home on both my fax line and voice line. I'm tending not even to answer the phone because of fax noises in my ear 9 times out of 10 calls. Only disconnecting the fax has begun to lower the number of calls but maybe that's wishful thinking. The worst part of my junk fax experience is the number of junk faxes that I have received working in non-profit management. Small charitiable and arts organizations have little enough money without wasting it on extra fax toner cartridges for these criminals.
Post a Comment