The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) informed, this Thursday (27), that it will extend for another year the measures to curb the problem of abusive telemarketing calls. The period stipulated for the application of the rules would end on the 30th. According to Anatel, the measure will apply to all fixed and mobile telephony operators. Until then, the restrictions applied to a group of 26 operators. For the 26 companies, the rules are valid from May 1st and, for the others, from June 1st of this year. Anatel considers abusive telemarketing to be the one in which companies make around 100,000 calls a day, using robots that automatically call the contact. Calls are not always completed: when the consumer answers, they are interrupted or automatically disconnected within three seconds. Since June last year, the agency has adopted precautionary measures to reduce the number of such calls. Among the measures are the blocking for 15 days of users who make at least 100,000 calls per day and when 85% of this total lasts up to 3 seconds. Telephone service providers are also allowed to charge for these short calls. According to Anatel’s Consumer Relations superintendent, Cristiana Camarate, the agency decided to extend the precautionary measures to all operators after realizing that telemarketing companies were hiring companies not subject to the rules. Some of the operators sought telephony companies that were not under Anatel’s command and, therefore, the measures are now focused on all telephony companies, explained Cristiana. Since the beginning of the precautionary measure determining the blocking of calls by robots (https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2022-06/anatel-autoriza-blockio-de-chamadas-feitas-por-robos) up to April 15, 63 billion short calls were no longer made, a 40% drop in this type of calls. “For each Brazilian citizen, this represents 300 fewer calls on your cell phone in this period”, said Cristiana. According to Anatel, so far, 564 users have been blocked for failing to comply with call volume rules or duration efficiency, and 116 terms of commitment have been signed by companies. Fines for those who fail to comply with the rules can reach up to R$ 50 million. 0303 and 0304 Regarding the so-called Non-Geographic Code, Anatel informed that, so far, 1,740 companies have requested the prefix 0303, for telemarketing calls and that there are still few adhesions to the prefix 0304, for collection calls. (https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2022-11/anatel-cria-codigo-0304-para-identificar-ligacoes-de-cobranca) In addition, from now on, companies that opting for the use of call authentication are exempt from using codes 0303 and 0304. Authentication serves as a kind of guarantee seal of the origin of the call. Through authentication, the person can know that the company is calling and even the reason for the call. In addition to giving the user the option of knowing who is wanting to get in touch, the measure would also help to avoid phone scams. Anatel had already launched an internet portal, called Qual Empresa me Ligou (www.QualEmpresaMeLigou.com.br), in which it is possible to consult, through the originating number of the incoming call, which company is calling your landline or mobile phone. The tool does not need a login or password to be used and provides the name of the legal entity that made the connection. Spoofing Anatel’s Superintendent of Control of Obligations, Gustavo Santana Borges, informed that actions are also underway to curb the practice of spoofing, when the originating number of the call is adulterated, hiding or forging calls from other numbers. According to Borges, operators will have to adopt measures to control this type of calls. “In addition to operators controlling at origin, they will have to evaluate when they receive an irregular call, block that call channel and notify Anatel”, he said. Anatel added that it continues to hold meetings with associations of telemarketing and collection companies to collect suggestions and criticisms of the measures.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©