unwanted faxes

rockcat · Jan 21, 2005

The thread about unsolicited phone calls got me thinking about this:

At my work I get bombarded with several faxes, daily, that we don't want. They are advertisments with no return fax number. In fine print on the bottom, they all say "If you wish to be removed from our fax database, please call (and the number)." I found out that this is a ploy to find out that the fax actually got to somebody and they end up sending you more!!!

It seems that there is no solution. If there was a return fax #, I would fax them a black page 500 times!

Does this happen to you too? Any suggestions?

catherine · Jan 21, 2005

Oh yes, we get it all the time too:

You've won a Carribean Cruise for 2!

Cruises for cheap, below costs!!!!

etc, etc, etc.

no suggestions. I have no idea as to what to do. I used to not keep paper in my fax machine until I knew I was expecting a fax but with our new machine, it prints all faxes the min. you replace the paper.

I just don't know. What a waste of paper and ink!!!

mrsd · Jan 21, 2005

Once, my phone number was confused with a fax machine. I heard beeps and electronic sounds for days...

Very irritating!

rosiemac · Jan 21, 2005

We get them all the time at work offering mobile phones, cruises etc...

You can send them back to have your name and number removed but look at the small print at the bottom of the page because over here in the UK it costs Â£1.50 to return it.

I asked the guy who installed our fax machine if we could block junk faxes because it is a pain but he said that we couldn't.

rockcat · Jan 21, 2005

Originally Posted by rosiemac

You can send them back to have your name and number removed but look at the small print at the bottom of the page because over here in the UK it costs Â£1.50 to return it.

You're right. The ones with the fax numbers on them are not usually toll free.

valanhb · Jan 21, 2005

Actually, it is against the law to send unsolicited faxes by federal law. Many states are adding their own laws.

You CAN sue them for sending you junk faxes! You can take them to small claims court or there are also companies that sue these people for you. Here's the rub with the companies...they sue for $500-$1500 per faxed page (depending on how much the company harassed you), and your company gets maybe 10% of it. I know this because our company is doing that. Is it worth it for the $$? No, we really aren't getting squat - the company and the lawyers they hire are making a killing on it though. It is a pain for the owner of the company because they have to sign off that no one in the company authorized the solicitations, but the plus is that because another company is actually the complaintant there is no liability to them or the company. (As an aside, after the initial batch of junk faxes I had been saving for months, the owner decided it wasn't worth it to continue with the lawsuits.) However, the number of junk faxes has substantially diminished since we started working with that other company that does the lawsuits.

rosiemac · Jan 21, 2005

It's a pity we didn't do the same here Heidi

rapunzel47 · Jan 21, 2005

Originally Posted by mrsd

Once, my phone number was confused with a fax machine. I heard beeps and electronic sounds for days...

Very irritating!

Yes, our voice line got included in somebody's CD of fax numbers that was distributed to whole BUNCHES of outfits that send automated faxes. For a while it was an absolute nightmare -- sometimes calls coming in the wee hours of the morning, even! It took us many months to get it settled down, with the help of the phone company and CRTC (the communications regulator), and in the process, we have added a number of bells and whistles to our phone service, that we wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. Now our outgoing phone message specifically tells the caller that we will not pick up a call from number we don't recognize (call display is a big help here), but if they'll leave a message it may get them a quick call-back if we're around.

Automated faxes are not illegal in Canada, but they are regulated. For instance, the allowable times are restricted -- so those ones in the wee hours got some wrists slapped. And some of those jerks take a long time to learn!!

fwan · Jan 21, 2005

ew...
well
we have a fax machine at home.. but i am planning to buy a fax/telephone machine but we dont get junk

jcat · Jan 21, 2005

"Junk faxes" are one of my pet peeves. We get bombarded with them every weekend - what a waste of paper and ink! An awful lot of them seem to be sent by "mailbox companies" located someplace like the Cayman Islands, so there's not much we can do about them.

rockcat · Jan 21, 2005

Originally Posted by valanhb

Actually, it is against the law to send unsolicited faxes by federal law. Many states are adding their own laws.

You CAN sue them for sending you junk faxes! You can take them to small claims court or there are also companies that sue these people for you. Here's the rub with the companies...they sue for $500-$1500 per faxed page (depending on how much the company harassed you), and your company gets maybe 10% of it. I know this because our company is doing that. Is it worth it for the $$? No, we really aren't getting squat - the company and the lawyers they hire are making a killing on it though. It is a pain for the owner of the company because they have to sign off that no one in the company authorized the solicitations, but the plus is that because another company is actually the complaintant there is no liability to them or the company. (As an aside, after the initial batch of junk faxes I had been saving for months, the owner decided it wasn't worth it to continue with the lawsuits.) However, the number of junk faxes has substantially diminished since we started working with that other company that does the lawsuits.

I thought it was illegal, but it so hard to do anything about it! I considered sending my big fat file of faxes to one of those companies too. I found them online and wasn't sure if they were legit though.

There was another website - I think it was an FCC site. If I went through them it would mean filling out 4 pages for each fax. Like I've got time for that.

cirque · Jan 21, 2005

I used to get fax calls at home over and over on my voice line. I don't even have a fax line! Luckily I was able to find out the number with Caller ID and look up the company and then contact someone and get them to stop faxing me their whole online catalog.

Try hooking up a caller ID box and see what shows up? Maybe that will give you a place to start in getting them to stop.

You can report it as an annoyance call afterwords which allows it to be traced later if necessary (I think), but it costs money and you would have to hook up a phone to your fax line after getting one of those fax's and then punch in the correct *code.

gratefulbear629 · Jan 21, 2005

We get junk faxes at work all the time too. We just "file" them. (in the garbage)

deb25 · Jan 22, 2005

The bulk of the faxes we get at school are junk faxes. I find it amazing that these companies will bombard people any way they can to get their junk to you. Snail mail, email, faxes.....what a huge waste of money all around.

unwanted faxes

rockcat

TCS Member

Thread starter

catherine

TCS Member

mrsd

TCS Member

rosiemac

TCS Member

rockcat

TCS Member

Thread starter

valanhb

TCS Member

rosiemac

TCS Member

rapunzel47

TCS Member

fwan

TCS Member

jcat

Mo(w)gli's can opener

rockcat

TCS Member

Thread starter

cirque

TCS Member

gratefulbear629

TCS Member

deb25

TCS Member

Latest Posts

Connect with us