Ross: We won’t have fewer robocalls until we have fewer suckers

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a new attack on robocalls. It’s called “Operation Call It Quits,” and it’s an all-out manhunt for the con artists themselves.

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FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips is very excited about going after the culprits, but it’s not being billed a panacea.

“It is not the whole of the solution. It’s going to take engagement from industry, [and] it’s going to take engagement from consumers,” he clarified.

What he’s saying is you’re not going to see results any time soon, and that’s because the money is just too good.

I Googled “Robocall Services.” It turns out you can make a million calls for a penny per call, right from your laptop.

That means $10,000 buys a million calls. If you can get just 200 people to send you $100 — a response rate of just two-hundredths of a percent –  you double your money.

That bring us to the real problem: We have too many suckers. There are too many people who are baffled by credit cards, health care plans, computers.

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Too many people hear, “This is an important message regarding your current credit card account,” and think it’s real.

That’s the problem. Nobody would believe a call that says, “Hello. This is an important message regarding your toilet. Unless you renew your toilet subscription within 24 hours, your toilet company will cancel your toilet services.”

We won’t have fewer robocalls, until we have fewer suckers.

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