FTC Offering $50,000 to Anyone Who Can Stop Robocalls

Can you make the robocalls stop? It might be worth $50,000.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday kicked off its FTC Robocall Challenge, which will offer $50,000 to the person or team who can come up with a way to stop annoying, robotic calls.

The effort is the first contest hosted on Challenge.gov, an online platform that invites people to submit ideas for how best to solve pressing government challenges.

"The FTC is attacking illegal robocalls on all fronts, and one of the things that we can do as a government agency is to tap into the genius and technical expertise among the public," David Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "We think this will be an effective approach in the case of robocalls because the winner of our challenge will become a national hero."

The FTC will start accepting challenges on Oct. 25 at 5 p.m. Eastern and the submission period will run until Jan. 17 at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced in April.

Judges for the challenge are Steve Bellovin, FTC Chief Technologist, Henning Schulzrinne, Federal Communications Commission Chief Technologist, and Kara Swisher of All Things D. They will give a Best Overall Solution prize to an individual or team of fewer than 10 people based on the following criteria: does it work? (50 percent); can it be rolled out? (25 percent); and is it easy to use? (25 percent).

Teams of more than 10 people can apply for the FTC's Technology Achievement Award, which does not include a cash prize.

For those who have questions, the FTC will host two, one-hour social media chats. The team will be answering questions via its @FTC Twitter feed at 1 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 25, and will switch to Facebook at 2 p.m. For more, see the challenge's official rules and FAQs.

Commercial robocalls deliver recorded sales messages, many of which are deceptive, according to the FTC. In some cases they are illegal under the FTC's 2009 Telemarketing Sales Rule, unless the call recipient has given permission for that business to contact them.

Earlier this week, meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules that ban robocalling equipment from contacting Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) - or 911 call centers that receive emergency calls.

"By some estimates, hundreds or even thousands of unwanted robocalls are made to PSAPs each day, tying up public safety phone lines and diverting critical first responder resources away from the provision of emergency services," the FCC said.

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