Robo Revenge app allows people to automatically SUE robocallers that inundate them with spam for $3,000 per call
- The Robo Revenge app automates legal action against frequent robocallers
- It gives users a fake credit card to create a transaction record with spammers
- Once the transaction is logged, Robo Revenge can serve legal notices
- Subsequent spam calls can lead to fines of up to $3,000 per call
Exacting revenge on companies who smother you in robocalls could be as easy as downloading an app.
DoNotPay, a company that offers a legal service chatbot, has rolled out an adjacent tool called Robo Revenge that helps automate the process of suing companies who proliferate spammy calls.
According to a report from Motherboard, the service, which can currently be used on DoNotPay’s website and through its free app, works by first putting one’s number on the national Do Not Call Registry which then outlaws any companies from pestering them with high call volumes.
Robo Revenge is an app that helps users reclaim agency in the fight against robocalls by allowing them to automate the process of serving legal notices
Once added to the registry, the real ingenuity behind Robo Revenge kicks in. If a Robo Revenge user receives a robo call, users are able to provide scammers with a virtual credit card provided by DoNotPay.
Once the scammers charge the card, the transaction generates details that can then be used by Robo Revenge to generate and serve the necessary documents to sue the source of the calls for as much as $3,000 – an sum outlined in the recently passed Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
In addition to fining convicted spammers from $1,500 to up to $10,000, the bill, signed by President Donald Trump in December, gives authorities more enforcement powers and looks to accelerate measures the industry is already taking to identify robocalls.
‘All of the big companies like AT&T and Apple have failed to protect consumers,” Browder told Motherboard over the phone.
‘Consumers have to protect themselves. The only way the problem will end is if the robocallers start losing money every time they call someone.’
While it automates some of the process, Robo Revenge does have some limitations.
For one, you you can’t currently sue companies outside the US since they’re too difficult to find.
You also have to put in the effort of listening to a spammer’s pitch and then slipping them the decoy credit card number before you can sue them.
For those who are still struggling to prevent the scourge of robocalls, however, the effort may be worth it.
According to some estimates, last year alone Americans received more than 58 billion robocalls in 2019 alone