Can robocalls be stopped? - KMSP-TV

FOX 5 I-Team investigates

Can robocalls be stopped?

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DeKalb County resident Joy Williams was fed up with robocalls and asked the I-Team to help. DeKalb County resident Joy Williams was fed up with robocalls and asked the I-Team to help.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -

You sit down to dinner and the phone rings. What if it's an emergency? You answer it, and on the other end is an automated voice of a politician asking for your vote.  

It is election season, and the political robocalls are ramped up. DeKalb County resident Joy Williams was fed up with the calls, and asked the I-Team if there was a way to stop them.

Williams works from home, and put herself on the Federal Do Not Call Registry so she wouldn't be inundated with calls all day. Despite that, she says she can get as many as six political calls a day.  

The Governor's Office of Consumer Protection says political calls, charities, and even businesses that you regularly deal with are exempt.   

"Sure, I can hang up my phone. But I want it stopped before it gets to my number. And I feel like a solution to hang up is not a solution to hang up. I think it's an invasion of privacy," said Williams.

So what can you do?

There is a non-profit back-up list you can put your name on.  It's a web site called stoppoliticalcalls.org. You can sign up to ask candidates to take you off of their call list, but it only works if the candidate participates, and they don't have to.

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