FTC offers challenge to stop robocalls - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Federal investigators are offering a challenge to anyone that can stop annoying "robocalls" from telemarketers.

You get the calls everywhere, even on your cell phone, in your car. The robocall illegally hits your phone with a recorded sales message. Many of them break Indiana and Federal law.

One solicitation to an Eyewitness News phone asks the recipient to wait for an operator.

"Thank you for being patient," the recorded message says.

But Hoosier consumers are impatient with robocalling. Just climb the steps at the Statehouse to count the climbing number of consumer complaints.

So far this year, the Attorney General's office has received 18,000 consumer complaints. That's nearly twice the number for the same time last year.

Last week alone, the office took 351 consumer complaints. Some weeks, it has been as high as 700.

"Your eligibility expires shortly," claimed a robocaller we heard today.

Now to help eliminate those calls, the Federal Trade Commission is offering a $50,000 reward for the technology that stops robocalls.

"You can make a call look like it's coming from a (legitimate) phone number that it's not really coming from. That's one reason intercepting robocalls is so hard," said Purdue Engineering Professor Edward Delp.

Some calls may have a telltale pause at the start of the call or, Delp says, "You could do some sort of voice recognition, which is not an easy thing to do, to determine it is a robocall, but that still requires that you actually answer the call."

Or you could have the phone company or someone else catch and screen the calls first, but that raises privacy issues.

Professor Delp says he doesn't have time to do it but he could see some of his hardworking graduate students trying to find a fix.

But one grad student, Kevin Lorenz, says, "I think it's more than a $50,000 problem."

We asked another engineering student if she'd take a crack at it for $50,000.

"Definitely yes," said Ye He.

She feels there should be a solution.

"I get those calls. Very annoying," she said.

FTC Robocall Challenge