MADRID, 18 (EUROPA PRESS)
The consumer organization Facua called on the government this Monday for new regulatory changes to penalize telecom and energy companies that profit from unwanted phone calls and to compensate affected users.
Although telecommunications operators have blocked more than 50 million fraudulent calls and text messages since last March, according to data provided today by Minister Óscar López, Facua reports that many consumers continue to receive unsolicited commercial calls almost daily.
This is because, Facua explains, the government's plan against telephone scams did not include blocking this type of communication from landline numbers with geographic prefixes.
Thus, for Facua, the plan's measures are "clearly insufficient" and the blocking must be extended "to all types of calls," since landlines with national prefixes have become "a major source of fraud."
"The minister himself has admitted that since the plan came into effect, scammers are using calls with national prefixes for their fraudulent practices because it is impossible to do so with mobile numbers," Facua notes.
For this reason, the consumer organization insists on the need to expand the current plan to also block spam calls from landlines with geographic prefixes. "Since 2023, all commercial calls not expressly requested are prohibited, although in practice, they have continued to occur as much or more than before," Facua criticizes.
Furthermore, the association believes it is essential that the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda promote a regulatory change to require companies that receive calls via commercial calls to inform users that, if the call was not made or specifically requested by them, they would be entitled to financial compensation, as it constitutes telephone spam.
For Facua, it is essential that all companies benefiting from telephone subscriptions must guarantee that, in the call recording, the user not only accepts specific terms of service, but also indicates that they made the call or that they specifically requested it.
"If this information does not appear in the recording, the contract would not be valid, and the companies that process it would be committing a consumer violation that would result in a penalty if reported," Facua claims.
