STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Most of America has prohibited telemarketing calls. More than 200 million people have put their names in the National Do Not Call Registry, which has been around about a decade. But companies still want the money to be made reaching out to you by phone. And that's today's business Bottom Line.
Regardless of the law, pre-recorded robocalls have flooded the country - offering everything from credit cards to new medications.
The Federal Trade Commission is seeking solutions, as NPR's Lauren Silverman reports.
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LAUREN SILVERMAN, BYLINE: This is the call interrupting dinners across the nation.
RACHEL: Hello, this is Rachel at Cardholder Services, calling in reference to your current credit card account. It is urgent that...
DAVID VLADECK: All of us have heard this so many times that it's like, you know, nails on a chalkboard for us.
SILVERMAN: That's David Vladeck. He's director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. He's been going after the Rachel's of the world for a long time, but says in the past few years the hunt has become much more difficult.
VLADECK: These calls are not like the calls we grew up with. They are computer blasted calls that are enabled by the Internet. The dialers are outside the United States generally, and these dialers are capable of blasting out an unfathomable number of telephone calls.
SILVERMAN: Last year, the FTC shut down one serial dialer called Asia Pacific. In an 18-month period it made over two and a half billion robocalls in the U.S.
VLADECK: Hello?
ROBOCALL: Your warrantee extended if it is not already...
SILVERMAN: The majority of telephone calls that deliver pre-recorded messages trying to sell you something are illegal - and Vladeck says they're not just annoying, they're dangerous.
VLADECK: Most of the robocalls we see are for scams that prey on people who are economically vulnerable.
SILVERMAN: The FTC does go after and sue dozens of robocall companies every year, but Vladeck admits it isn't enough. Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, has given robocallers a cheap way to reach tens of millions of American consumers and stay offshore. So the FTC is looking for help.
VLADECK: We've offered $50,000 to the individual or small company that presents us with technology that will enable consumers or the telecoms that serve us to block this assault of unwanted robocalls.
SILVERMAN: So far, there are over 200 submissions.
SHAWN DAVIS: My name is Shawn Davis. I'm 27.
SILVERMAN: Shawn Davis is an IT technician in Boise, Idaho. His solution to the robocall problem is called Roboblock Twelve. It's a number verification system that requires callers to type in randomly generated numbers.
DAVIS: If they do find a way to get through, and you find out it's an automated solicitor, you just press star 6-6, which is no and it adds them to the block list.
SILVERMAN: A lot of submissions use technology to differentiate robots from humans - like those garbled numbers you have to decipher and type in online to prove you're human. But some are less technical.
NAOMI WALLS: Turn your phone off or unplug it.
SILVERMAN: Meet Naomi Walls. She's from Aurora, Colorado, and says ending robocalls is simple: turn your ringer off, and record this message.
WALLS: You have reached the Walls' residence. Due to the number of robocalls I'm receiving, I've turned off my phone so that it won't ring...
(LAUGHTER)
SILVERMAN: That lady laughing is Kara Swisher - co-editor of All Things Digital and one the judges for the robocall competition.
KARA SWISHER: OK, all right, I'll look upon it. That's a good solution. Yeah. That's a good solution to a lot of problems in life.
SILVERMAN: Swisher won't reveal which ideas she likes so far, but says the winner could get a lot more than money.
SWISHER: The people who invest in technology pay attention to all these incubators, all these competitions, all these hack-a-thons, so if there's an excellent solution, someone is going to pick it up.
SILVERMAN: You still have about two weeks to submit your idea.
Lauren Silverman, NPR News.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.