PrivacyStar mobile app users have filed 100,000 complaints with FTC over telemarketers

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PrivacyStar is a smart phone app that works on Android and BlackBerry phone. The app’s main purpose is to block unwanted calls and text messages, and to provide Caller ID for unknown callers.

But the app has an arguably more interesting feature: When you get one of those annoying junk robo-calls from telemarketers, you can use PrivacyStar to immediately file a federal complaint against the incoming number.

PrivacyStar says its 600,000 registered users have taken a shine to the feature, filing 100,000 such complaints with the Federal Trade Comission.

The company says the FTC liked the app so much that the agency asked PrivacyStar to add a feature that would allow users to complain about debt collectors violating the Fair Debt Collection act -- for instance, trying to gain information about debtors by pretending to be someone else.

PrivacyStar says the data are all fed into the so-called Consumer Sentinel, the online database used by law enforcement to track consumer complaints.

You might file a complaint if a caller contacts you even though your number is on the federal or state Do Not Call list. Or you could file one if an incoming call blocks your Caller ID, hiding the fact that it is from a telemarketer -- which can be a fraudulent practice.

PrivacyStar is not yet available for the iPhone because, according the company, ‘Apple has not made available key APIs [application programming interfaces] necessary for doing so.’

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-- David Sarno