Currently before the FCC

[peabody]

The Republican National Committee and other entities have petitioned the FCC to declare that it is legal for them to deposit voicemail messages to me without actually making a phone call. Of course that would let them spam me at will, with no way to block them. Ordinarily, we could depend on the FCC to reject something so devastating to the quality of our lives, but it appears the FCC may do as its told.

I assume that Ooma has the ability to prevent such direct deposits, and strongly suggest that it do so even if the FCC says such deposits wouldn't break the law. Such deposits would clearly degrade the quality of the Ooma experience for subscribers, and should not be allowed.

One alternative, if Ooma allows these voicemail deposits, would be to turn off voicemail entirely, revert to non-Premier service, and go back to using an answering machine or something like the Sentry v3.1 if it will work with the Telo. So I hope that Ooma will recognize that its interests coincide with ours on this issue.

[Tom]

without actually making a phone call

Unclear what this means, but if taken literally then rest assured that no one (except Ooma itself) can leave a voicemail at your Ooma number without making a call.

[ChrisMarmot]

I just had a scam operation deposit a voicemail without any record of a call.

It's really important for Ooma to allow us an option "Do not allow voicemails to be deposited without phone calls".

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense ... nging.html

The petition, filed in March by the marketing firm All About the Message LLC, would permit private companies and political organizations to deposit automated messages into consumers’ voicemail inboxes without causing the cellphones themselves to ring. If the FCC rules in its favor, the proposal would move “ringless voicemail” robocalling technology from a regulatory gray area to legal fair game, potentially opening the floodgates for telemarketers and political organizations to inundate Americans’ voicemails with messages hawking products, services, and candidates for office.

[TonyW]

Blacklisted calls configured to 'Send to Voicemail' will currently not show up in the call logs.

[peabody]

The question is not whether it shows up in the log. Log or no log, voicemail must only result from an incoming phone call. That's the only way we have to block it.

The FCC may well say that this is legal, but that's not saying Ooma has to do it. So Ooma needs to resist the temptation of any money that may be offered, and just say no.

[TonyW]

Comment was in response to ChrisMarmot's "I just had a scam operation deposit a voicemail without any record of a call.", which fit's the profile. It's currently the only way a voicemail appears without a log entry.

As Tom B has stated, "no one (except Ooma itself) can leave a voicemail at your Ooma number without making a call."

[onoccasion]

Wasn't aware of this until I stumbled across this thread.

Did some Googling and found that the petition has been withdrawn according to https://www.onthewire.io/fcc-ringless-v ... n-is-dead/

[Stelcom66]

The voicemail did result of an incoming call. As mentioned, if calls in your blacklist are set to go to voicemail, there will be a message. They're not being 'deposited'.