Since cold emailing/SMS/phone is illegal, how am I still receiving a lot of marketing calls/emails/SMS

Question

I live in Australia where privacy laws are considered quite stringent. Yet I keep receiving marketers calling me, emails (which somehow escape my SPAM) and sometimes SMS as well.

Which begs a question, how are they able to do this legally?

If I report them, will they get fined?

I am in Australia but I would like to keep this question open to any jurisdiction.

Note:

• I have never consented to any of them to send me marketing calls. Seriously, last week I received a call from a Pest Control Company, which I never knew off!

• I am not running a business

Answer 1

• How are they able to do this legally?

australia

According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission it appears to be lawful activity (notwithstanding off-topic instances of criminal harassment and the like) unless you have registered with the Australian Government's national Do Not Call Register that allows you to list your home, personal mobile or fax number to reduce telemarketing calls. (Note this is a reduction as unscrupulous callers may still find a way round the rules.)

Registering with the Do Not Call Register does not cover SMS spam which is the remit of the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

(I have not copied extracts from these links on how to register, report or complain in favour of a more succinct answer.)

• If I report them, will they get fined?

Although fine are imposed, as this recent article shows, individual cases will depend on their particular circumstances this so cannot be answered here with any real authority.

Answer 2

Such calls, emails or msgs may well be illegal in Australia. But how high a priority are they for law enforcement? If you haven't been successfully scammed, if all that has been taken is a few moments of your time, how likely is any police force to track down and prosecute a person or firm doing this? Remember that those sending such communications will do what they can to make them hard to trace, particularly where it is illegal. Also, they may well be sent from outside the country, requiring intentional cooperation for any effective action to be taken.

In short laws do not magically enforce themselves. Lots of things that are technically crimes happen with significant frequency, and no on is prosecuted. Police and prosecutors have to decide how to allocate limited resources.