More help is needed to stop robocalls, including ones from EBay and PayPal

[Commentary] If you're being driven crazy by robocalls, help may be on the way. Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has introduced legislation to strengthen the Federal Communication Commission's ability to crack down on what's become a high-tech pain in the tuchis. "These calls can be annoying or frustrating to many of us, but they can be much more devastating to those, especially seniors, who fall victim to them," Sen McCaskill said. Her bill would give the FCC more enforcement authority, allowing it to slap harsher penalties on robocallers. It also would extend the agency's reach in cracking down on so-called spoofers -- robocallers that hide their identity from caller ID systems or appear as a call you'd want to take, such as from your local police department or a nearby hospital.

For its part, the FCC is trying to get phone companies more involved. It announced that telecom firms "face no legal barriers" in adopting technologies aimed at filtering robocalls. The need for help from on high was underlined by EBay and PayPal, both of which recently announced that they were modifying their terms of service to allow "auto-dialed or prerecorded calls or text messages" to contact users. That's exactly what it sounds like. EBay and PayPal, which are now in the process of splitting apart, are reserving the right to robocall you. They say they might do this to collect debts, offer promotions or ask survey questions. It seems clear that robocalls can't be cut off at the source. The best bet for consumers is to intercept them before they reach people's homes, just as the most effective way of addressing e-mail spam is for Internet service providers to block unwanted messages before they reach subscribers. Lawmakers and regulators are in agreement: More needs to be done to stop robocalls. They're doing what they can. It's now up to phone companies to do their share in protecting customers.