Aaron Michael Jones is one of the many people who makes his living by spamming people with robo-calls. He worked with a revolving cast of co-workers under the auspices of about a dozen corporations, writes The Washington Post. The Federal Trade Commission began investigating Jones and his empire because virtually all robo-calls are illegal, and Jones had made a billion robo-calls a year, more than any individual the FTC had ever identified. But it was clear when Jones was called to testify that he knew it was illegal, but the financial rewards of making the robo-calls were clearly greater than the risks. The call-blocking app YouMail estimates that 2.5 billion robo-calls are made every month. The National Do Not Call registry was created in 2003 to try to stop these calls. Today, 230 million numbers are on it. But the FTC receives 19,000 complaints every day from list members who have in fact been called. It is clear that people like Mike Jones are winning. But how?
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