Search Engine Optimization Companies

Unsolicited advertising or sales via the telephone, known as cold calling, has been a common practice for decades. When fax technology became common, it must have seemed a logical next step to some to start sending "cold faxes" to publicly available fax numbers (companies and sometimes individuals generally indicate their fax number on business stationery and other materials).

Most businesses with fax machines regularly receive junk faxes. While the variety of services being touted is theoretically limitless, penny stocks (so-called "pump and dump" operations) and travel "deals" are among the most common.

Adding to the inconvenience faced by both fax machine owners and non-owners alike is the practice employed by some junk fax operators of calling random telephone numbers in the hopes of discovering new fax machines, which would then be added to their database. The practice resulted in large numbers of calls to voice telephones in which a person would answer their phone only to hear fax transmission tones.

However, early fax was a fairly slow medium, requiring a tie-up of a phone line for up to 2 minutes. Furthermore, faxes require the consumption of fax paper, a commodity paid for by the recipient (and early fax technology required specialized paper). Unlike cold calls, which can be quickly terminated, fax advertising does not announce itself; and early termination, when possible, still wastes resources.