from the we've-been-trying-to-contact-you dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
In December 2022, the FCC proposed the biggest fine it has ever issued against a robocalling outfit – $299,997,000. The penalty eclipses the previous record holder – Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom – by nearly $75 million in 2020. After a lengthy investigation, the Commission decided on Thursday to proceed with the huge fine.
The record-breaking punishment goes to an illegal transnational robocalling operation. The outfit is so big (or so blatantly illegal) that it does not have an official umbrella company. It's more of a network of cooperating businesses that made more than five billion automated calls to over 500 million phone numbers within a three-month period in 2021.
In doing so, the FCC says the organized operation broke multiple federal laws by spoofing more than one million telephone numbers to hide their actual origin and trick people into answering the calls. It also violated numerous other FCC regulations.
[...] The operation has allegedly been around since 2018 and primarily sold consumers vehicle service contracts falsely disguised as auto warranties. Two primary bad actors – Roy M. Cox and Aaron Michael Jones – already hold lifetime bans from running telemarketing businesses after losing a lawsuit brought on them by the FCC and the State of Texas. Business names associated with the illegal enterprise include Sumco Panama, Virtual Telecom, Davis Telecom, Geist Telecom, Fugle Telecom, Tech Direct, Mobi Telecom, and Posting Express.
[...] It's hard to nail down robocallers, but it's at least nice to see the FCC trying to hit them with huge penalties instead of laughable slaps on the wrist.
Related Stories
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
FTC cracks down on robocalls with new initiative
The Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement partners unveiled on Tuesday a new initiative to combat robocalls. "Operation Call it Quits" is a partnership at the local, state and federal level that includes 94 actions targeting illegal robocall operations, including shutting down robocall companies and issuing fines in the millions.
"Nearly all robocalls are illegal unless you've given consent in writing," Andrew Smith, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said during a press briefing.
The initiative comes at a time when illegal robocalls have permeated not just household and business landlines but also hospital phone lines. These calls run the gamut from services that promise to reduce your credit card's interest rate to operations that say they'll help you earn money from home. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill mentioned during the briefing that last year alone $10.5 billion was lost to phone scams in the United States.
[...] Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission gave wireless carriers the green light to block robocalls for customers by default.
Similarly, the FTC hopes that in the upcoming months Congress will give it greater jurisdiction over telecommunications carriers to trace calls back to their source, according to Smith.
FCC fight against robocalls goes international:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Thursday that it has signed an agreement with its Australian counterpart to work together to fight robocalls.
The signing of the "Memorandum of Understanding" with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the latest in a number of moves the FCC has made to combat robocalls in recent months.
The agreement seeks for the two agencies to "work together to develop and coordinate a global approach to addressing unlawful robocalls or robotexts, and the unlawful use of inaccurate caller ID information or 'spoofing,' the FCC said.
"Robocall scams are a global problem that require global commitment and cooperation," Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "With these irritating calls coming from near and far, we need international cooperation, information sharing, and enforcement to address this matter. I want to thank our Australian friends for working with us on this agreement. By joining together we can help get these scammers off of our networks and protect consumers and businesses around the world."
The agency mandated U.S. providers to stop carrying traffic originating from the Sumco Panama company and the two people allegedly behind it, Aaron Michael Jones and Roy Cox. Jr., both of California.
The group is accused of making more than 8 billion robocalls to U.S. consumers since 2018, marketing an auto-warranty scam, records show.
[...] FCC data estimates Sumco Panama generates millions of calls on a daily basis.
Earlier this month, the agency sent cease-and-desist letters to a number of carriers to halt the calls, including Call Pipe, Fugle Telecom, Geist Telecom, Global Lynks, Mobi Telecom, South Dakota Telecom, SipKonnect and Virtual Telecom.
"Now that U.S. voice service providers know the individuals and entities associated with this scheme, the Enforcement Bureau will closely monitor voice service providers' compliance with this order and take appropriate enforcement action as necessary," Acting FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said in a statement.
[...] "Billions of auto warranty robocalls from a single calling campaign -- billions!" FCC Rosenworcel said earlier this month. "Auto warranty scams are one of the top complaints we get from consumers and it's time to hold those responsible for making these junk calls."
See also: FCC Orders Blocking of Auto Warranty Robocall Scam Campaign
Anyone know how telephony works these days? Why is it hard to address robocalls and other issues like phone number spoofing? It seems since both endpoints of a call are fixed that it should be easy to tell where a call originates and from what number. Is this a common scam outside the US?
FCC will start kicking voice providers out of its robocall database:
Telecoms slow to adopt anti-robocall measures could soon face stiff punishment in the US. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) now plans to remove seven voice service providers from its Robocall Mitigation Database for failing to comply with required anti-spam efforts, such as implementing STIR/SHAKEN call authentication to prevent spoofing. The companies have 14 days to "show cause" why they shouldn't be removed. If they don't, all their customers will be blocked from making calls. Effectively, their voice businesses are finished.
The companies include Akabis, Cloud4, Global UC, Horizon Technology, Morse Communications, Sharon Telephone and SW Arkansas. In all cases, the companies failed to share their anti-robocall plans even after the FCC warned them about violations. The FCC noted that STIR/SHAKEN is necessary for any provider with an IP-based network, and those without IP still have to show that they're mitigating illegal robocalls.
The FCC required that all carriers use STIR/SHAKEN by the end of June 2021.
FCC Orders Telecoms to Block Asshole Scammers Targeting Student Loan Forgiveness Seekers:
U.S. telecom providers, under a new FCC order, will have to take "all necessary steps" to block calls from a shady communication company engaged in a mass robocall scam praying on people seeking student loan forgiveness.
The scammer company, called Urth Access, LLC, would reportedly spam users with calls urging them to forfeit their personal information or pay a fee in order to receive up to around $10,000 in student loan debt relief. Many of the scams reportedly referred to the Biden Administration's student loan forgiveness plan to give the messages a semblance of credibility. Though numerous fraudsters took part in the scam, an investigation conducted by the FCC and its private partner YouMail said Urth Access stood apart as the largest, accounting for around 40% of the robocalls in October.
"Scam robocalls try to pull from the headlines to confuse consumers," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "Trying to take advantage of people who want help paying off their student loans. Today we're cutting these scammers off so they can't use efforts to provide student loan debt relief as cover for fraud."
The new order asks telecommunications companies to cease accepting phone calls coming from Urath Access, or report efforts they are making to limit Urath's reach in an effort to shut down the scams.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 05 2023, @07:33AM (5 children)
The robocallers have resorted to using the USPS to distribute their fraudulant literature. I got a mail a week or two ago, informing me that my warranty was going to lapse. I filed it in File 13, probably should have sent it to someone in government.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Saturday August 05 2023, @10:42PM (4 children)
I was flabbergasted years ago when I received live telephone calls and snail mail from those "Windows Security Department" scammers who insisted I had a virus on my computer. They actually had the resources and thought it worth the expense to pay for snail mailings and mass marketing calls! The idea that charging for sending emails would stop spam and scams is clearly wrong.
Another big pretext was the carpet cleaning racket.
The last time I got the car warranty scam call was maybe 2 years ago. For a while, they were calling a few times a month.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2023, @12:18AM (2 children)
Lonely and wanna play a game?
Free to play!
Call em up! Most of us have old expired phones whose internet still works.
This is a game I play. It goes by two names:
They are playing "con me out of my money".
I am playing "I am bored. Give me anything better than TV to amuse me."
I always have burner phones around anyway to deal with unvetted callers.
Call them. They will want you to log into his site. Do so. On your phone. The worst he can do is cause you to have to reset your phone to factory again. That's what I keep old phone for anyway, vetting rogue apps. I sideload a lot, and often have to evict problem software.
Make do like you are on a win box. Follow his instruction. Play dumb! Emulate an MBA talking to an Engineer. Make do like a wealthy businessman who preys, like he's doing, off the ignorance of others, but you don't understand computers, but know how important security is and that you are quite concerned with running a secure system. You are convinced someone has been eavesdropping on your stock trading platforms and brokerage accounts.
Keep those dollar signs in his eyes spinning like a pinball game in tournament play.
The longer you can keep this up, the hilarious he will get upon his discovery of what you have been up to.
I find schadenfreude in this kind of counter deception. I find a strange sort of "high" results from being royally blessed out by someone who has just spent two hours entertaining me via vpn and phone numbers that trace to kiosks at WalMart.
The longer I can hold him on, the more blessings I usually get!
Hey, I am retired! This is a pretty cheap way of getting my own personal entertainment.
For funsies, make a video for sharing on YouTube and share the fun, but no one will have more fun than you will when you receive your blessing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2023, @01:53PM (1 child)
Good on you. I have a retired friend who does the same with scam phone calls (he doesn't use the internet). Strings them along, keeps them on the line...and by doing so keeps the same scammers from calling other people who don't want to be disturbed.
Then there was another friend who lived near many proselytizing religious groups. He would politely take the literature offered by, say, the Moonies (Unification Church), and then when the Mormons showed up at his door he would force the Moonie literature on them, fervently trying to convert them! He kept a stash of different flyers by the door for easy access.
Yet another version of monkey wrenching?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 08 2023, @04:46AM
My neighbor had a fundraiser at his kids school, and ran me off quite a few donation forms for me.
I took them to the office, as a counterexpense measure against some do-gooders that constantly roamed our cubicles in search of donations for his cause.
I knew I was going to appear selfish if I denied his pitch in front of everyone else.
So I let him deliver his pitch and gave a generous donation, but before concluding, asked for a donation to my neighbors kids softball team in the same amount. I'd already have the form out and filling it in as he was preparing my donation paperwork. It nixed several "per month" begs in the bud.
It cost me several 5 to 20 dollar donations to pull it off, but my neighbors kid got the benefit, and word spread around quick at the office to not come to my desk for a public beg. Especially with that United Way thing where the rep suggested donation was right at 100 dollars - per month!
All I had to do from then on was pull out one of my donation forms and pick up my pen when I saw what they were up to.
Oh, I wasn't gonna be selfish and not donate. But I made it clear an equal donation to my neighbors kids softball team was expected as well.
Its amazing how many attitudes changed when their own wallet was being eyed, especially in the presence of other snickering heads and staring eyes inquisitive if the one who was asking would be as giving as it was in putting others on the spot.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 07 2023, @04:01PM
Unfortunately too many people fall for these scams. Otherwise, they wouldn't be bothering nearly every living person in the USA.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday August 05 2023, @10:36AM (1 child)
Simply identifying them and where they live might lead to somebody taking a more private revenge on them. And I doubt any jury would convict that somebody, especially if they were somebody whose elderly relative got scammed or something like that.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday August 05 2023, @02:17PM
That, and/or a covert operation where agents pose as entities wanting to become part of the criminal cooperative. Not sure they'd learn everything but might learn something useful that would help track down other network criminals. Good old spy stuff. Maybe that's what they've done.