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.
"We will continue to deploy all of the tools in our arsenal to eliminate bad actors' access to U.S. communications networks in furtherance of their schemes," Rosenworcel added.
If all of this sounds somewhat familiar, it's because robocalls are one of the most pervasive scourges in modern communications that just can't seem to die. In 2021 alone, U.S. adults were slammed with 78.9 billion robocalls, according to a GSMA report. That's up 2% from 2020 but down from a 2020 high of 106.9 billion calls. All of that's leading to real world financial harm for victims. Last year, according to a report from Truecaller, U.S. adults were collectively scammed out of $29.8 billion due to phone scams.
Reporting from 5 months ago:
FCC hands down $116M robocall fine, begs for the power to hammer perps:
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday December 10, @02:50PM (6 children)
Why only those specific scammers? Are the other scammers ok and offering some kind of worthwhile service to the public? I wouldn't think so, certainly not considering the last paragraph about how they are scamming multiple billions per year. Or are those scammers ok cause they somehow increase the profits of the telephone companies with all their calls and lines?
It's kind of weird. While scamming over the phone, or on the internet, it seems that when you hear about it then it's mostly a US problem, even tho others are starting to rise. But there appears to be a lot less robocalls. Why is it so prevalent in the US compared to other countries? Or why don't we hear about them.
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Saturday December 10, @04:06PM (1 child)
Robocalls are an US-specific problem. Scam is universal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday December 10, @04:24PM
We get robotcalls in the UK.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Saturday December 10, @04:24PM
I get robocalls up here in Canada, too. Just not about services to USA residents.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Saturday December 10, @04:34PM (2 children)
Most scam calls come from India where educated Indians can speak English quite fluently, albeit with a give-away accent. The scams therefore target English speaking countries - USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand. Of these the USA has much the largest population and therefore gets more scam calls in proportion. But don't worry, I am in the UK and we get plenty of scam calls here.
One would think that a random caller with an Indian accent would be a massive red flag. However, the authorities, banks etc here in the UK dare not warn people to be wary of that accent in case they upset the Indian colonists here.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday December 11, @02:39AM (1 child)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday December 11, @04:09PM
I avoid companies that use Indian call centres for both practical reasons and ones of principle. I changed my ISP and my phone company because of that. If I am answered by an Indian when I phone my bank etc (which is not often) I give them quite a grilling to ascertain who they are and I make it clear I'm not happy having to deal with them.
For one thing, legitimate call centres in India are used for training by scammers before they go into scamming - the wannabe scammers get experience dealing with western customers. For example I was playing along with an Indian scammer claiming to be from BT (UK phone company) and he showed detailed knowledge of BT's system that he probably learned from working for them. In the UK it is now a good selling point for a company to use UK based call centres.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday December 10, @10:02PM (1 child)
I wonder if there's an element of personal responsibility in the thinking? Thinking that the college educated should've been too smart and savvy to fall for such a feeble scam? I certainly got that kind of "suck it up, college grad, how could you have missed that one, what're they teaching you in school anyway" crap when I was an abused employee.
At least the FCC is trying. I know when you're under a great deal of pressure and stress, it is harder to think clearly, and so, even college grads who really should know better can be vulnerable to this. However, the whole student loan system should never have been allowed the privileges it has. The only kind of debt you can't discharge in bankruptcy, what kind of bull is that? There's a heck of a lot of youth exploitation-- these loans, the unpaid internships, the low pay for new grads because inexperienced, and the hustlers keen for a crack at the frosh. When I was an undergrad, I ran into plenty who got angry with me when I wouldn't fall for some stupid sales pitch like the dumb, naive frosh I was supposed to be.
Even the damned school gets in on it. Apart from the loans, there's the textbook racket, extreme parking enforcement, the bait kind of scholarship that is too easily lost, unreasonably hard transfers to another school, and stretching a 4 year degree into a 5 year effort. You thought your school was on your side. How wrong you were.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13, @03:31AM
We might end up like them too if we live long enough.