Robocall Response Team: Combating Scam Robocalls & Robotexts

Cutting Off Robocallers

The FCC has cut off voice service providers that facilitate robocalls and taken actions to end active robocall campaigns. The Enforcement Bureau has removed certain providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database which means that all voice service providers and intermediate providers must cease accepting traffic directly from those providers. As inclusion in the database is generally necessary to operate as a voice service provider in the United States, the Commission’s establishment of a regulatory process to ensure providers actively protect consumers from illegal robocalls or face removal from the database provides unprecedented leverage for the Commission to shut down illegal robocall campaigns. Providers can be removed when they, for example, fail to meet their obligations to cooperate with robocall investigators – including the Industry Traceback Group and FCC investigators – or if they neither certified to implementation of STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication standards nor filed a detailed robocall mitigation plan with the FCC.

Cease-and-Desist

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau demanded dozens of voice service providers that have apparently facilitated illegal robocall campaigns on their networks immediately cease-and-desist from those activities. The FCC has been clear: if this practice does not end immediately, other network operators will block traffic from these companies altogether. The FCC continues to monitor all these companies’ activities and, should a recurrence take place, stands ready to authorize the blocking of traffic from any of these duly warned companies.

Major Fines

The FCC has taken aggressive enforcement actions in recent years against telemarketers for apparent illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalling. These included the largest FCC fine ever – $225 million – against Texas-based health insurance telemarketers for apparently making approximately 1 billion illegally spoofed robocalls, a $120 million fine for illegal “neighbor” spoofing by a Florida-based time-share marketing operation, an $82 million fine against a North Carolina-based health insurance telemarketer, a $37.5 million fine of an Arizona marketer which apparently made millions of spoofed calls that appear to come from consumers, and a proposed $116 million fine for nearly 10 million robocalls made in an apparent toll-free traffic pumping robocalling scheme.

The FCC also proposed a $45 million robocall fine – the largest ever under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act – against a company that conducted an apparently illegal robocall campaign to sell health insurance under the pretense that the annual enrollment period had been reopened due to the coronavirus pandemic. The FCC works closely with the Justice Department to collect on the fines it adopts, including a lawsuit filed by the DoJ to collect a $9.9 million FCC fine and obtain an injunction. More details are available from the FCC Enforcement Bureau's Unwanted Communications webpage.

AI Robocalls

The FCC voted unanimously to recognize that calls made with AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The Declaratory Ruling went into effect immediately and made voice cloning technology used in common robocall scams targeting consumers illegal. As FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel said: “We’re putting the fraudsters behind these robocalls on notice.”

The FCC’s ruling will give State Attorneys General across the country new tools to go after bad actors behind these nefarious robocalls. While currently State Attorneys Generals can target the outcome of an unwanted AI-voice generated robocall—such as the scam or fraud they are seeking to perpetrate—this action now makes the act of using AI to generate the voice in these robocalls itself illegal, expanding the legal avenues through which state law enforcement agencies can hold these perpetrators accountable under the law.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau also took action against an entity alleged to have originated robocall traffic using AI-generated voice cloning to spread misinformation to voters prior to New Hampshire’s primary election.

In addition, in November of 2023, the FCC launched a Notice of Inquiry to build a record on how the agency can combat illegal robocalls and how AI might be involved. The agency asked questions on how AI might be used for scams that arise out of junk calls, by mimicking the voices of those we know, and whether this technology should be subject to oversight under the TCPA. Similarly, the FCC also asked about how AI can help us with pattern recognition so that we turn this technology into a force for good that can recognize illegal robocalls before they ever reach consumers on the phone. The FCC also co-hosted a workshop with the National Science Foundation that convened stakeholders to discuss AI-related topics including the challenges AI brings to vital consumer issues like robocalls/robotexts.

Caller ID Authentication (STIR/SHAKEN)

Caller ID authentication is critical for protecting consumers against spoofed robocalls where scammers mask their identity, harass consumers, and seek to defraud vulnerable communities. Caller ID authentication, based on so-called STIR/SHAKEN standards, provides a common information sharing language between networks to verify caller ID information which can be used by robocall blocking tools, FCC investigators, and by consumers trying to judge if an incoming call is likely legitimate or not.

Voice service providers are required to have implemented STIR/SHAKEN standards in the IP portions of their networks. Since this went into effect in 2021, the FCC has worked to expand the implementation obligation to additional providers with the goal of achieving ubiquitous STIR/SHAKEN adoption. Today, most providers—including voice service providers, gateway providers (U.S.-based intermediate providers that receive calls directly from a foreign originating or intermediate provider), and intermediate providers that receive unauthenticated calls directly from originating providers—are required to use STIR/SHAKEN to authenticate the caller ID information for the calls they transmit.

All providers are required to file both certifications confirming their compliance with STIR/SHAKEN implementation obligations and their robocall mitigation plans in the Robocall Mitigation Database.

Closing Gateways for International Robocalls

The FCC has bolstered its requirements on gateway providers – the on-ramps for international call traffic – to actively combat illegal robocall traffic handed off to them from international networks. These providers comply with STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication protocols and take additional measures to validate the identity of the providers whose traffic they are routing. Failure by a gateway provider to take reasonable and effective steps to prevent their networks from transmitting illegal traffic could ultimately result in an order by the FCC directing downstream providers to block and cease accepting all of the gateway provider’s traffic. Recently implemented authorities now place similar obligations on originating providers.

The FCC is also working with international partners to develop and coordinate a global approach to addressing unlawful robocalls or robotexts, and the unlawful use of inaccurate caller ID information or “spoofing.” Chairwoman Rosenworcel has signed international partnerships that involve cooperation in combatting robocalls with counterparts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Romania, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

Collaboration to Protect Consumers

“Closer coordination within the agency and between federal and state partners can help in addressing this consumer epidemic,” said FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel. To further that goal, she launched a Robocall Response Team, bringing together FCC staff members across six bureaus and offices tasked with coordinating and implementing the agency’s anti-robocall efforts to enforce the law against providers of illegal robocalls, develop new policies to authenticate calls and trace back illegal robocalls, and educate providers and other stakeholders about what they can do to help. She actively sought to renew partnerships between the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and State Attorneys General – with whom the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has solidified robocall investigation partnerships through formal MOUs with nearly every state int he country – to benefit consumers and fight robocall scams by leveraging the knowledge, skills, and jurisdictional reach of cooperating organizations to share critical investigative information and collaborate on cases. The FCC also established and continued important international partnerships. The FCC also joined the TRACED Act-established and Justice Department-led interagency working group to study enforcement efforts.

Robotexts

As the FCC continues to combat unwanted robocalls, it recognizes that it must adapt to the latest scamming trends—including the rise of robotexts. In 2021 alone, the Commission received over 15,000 consumer complaints about unwanted text messages. Meanwhile, data from other sources reaffirm evidence of the problem. For example, RoboKiller estimated consumer received over 12 billion spam texts were in June 2022. To help address this problem, the FCC launched a proceeding to take public comment on ideas to require providers to find and actively block illegal texts, at the network level, before they get to consumers and applying caller ID authentication standards to text messaging. She said: “The American people are fed up with scam texts, and we need to use every tool we have to do something about it. Recently, scam text messaging has become a growing threat to consumers’ wallets and privacy.” In July 2022, the FCC issued a consumer alert about the rising consumer threat of robotext scams.

The FCC adopted new rules allowing it to “red flag” certain numbers, requiring mobile carriers to block texts from those numbers. The rules also codify that Do-Not-Call list protections apply to text messaging, making it illegal for marketing texts to be sent to numbers on the registry. The rules also encourage providers to make email-to-text messages an opt-in service, which would limit the effectiveness of a major source of unwanted and illegal text messages.

Rules for Consumers

• Closing the ‘Lead Generator Loophole’ – The FCC adopted new rules to close a loophole by making it unequivocally clear that comparison shopping websites and lead generators must obtain consumer consent to receive robocalls and robotexts one seller at a time – rather than have a single consent apply to multiple telemarketers at once.
• Power to Revoke Consent - The FCC adopted new rules to make it simpler for consumers to revoke consent, and require that callers and texters implement requests in a timely manner. Under the rules, robocallers and robotexters must honor do-not-call and consent revocation requests within a reasonable time, not to exceed 10 business days from receipt. Today’s action also codifies the Commission’s 2015 ruling that consumers can revoke consent under the TCPA through any reasonable means.

Other Actions

• Addressing Robocaller Number Access – The FCC has sought to limit illegal robocallers' access to legitimate numbers as a way to get around anti-spoofing protections. The FCC started adopted rules to reduce access to phone numbers by perpetrators of illegal robocalls. The FCC’s new gateway provider rules addresses foreign robocallers’ use of U.S. NANP numbers.
• Protecting 911 Call Centers – The FCC proposed new rules to protect 911 call centers, also known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), from unwanted robocalls by requiring voice service providers to block robocalls made to 911 call center telephone numbers listed on a PSAP Do-Not-Call registry.
• Finding the Robocall Sources - The FCC's Enforcement Bureau works with an industry group to "traceback" the traffic of illegal calls to the originating provider.
• Robocall Blocking Apps – The FCC continues to support efforts by phone companies and third-party providers to empower consumers with effective robocall blocking tools. The information made available through STIR/SHAKEN standards is now a critical resource for such tools.
• TRACED Act – Following Congress’s adoption of the TRACED Act, the FCC took a series of actions to implement the law.
• Consumer Education and Awareness – The Commission also continues to issue consumer alerts, work with consumer groups, and use social media to raise consumer awareness of best practices to protect themselves (see consumer tips below).