FCC, FTC Vow to Continue Fight Against Illegal Robocalls

Pai said of the things being done by industry and the government: “None of this will defeat this scourge alone. The unfortunate inventiveness of scammers, technical challenges and the sheer volume of calls … are daunting for any one entity to defeat. But working together, I think we have a better chance.”

The FCC is going after the companies behind illegal robocalls, proposing more than $200 million in fines in 2017, Pai said. He "raised this issue with some of my foreign counterparts to enable our governments to share information that is necessary to crack down,” he said. “We all know this isn’t enough” and that’s why the FCC is working with the FTC, consumer advocates and industry, he said. “We’re looking to you for guidance on the steps that we have already taken and what steps we need to take.”

“Like you, I hate when my phone rings due to an illegal robocall,” said Ohlhausen, speaking via prerecorded video. “This problem isn’t new, but it does seem to come in waves.” Late in the first decade of the 2000s, the FTC saw robocalls were becoming a growing problem and the agency amended the telemarketing sales rule to prohibit “the vast majority” of prerecorded sales calls, she said. But changes in telecom technology, especially VoIP and automated dialing software, made it much easier for telemarketers to make calls with spoofed ID information “for a fraction of a cent per call, often from foreign countries,” she said.

The FTC has been cracking down, Ohlhausen said. It has brought 134 lawsuits against 789 companies and individuals alleged to be responsible for placing billions of unwanted telemarketing calls to consumers, has been awarded judgments totaling more than $1.5 billion, and collected more than $121 million, she said. “Our enforcement efforts remain active and aggressive, although there is always more to be done.” Before the FTC's first robocall-blocking software challenge in 2012, “there were very few call-blocking solutions,” she said. “Today, there are many, particularly for wireless devices and cable or VoIP phones.” Ohlhausen noted the FTC started to release data on robocall complaints on a daily basis: “Several telecom carriers have told us that sharing this data has enhanced their ability to block fraudulent or illegal calls."

Robocall complaints are rising by more than a million a year, despite “so many tools and resources for consumers,” said Ed Bartholme, executive director of Call for Action and chair of the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee. AT&T recently said it has blocked 3.5 billion calls, he noted. T-Mobile uses software that tells a subscriber when a call is likely a scam. “There are tools out there that are causing consumers to not have to deal with this and yet complaints are still on the rise,” he said. “The only conclusion we can reach is that numbers are going up.”

“This is a joint effort,” said Kevin Rupy, USTelecom vice president-law and policy: “This is something that industry consumer groups and government, we all have to cooperate.” Rupy said it’s no surprise robocalls are the top consumer complaint at the FCC and the FTC, and too many illegal robocalls are still made each year: “There has been a lot of good progress on this front for consumers and there are a lot of good things that are happening.”

Rupy said Ohlhausen was right -- advancements in technology and declining costs of making robocalls contributed to the rising numbers. “That has created this environment where you can generate a tremendous amount of phone calls at minimal cost,” he said. Caller ID is easy to spoof, he said. “That is what the scammers are doing.”

Robocalls cause lots of problems for consumers, said Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. In his home when the phone rings, “the first thing we do is listen for the announcement of the ID,” he said. “I get a lot of calls from unavailable and out of area. When there's a number you see in New York, where you have might relatives, you wonder, 'Should I pick it up?' Maybe it's somebody calling about something happening with my brother or sister. Do I take a chance in not answering?”

Robocall Notebook

The FCC issued the reassigned number database Further NPRM targeting illegal robocalls that was adopted by commissioners Thursday. The commission is seeking comment on its proposal to create one or more databases to help businesses avoid calling without consent the new users of reassigned numbers, said the text released Friday in docket 17-59. It included some questions about the ramifications of a March 16 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit partially reversing a 2015 FCC order on Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulations (see 1803160053 and 1803210023).