The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Wednesday, Dec. 21, that it proposed an astounding $299,997,000 fine against what it claims is an auto-warranty scam robocall campaign.
This record-breaking fine also marks the largest robocall operation that the commission has ever investigated.
Kostiantyn Krul, an employee at the elevator maintenance company UKRLIFT, receives a phone call in Kyiv on December 9, 2022 as the loss of regular access to elevators due to power cuts caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine's electrical grid has only brought more hardship. - Maintenance crews work around the clock to rescue people stranded in stuck elevators across Kyiv, where residents can linger for hours in the cold and dark waiting for reprieve.
Illegal Robocalls
The Cox/Jones Enterprise, headed by Roy Cox, Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones, reportedly manufactured billions of "illegal robocalls" through its Sumco Panama corporation, other domestic and foreign entities, and a large network of international collaborators based in Panama and Hungary.
The FCC said that these violated federal anti-robocalling and spoofing laws and placed more than 5 billion robocalls to more than 500 million different numbers to persuade consumers into speaking with a "warranty specialist" about extending or reinstating their car's warranty.
The FCC took its first-ever "K4 Notice" and "N2 Order" against the operation in July, ordering all US-based voice service providers to stop transmitting specific traffic linked to the auto warranty scam robocalls.
According to RoboKiller, this caused the number of such calls to decrease drastically since June by 99%. People in charge of placing the calls are subject to additional repercussions for their alleged violations, according to FCC.
"We will be relentless in pursuing the groups behind these schemes by limiting their access to U.S. communications networks and holding them to account for their conduct," Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal said in a press release statement.
Egregious Violations
The FCC determined that the robocallers met the agency's standards for egregious violations, which resulted in a large fine and made it the largest of such actions in the commission's history.
Customers described the calls as "incessant" and "harassment." The phoned medical professionals during a pandemic and faked hospital phone numbers caused confused patients to call the hospitals to complain and clog the phone lines of crucial public safety organizations, according to FCC's report.
Additionally, the FCC proceedings prevented Cox and Jones from making telemarketing calls.
Both spoofing and robocalling laws were allegedly broken by the robocalling operation. According to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), robocalls to mobile phones require the phoned party's prior express consent, as well as calls that involve telemarketing.
The TCPA mandates that telemarketers include a call-back number that allows customers to opt-out of receiving further calls and that prerecorded messages identify the caller at the beginning of the message.
FCC claims that the scheme comprised prerecorded telemarketing calls to consumers, including to smartphones, without prior consent and requisite disclosures.
Related Article: FCC, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Other Telcos Can't Stop Robocalls From Appearing | Mitigation Plans Now Required!
