The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued the largest fine in its history. Two Texas phone numbers are on the hook for $ 225 million after making about 1 billion robo calls to people across the US. They ran at least two businesses that illegally defrauded other companies of trying to sell people on short-term insurance plans, claiming it was from well-known suppliers such as Cigna.
One of the people involved in the scheme admitted that he made ‘millions’ of robocalls a day, and even went so far as to go out of his way to dial numbers on the Do Not Call list because he believed it would be more profitable to do so. . According to the FCC, ‘a large portion’ of the more than 23.6 million health insurance robots crossed by U.S. wireless networks in 2018 came from Rising Eagle, one of the companies that operated the two telemarketers.
It is likely that a fine, even the largest in the agency’s history, could not curb the telephone conversations. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that they were not effective at all. Two years ago, a report by The Wall Street Journal found that between 2015 and 2019, the FCC ordered violators of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to pay fines of $ 208.4 million. By the end of the period, the agency had raised only $ 6,790. This number may have changed in the years since the WSJ’s report came out. This is not encouraging, after all.
If there is good news, it is that the FCC does not limit itself to fines. In a separate announcement, the agency set out its new anti-robo agenda. Acting President Jessica Rosenworcel formed a response team from Robocall. The team consists of 51 FCC members in six offices and will develop the agency’s anti-call efforts and develop new policies to implement them. It also sent a stop-and-stop letter to six companies in Canada, the United Kingdom and the US that consistently urged its automated call guidelines. If the companies do not comply with the letters, the FCC says it can instruct US voice providers to block all traffic from them.