The Federal Communications Commission, along with the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission have unveiled Operation Stop Scam Calls. Also participating in the effort will be the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General and other law enforcement partners, including attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Operation Stop Scam Calls targets those who use telephone calls to commit fraud and those who facilitate illegal telephone calls. The initiative targets telemarketers and the companies that hire them, as well as lead generators who deceptively collect and provide consumers’ telephone numbers to robocallers and others, falsely representing that these consumers have consented to receive calls.
The initiative will also go after Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers that facilitate illegal robocalls every year, many of which originate overseas.
The FCC has taken a comprehensive approach to combating scam robocalls and robotexts. The regulator announced that its enforcement bureau has taken first-of-their-kind actions to block active robocall scam campaigns — an initiative that is getting results, including a 99% drop in auto warranty scam robocalls. The commission also pointed to an 88% month-to-month drop in student loan scam robocalls, and a halt in predatory mortgage robocalls targeting homeowners nationwide.
“The FCC is committed to using every tool at its disposal to crack down on illegal robocalls and protect the U.S. communications network,” Loyaan Egal, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, said in a prepared statement. “We, alongside our partners, will not let up in tracking, prosecuting, and penalizing the bad actors in this space and protecting consumers.”
The FCC recently ordered all IP-based voice service provider networks to implement STIR/SHAKEN, a technology designed to prevent caller ID spoofing, by the end of June.
