The FCC or Federal Communications Commission has just issued one of the largest fines in all of its history on Wednesday, March 17. Two different Texas-based telemarketers are reportedly on the hook for a fine of $255 million after having made approximately 1 billion robocalls towards people all across the United States!
FCC fine on violators
The case gets bigger as it was found that they ran at least two different businesses that somehow illegally spoofed some other companies to try and sell people on certain short-term insurance plans. They claimed that they were from certain well-known providers just like Cigna.
The FCC filing details the violations made by the telemarketers and one of the people that was involved in this particular scheme had admitted to making "millions" of robocalls every single day. They would even reportedly go as far as to call the numbers on the supposed "Do Not Call" list due to him believing that it would still be pretty profitable.
Robocalls a problem
According to the FCC, there was a large portion of over 23.6 million health insurance robocalls spreading across the US wireless networks back in 2018 that came from Rising Eagle which was one of the companies that the supposed two telemarketers ran. This was reported in a story by Engadget.
According to the article by Engadget, the biggest fine in the agency's history is unlikely to rein in robocalls. It was also noted that there is evidence suggesting that they actually haven't been effective at all. A report coming from The Wall Street Journal two years ago was able to find that between 2015 and 2019, the official FCC had reportedly ordered violators of the specific Telephone Consumer Protection Act to pay up $208.4 million when it came to penalties.
During the end of the period, the agency reportedly only collected just $6,790. That particular number could have changed in the years ever since the report by The Wall Street Journal. If there's going to be good news, it is that the FCC still is not limiting itself to fines.
Read Also: COVID-19 Vaccine Scams from Emails and Telemarketing Possible, FBI Warns
Robocall Response Team
In another announcement, the agency also detailed its very own new anti-robocall agenda. Jessica Rosenworcel, the Acting Chair, had reportedly established a Robocall Response Team. This was made up of a solid 51 FCC members across six different offices. The team will reportedly coordinate the agency's very own anti-robocall efforts and even develop certain new policies for it to be put in place.
It has also reportedly sent official cease-and-desist letters towards six different companies over in Canada, the UK, and the US, that have reportedly been consistently spurning its guidelines when it comes to automated calls. If the companies reportedly don't comply with the letters, the FCC notes that it might instruct violence providers in the whole United States to block all of the traffic from them permanently.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
