FCC Continues Robocall Crackdown

By Lawson Faulkner

We all know the feeling. You hear a ring. You glance down at your phone. You see a mysterious caller on the line. You pick up – because what if it’s important? – and before you know it, you are listening to the humanoid droll of a robocall scam.

Since the advent of the digital age, the scam robocall has been a fact of life, victimizing countless Americans through schemes involving impersonation, intimidation, and outright extortion. After several years of refining its response, the FCC has begun to crack down on this criminal activity, ensuring that consumers are adequately protected through existing legal statutes and industry cooperation, rather than unnecessary new regulation.

On Monday, the FCC ramped up its enforcement efforts against Veriwave Telco, which has failed to comply with call blocking rules for illegal telecommunications traffic. After issuing an Initial Determination Order, the FCC Enforcement Bureau has threatened mandatory blocking if the company does not cooperate. Veriwave is a “gateway provider,” allowing billions of calls from overseas to enter the U.S. network when they are clearly fraudulent. Only by targeting these entry points can the FCC effectively reduce the number of scams targeting American consumers.

In April, the FCC joined the IRS and the FTC in a “spring cleaning” initiative in an effort to “protect consumers from an illegal tax-related robocalling campaign advertising a fictitious ‘National Tax Relief Program.’” According to YouMail, a software company, 15.8 million robocalls were issued during this illegal campaign, which promised to erase tax debt in exchange for sensitive personal information. The Industry Traceback Group and the FCC determined that a large number of these calls originated from Veriwave Telco networks.

In addition to this recent crackdown, the FCC’s Robocall Response Team has also done a great deal to protect everyday Americans. Since its establishment, this enforcement arm has levied record breaking fines and closed key gateways for robocall schemes. In 2022, student loan scam robocalls saw an 88% month-to-month drop. Meanwhile, auto-warranty robocalls have fallen by 99%. By ensuring that all voice service providers adhere to robocall mitigation requirements, the FCC has accomplished a great deal with its existing regulatory toolkit.

Simply put, robocalls are a universal nuisance. By leveraging its existing authority in a bipartisan manner, the FCC has greatly reduced the threats to Americans who are sick of over-the-phone fraud. It is also a demonstration of the type of practical, bipartisan priorities the FCC should pursue and further evidence that a four-member Commission might be a superior model to the five-member partisan composition it currently has.