The FCC’s Robocall Response Team was created by Chairwoman Rosenworcel to serve as an FCC staff working group that pulls together expertise from across the agency to leverage the talents of enforcers, attorneys, policy makers, engineers, economists, and outreach experts to combat the unyielding menace of illegal spoofed, scam, robocalls and robotexts.
Under Chairwoman Rosenworcel, the FCC made combatting unlawful robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing a top consumer protection priority. By proposing and implementing impactful policy initiatives and pursuing strong enforcement actions, the FCC took action to protect and empower consumers. The FCC is also took unprecedented steps to combat the growing problem of scam text messaging.
"We’re not going to stop until we get robocallers, spoofers, and scammers off the line."
– FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel
A Top Priority
U.S. consumers receive approximately 4 billion robocalls per month, according to private analyses. Unfortunately, advancements in technology make it cheap and easy to make massive numbers of robocalls and to "spoof" caller ID information to hide a caller's true identity.
Chairwoman Rosenworcel and other FCC staff got these calls too. As she said during one of the Commission’s monthly meetings: “I’m a consumer, too. I receive robocalls at home, in my office, on my landline, on my mobile. I’ve even received multiple robocalls sitting here on this dais. I want it to stop.”
FCC Action
Chairwoman Rosenworcel implemented policies and actions to help combat unlawful robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing. The Commission under her leadership has also took unprecedented enforcement actions to punish those who flout consumer protection laws.
Cutting Off Robocallers
To combat robocalls, the FCC took decisive action:
- Cut off voice service providers facilitating robocalls.
- Removed those providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database, requiring all others to cease accepting their traffic.
- Established a process to remove providers who failed to cooperate with robocall investigations or meet caller ID authentication standards.
Cease-and-Desist
- Demanded immediate cease-and-desist from dozens of voice service providers facilitating illegal robocalls.
- Warned of complete traffic blockage by other network operators if illegal activity continued.
- Continued monitoring and stood ready to authorize traffic blocking for any repeat offenders.
Major Fines
The FCC took aggressive enforcement actions in recent years against telemarketers for apparent illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalling.
- Fined Texas-based health insurance telemarketers a record $225 million for making approximately 1 billion illegally spoofed robocalls.
- Fined a Florida-based time-share marketing operation $120 million for illegal "neighbor" spoofing.
- Fined a North Carolina-based health insurance telemarketer $82 million.
- Fined an Arizona marketer $37.5 million for making millions of spoofed calls appearing to come from consumers.
- Proposed a $116 million fine for nearly 10 million robocalls made in a toll-free traffic pumping scheme.
- Proposed a $45 million fine, the largest ever under the TCPA, for an illegal robocall campaign selling health insurance under false pretenses related to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Worked with the Justice Department to collect fines, including a lawsuit to collect a $9.9 million fine and obtain an injunction.
- More details are available from the FCC Enforcement Bureau's Unwanted Communications webpage.
‘C-CIST’ Classification for Robocall Bad Actors
- Officially classified, for the first time, entities and individuals persistently facilitating harmful robocall campaigns as Consumer Communications Information Services Threats (C-CIST).
- Empowered international anti-robocall partners with another way to identify and block these threats before they reach U.S. networks.
- Enabled the Bureau to formally name these threat actors who repeatedly use U.S. communications networks for illegal schemes.
- Provided industry stakeholders with information to enhance their "Know Your Customer" and "Know Your Upstream Provider" processes.
AI Robocalls
- Ruled that AI-generated robocalls are illegal under the TCPA, giving State Attorneys General new tools to combat them.
- Proposed a substantial fine for robocalls using AI-generated voice cloning and caller ID spoofing to spread election misinformation.
- Proposed a fine against the voice service provider that carried those calls.
- Launched a Notice of Inquiry to explore AI's role in robocalls and how it can be used to combat them, including:
- How AI is used for scams.
- The current state of AI use in calling and texting.
- How AI can help with pattern recognition to identify illegal robocalls.
- Co-hosted a workshop with the National Science Foundation to discuss AI's challenges and opportunities related to robocalls.
- Proposed defining AI-generated calls, requiring caller disclosure, ensuring consumer consent, and protecting positive uses of AI.
Caller ID Identification (STIR/SHAKEN)
- Mandated caller ID authentication (STIR/SHAKEN) for voice service providers to combat spoofed robocalls.
- Expanded the implementation obligation to additional providers, including gateway providers and intermediate providers, with the goal of achieving ubiquitous adoption.
- Required providers to file certifications confirming their STIR/SHAKEN compliance and robocall mitigation plans in the Robocall Mitigation Database.
Closing Gateways for International Robocalls
- Bolstered requirements on gateway providers to actively combat illegal international robocall traffic.
- Required gateway providers to comply with STIR/SHAKEN and validate the identity of traffic sources.
- Established that failure to prevent illegal traffic could result in an FCC order directing downstream providers to block all traffic from the gateway provider.
- Placed similar obligations on originating providers.
- Worked with international partners in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Romania, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the European Union to develop a global approach to addressing robocalls, robotexts, and spoofing.
Collaboration to Protect Consumers
- Launched a Robocall Response Team to coordinate and implement anti-robocall efforts across six FCC bureaus and offices.
- Renewed partnerships with the FTC, DOJ, and State Attorneys General to fight robocall scams, leveraging their knowledge, skills, and jurisdictional reach.
- Solidified robocall investigation partnerships with nearly every state through formal MOUs.
- Established and continued international partnerships to combat robocalls.
- Joined the TRACED Act interagency working group to study enforcement efforts.
Robotexts
- Recognized the rise of robotexts as a growing consumer threat.
- Proposed rules to require providers to block illegal texts at the network level.
- Sought comment on applying caller ID authentication standards to text messaging.
- Proposed AI-generated robotext rules.
- Issued a consumer alert about the rising threat of robotext scams.
- Adopted the first rules specifically targeting scam robotexts, requiring providers to block based on a do-not-originate list.
- Adopted rules allowing the FCC to "red flag" numbers for text blocking by terminating mobile carriers.
- Codified Do-Not-Call list protections for text messaging.
- Encouraged providers to make email-to-text messages an opt-in service.
Rules for Consumers
- Closing the ‘Lead Generator Loophole’ – The FCC adopted new rules to close a loophole by making it unequivocally clear that comparison shopping websites and lead generators must obtain consumer consent to receive robocalls and robotexts one seller at a time – rather than have a single consent apply to multiple telemarketers at once.
- Power to Revoke Consent - The FCC adopted new rules to make it simpler for consumers to revoke consent, and require that callers and texters implement requests in a timely manner. Under the rules, robocallers and robotexters must honor do-not-call and consent revocation requests within a reasonable time, not to exceed 10 business days from receipt. The action also codifies the Commission’s 2015 ruling that consumers can revoke consent under the TCPA through any reasonable means.
Other Actions
- Limited illegal robocallers' access to legitimate numbers to prevent circumvention of anti-spoofing protections.
- Proposed rules to protect 911 call centers from robocalls by requiring voice service providers to block calls to numbers on a PSAP Do-Not-Call registry.
- Worked with an industry group to "traceback" illegal robocall traffic to the originating provider.
- Supported the development of robocall blocking tools by phone companies and third-party providers.
- Implemented the TRACED Act to combat robocalls.
- Continued consumer education and awareness campaigns on robocall best practices.