FCC proposes $82 million fine for spoofed robocalls

[jneal]

Do you think the FCC will follow through?
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Release ... 6059A1.pdf

Here's the guy.
http://www.wilmingtoninsurancequotes.com/

Text of PDF

Media Contact:

Will Wiquist, (202) 418-0509
will.wiquist@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

FCC PROPOSES $82 MILLION FINE FOR SPOOFED ROBOCALLS

Health Insurance Telemarketer Made More Than 21 Million Illegally Spoofed Calls

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2017 – The Federal Communications Commission today proposed an
$82,106,000 fine against an individual who apparently made more than 21 million illegally
spoofed robocalls in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act. The law prohibits callers from
deliberately falsifying caller ID information – a practice called “spoofing” – to disguise their
identity with the intent to harm, defraud consumers, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.

The FCC found that Best Insurance Contracts and its owner/operator, Mr. Philip Roesel (doing
business as Wilmington Insurance Quotes) apparently made millions of illegally spoofed
robocalls consumers around the country. Mr. Roesel of Wilmington, North Carolina displayed
inaccurate caller ID information when making robocalls in an effort to sell health insurance,
which especially targeted vulnerable consumers, including the elderly, the infirm, and low-
income families.

In December 2016, a medical paging provider called Spok complained to Commission staff that
robocalling campaigns were disrupting its network. Using information provided by Spok to
connect these calls to Mr. Roesel, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau subpoenaed Mr. Roesel’s call
records from October 2016 through January 2017. Based on these records, FCC investigators
verified 82,106 health insurance telemarketing calls made during that time used falsified caller ID
information. These calls are the basis for today’s proposed fine.

The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 and the Commission’s rules prohibit spoofing with the intent
to cause harm, defraud, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. Consumers rely on caller ID
information to make decisions about what calls to accept, ignore, or block. Accurate caller ID
information is a vital tool that consumers use to protect their privacy, avoid fraud, and ensure
peace of mind.

The FCC has focused on malicious caller ID spoofing recently. Changes in technology have
made it easier and cheaper for scammers to make robocalls and to manipulate caller ID
information. To address this consumer problem, the FCC has focused both on enforcement
actions like today’s and on pursuing policies to help consumers and their service providers block
malicious robocalls.

In recent months, the Commission has taken a number of significant enforcement actions related
to spoofing and robocalling. It proposed a $120 million fine against an individual who apparently


used “neighbor spoofing” while making nearly 100 million robocalls to sell timeshares. It also
fined a New Mexico company $2.8 million for providing a robocalling platform which also
allowed easy caller ID manipulation.

In separate policy proceedings, the Commission is currently exploring ways to set up a reliable
system to verify that a phone call is really coming from the phone number that it claims to be.
The agency is also aiming to help consumers prevent spoofing scams like the famous IRS debt
scam through a “Do-Not-Originate” list which would help carriers block spoofed calls purporting
to be from numbers that do not make calls, like specific in-bound-only phone lines used by
entities like the IRS or numbers using non-existent area codes.

Action by the Commission August 3, 2017 by Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (FCC
17-107). Chairman Pai and Commissioner Clyburn approving. Commissioner O’Rielly approved
in part and concurred in part. Chairman Pai and Commissioner Clyburn issuing separate
statements.

###

Office of Media Relations: (202) 418-0500
ASL Videophone: 1-844-432-2275
TTY: (888) 835-5322
Twitter: @FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/office-media-relations


This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes
official action. See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).

[wa2ibm]

This is a start. If this continues, and people keep blocking phone numbers that really aren't robocallers, we'll eventually get to the point that many legitimate phone calls will be blocked. How is NoMoRobo affected by this scheme?

I know that I receive many calls during the day that are picked up and cut short by NoMoRobo because they've shown up many times. In turn, I put these NoMoRobo-blocked numbers in my VoIP providers block list to prevent them from even ringing once. My block list is getting bigger every day.

It's getting out of hand. Hang'm from the nearest tree!

Bill

[drew.phillips]

My personal (possibly incorrect) opinion about the astronomical fine is that it's simply being used as a deterrent to scare people out of doing this in the future because there's really no way to block or prevent this. Caller ID is a zero-trust, antiquated system that's so easy to spoof, especially when it comes to VoIP services.

Sure the fine might prevent the average person from using such tactics, but it'll never stop the criminals who will do bad things anyway. And of course then you'll have to abuse it so much that it's worth the effort for whatever organizations to track and prosecute someone for doing it. Somewhere exists an arbitrary dollar amount where they let you slide for doing it versus tracing the origin of the calls and going after you for it.

The problem is, this didn't seem to deter anyone because since that fine being handed down because I've still seen this same pattern of spoofed caller ID happen numerous times to myself, relatives, and friends after the initial news of this a few months ago. While it could be this same person disobeying the order, I wouldn't be surprised if other enterprising criminals have copied the tactic and are using it for other scams.

Since they're spoofing random numbers, it's not something that we or NomoRobo can block effectively without running the risk of blocking legitimate numbers.

My advice now is to simply ignore any calls from numbers with the same area code and exchange as your own phone number (assuming you have caller ID) if you don't recognize the number.

That said, I'm glad to see they tracked down the person responsible and will attempt to hold them accountable. He'll likely never be able to pay the fine but will have wages garnished for life, barring some court settlement for other assets, cash, and/or jail time.

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion and not that of Sonic.net.