FTC Warns VoIP Providers About Assisting Robocallers 

The Federal Trade Commission announced its staff had sent letters to 19 VoIP service providers warning them that “assisting and facilitating” illegal telemarketing or robocalling is against the law.  The letters stress that combatting illegal telemarketing is a top priority of the Commission, with a special emphasis on stopping illegal robocalls.  They cite two cases the FTC has brought in this area, one against a defendant named James B. Christiano and another against a VoIP service provider called Globex Telecom.  The letters warn the VoIP service providers that the FTC may take legal action against them if they assist a seller or telemarketer who they know, or consciously avoid knowing, is violating the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).   The FTC did not disclose the names of the companies and/or individuals to whom it sent the warnings but did release the template letter.   

“VoIP service providers play a unique role in the robocall ecosystem, allowing fraudsters and abusive telemarketers to call consumers at a fraction of a penny per minute,” said FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith. “These warning letters put VoIP providers on notice that we will take action when they knowingly facilitate illegal robocalls.” 

FCC Spoofing Fine 

The FCC announced it proposed a $12,910,000 fine against an individual for apparently using caller ID spoofing in thousands of robocalls that targeted specific communities with the intent to cause harm.  For example, the caller made unlawful, spoofed robocalls to target a community grappling with the recent murder of a local woman, threaten a journalist and newspaper, and attempt to influence a jury.  Additionally, the caller made unlawful, spoofed robocalls related to political campaigns in California, Florida, and Georgia.  The FCC said the caller appeared to have used an online calling platform to intentionally manipulate caller ID information so that the calls he was making appeared to come from local numbers – a technique called “neighbor spoofing.”  

The FCC said that the caller was apparently motivated by a belief that these actions would result in media notoriety and accordingly would enable him to increase publicity for his website and personal brand. In the process, he apparently broke the law.  The FCC, Federal Trade Commission, and local law enforcement all received numerous complaints from consumers about apparently spoofed robocalls from this caller.   

FCC Cable TV Notification Rules 

At its Open Meeting yesterday the FCC voted to modernized its notification rules for cable and satellite TV providers by transitioning certain notices to broadcast TV stations from paper to electronic delivery. The new rules will require that cable and satellite TV providers use email to deliver covered notices to local TV stations—consistent with recent updates to the FCC’s carriage election notice rules. For stations that maintain an online public inspection file, notices will be emailed to the same inbox that the station uses for communications relating to its election of must carry/retransmission consent status. Stations that are not required to maintain such public files will receive notices at the general email address already provided in the Licensing and Management System under existing procedures. 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.