The scourge of unwanted robocalls that has flooded phone lines in recent years has inspired a tough new bill with bipartisan support.
On April 3, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee unanimously passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, which would give the Federal Communications Commission more tools to fight spam calls.
The number of spam calls on U.S. mobile phones has risen from less than 4% of total traffic in 2017 to more than 29% in 2018, according to First Orion, a spam call blocking vendor. First Orion projects that the number will rise to nearly 45% by the middle of this year.
Robocalls are more than a nuisance, noted Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., when he introduced the bill earlier this year. Robocalls are “a shameful tactic to prey on the vulnerable,” with callers often trying to scam the people who answer the phone.
The TRACED Act would extend the FCC’s ability to bring enforcement actions against companies making illegal robocalls from one year after the date of the call to three years. While the FCC can now assess penalties of $11,562 per call in Year One, the bill increases the penalty in Years Two and Three from zero dollars to $10,000 per call, according to a spokesman for Thune.
The bill also would require voice carriers to adopt call authentication technologies to screen calls to determine whether they are legitimate before ringing on a consumer’s phone. The bill also directs the FCC to create new rules to protect consumers from unwanted calls and texts.
Thune and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., first introduced a version of the bill in late 2018, but it didn’t move forward in the last session of Congress. The bill may have a better chance this year, with a bipartisan group of 35 senators as co-sponsors.
Supporters of the bill say it’s necessary even though the Federal Trade Commission maintains a national Do Not Call Registry established by Congress in 2003. The Do Not Call list prevents legitimate marketers from calling registered phone numbers, but nonprofit groups and survey takers are exempted, and illegal spammers have found ways to “spoof” their phone numbers, disguising the number that originated the call in order to avoid complying.
The FTC has been able to collect a fraction of the fines imposed for violations of the Do Not Call Registry because of the difficulty in tracking down spammers, added Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst for Consumer Reports.
The FCC has attempted to target illegal phone spammers, with Chairman Ajit Pai calling robocall enforcement a top priority. Last May, the agency fined a robocalling operation $120 million for spoofing phone numbers in order to sell timeshares and other travel packages. In September, it fined another telemarketer more than $82 million for caller ID spoofing. That operation made more than 21 million robocalls to market health insurance, the agency said.
Also in September, the FCC proposed a $37.5 million fine for an Arizona telemarketing firm that allegedly disguised its phone number to make it appear as if its calls were coming from neighbors of the targeted consumers. The company made more than 2.3 million telemarketing calls to Arizona residents during a 14-month span to sell home improvement and remodeling services.
Pai has voiced support for the TRACED Act, saying it would make it easier for the FCC “to track and take down illegal robocall scams and require the private sector to verify that the calls consumers receive are legitimate.”
Consumer groups have also supported the Senate’s steps to address the problem. The TRACED Act would help by requiring carriers to implement anti-robocall technology, Mahoney said.
“Currently, it is very easy for anyone to input different information into the caller ID, particularly with respect to internet-based calling — there are apps and services that allow this,” she added. “There are legitimate privacy reasons for doing this, but many scammers are taking advantage of this capability and using it to hide their identities.”
While no new law or new technology will eliminate all robocalls, she added, the TRACED Act, along with tough oversight from the FCC, could help.
“Scammers have strong incentives to robocall, because it is so cheap and easy to do so,” Mahoney said. “Even if only one consumer falls victim, the scammer has reaped a substantial profit.”
The anti-robocall technologies mandated by the bill “will go a long way to better enabling phone companies to combat this scourge,” she added.
