WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 – Regulators and legislators in Washington continued their efforts to curb unlawful telephony use with proposed rules designed to crack down robocalls.

On Wednesday, Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, introduced the Robocall Trace Back Enhancement Act – an amendment to the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act.

If signed into law, the bill would provide legal immunity for a broad range of entities engaging in private efforts to track, surveil, and report on illegal robocalling scams.

The protected parties include registered consortiums that handle call receiving, sharing, and publishing and all voice service providers and any informants that share covered information.

It would also grant the Federal Communications Commission jurisdiction to take enforcement actions based on the information collected during the aforementioned activities.

FCC measures on cease-and-desist letters

In addition to this legislation, as part of her agenda to combat scam calls, on April 26 FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed closing a loophole to the STIR/SHAKEN regime afforded to small telcos.

Most telcos are required to adhere to cease-and-desist orders regarding illegal spam-calls and generally comply with actions taken by the FCC. The loophole in question gave smaller telcos greater latitude in how they chose to respond to FCC requests.

If adopted, the proposed regulation would require small telcos to abide by cease-and-desist orders, participate in robocall mitigation, cooperate with FCC enforcement, and take responsibility for facilitating illegal robocall traffic.

“International robocallers use these gateways to enter our phone networks and defraud American consumers,” Rosenworcel said in a statement, “We won’t allow them to bypass our laws and hide from enforcement.”

The new rule will be voted on at the FCC’s open meeting on May 19.

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2022 – The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it has partnered with further five more state attorneys general to combat illegal robocalls.

The agency said Thursday it had signed on Alaska, California, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Washington state to investigate the robocalls, which can lead to scams. Thursday’s news comes on the heels of a March 28 announcement, when the agency said it signed similar memorandum of understanding with Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Wyoming.

Altogether, the agency, which announced the federal-state partnership effort in February, said it has signed on the majority of the United States.

“It shows that we are united when it comes to fighting robocalls—urban, rural, north, south, east, and west,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Today I invite every state and U.S. territory to join this effort and establish information sharing and cooperation structures with the FCC so we can work together to investigate and put an end to spoofing and robocall scam campaigns.”

The agency, which has made fighting illegal robocalls a key mandate, has previously credited states with catching those that allow robocalls.

Earlier this month, the FCC credited the North Carolina Department of Justice in an investigation that identified thinQ Technologies as a “facilitator” of robocalls. The agency, which is working with the Traceback Consortium to identify the culprits, has already sent more than a dozen cease and desist letters to those it has identified in investigations.

WASHINGTON, February 3, 2022 — Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed Wednesday to prevent “ringless” voicemails.

If adopted by the Commission, the regulation would require callers to obtain a consumer’s consent before delivering a “ringless voicemail,” a message left in their mailbox without ringing their cell phone.

“Ringless voicemail can be annoying, invasive, and can lead to fraud like other robocalls–so it should face the same consumer protection rules,” said Rosenworcel. “No one wants to wade through voicemail spam messages because their mailbox is full.”

The chairwoman’s proposal argues against a petition by the robocalling company All About Message, which asserted that ringless voicemails are technically not “calls” and thus should not be protected under the TCPA.

The proposal comes as U.S. phones received more than 50 billion robocalls in 2021, said YouMail Robocall Index. The number is significantly higher than in 2020: 4 billion robocalls reached consumers according to the FCC’s estimate.

The commission’s fight against robocalls finds its authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which prohibits unwanted robocalls. The law also prohibits any non-emergency call using an artificial or prerecorded voice to a telephone number without the prior express consent of the called party.

The FCC has made defeating robocallers and spoof callers a top agency priority in recent years. Rosenworcel continues this legacy, declaring that “this FCC action would continue to empower consumers to choose which parties they give permission to contact them.” The Chairwoman has said the agency “is not going to stop until we get robocallers, spoofers, and scammers off the line.”

Screenshot of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at a 2018 Senate Hearing