Broadband Breakfast on July 29, 2026: Phishing, Robocalls and Spam

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Aided by AI, cybercriminals are getting craftier, and the threats landing in our email inboxes, our text messages and ringing our phones have never been more sophisticated. Join Broadband Breakfast for a Live Online event examining the evolving landscape of phishing schemes, illegal robocalls, and spam targeting both consumers and businesses. Our panel of experts will unpack how bad actors exploit telecommunications networks, what regulators and carriers are doing to fight back through tools like STIR/SHAKEN and the FCC's enforcement actions. What more can be done to protect against scams?

How to Fight Back Against Fraudulent Robocalls

Panelists warned that anti-fraud tools can’t keep pace with scammers exploiting cheap internet calling and AI.

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Panelists

• Josh Bercu, Executive Director, Industry Traceback Group, USTelecom
• Joel Bernstein, Vice President and Head of US Public Policy and Government Affairs, Somos
• John Nelson, Counsel, Davis Wright Tremaine
• Other panelists have been invited
• Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Josh Bercu serves as Executive Director of the Industry Traceback Group (ITG), the FCC-designated traceback consortium that leads industry efforts to trace back suspected illegal robocalls and other unlawful voice traffic. In that role, he is responsible for the full ITG effort, including its strategy, management, and continued development, with a focus on growing the ITG’s impact as it responds to an ever-evolving threat landscape. Bercu also serves as Senior Vice President at USTelecom – The Broadband Association, which leads the ITG. In that role, he leads advocacy and collaboration on anti-scam policy and initiatives, among other responsibilities. Bercu previously served in leadership roles on the Aspen Institute’s National Task Force for Fraud & Scam Prevention and the FTC’s Scams Against Older Adults Advisory Group.

Joel Bernstein joined Somos in 2014 to lead the company’s regulatory and public policy advocacy. He has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications policy and law. After joining Somos, Joel created the Somos Toll-Free Traffic Pumping and Fraud Workshop, now called the Somos Fraud Symposium, an annual event that brings industry and government leaders together to work on fraud issues, first focusing on Toll-Free, and later the broader telecom industry. Joel is also the administrator of the industry’s Toll-Free Traffic Pumping Traceback Group. Through the work of the Traceback Group, and working with the FCC and law enforcement, Toll-Free Traffic Pumping is down by over 90% from its highs a decade ago. Joel also originated the Somos Fraud Reporting Service program where entities can report corporate impersonation fraud misusing Toll-Free Numbers to Somos. Somos then works with Resp Orgs (those entities that obtain Toll-Free Numbers from the Somos Toll-Free Number Registry) to shut down those fraudulent numbers. Since the program’s inception in the spring of 2017, Somos and its partners have shut down more than 27,000 Toll-Free Numbers being used for fraudulent purposes.

John Nelson is counsel in Davis Wright Tremaine LLP’s communications group, where he regularly helps clients overcome regulatory compliance matters and legal disputes involving a wide variety of telecommunications law and policy topics, with a particular focus on telemarketing and robocall issues.  He regularly counsels brands, marketers, platform providers, gateway providers, and carriers on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, caller ID authentication requirements, and practical strategies to address unlawful robocalls, scam-related traffic, and other fraud-related threats across communications networks.  John also represents clients before the FCC, state public utility commissions, and courts on related enforcement matters, investigations, and policy proceedings and advises clients on major telecommunications transactions, including multibillion-dollar domestic and international telecom, cable, and submarine cable deals, as well as transfer-of-control approvals and Team Telecom and CFIUS reviews.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.