FCC levels record $300M fine on robocall operation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a record fine of nearly $300 million for an illegal auto warranty scam robocall operation, the agency said Thursday. 

The operation involved an international network of companies that violated federal statutes and the FCC’s regulations during a three-month span in 2021 when they made more than 5 billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers, according to the agency’s announcement. 

The operation violated a number of regulations, including making pre-recorded voice calls to mobile phones without having prior express consent, placing telemarketing calls without written consent, dialing numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, and failing to identify a caller at the start of the message, the FCC said. 

The calls also used misleading caller ID to prompt consumers to answer, which violated spoofing laws, according to the agency.

The operation, though, was ongoing even earlier, stretching back to 2018, the FCC said. Two of the central players, Roy M. Cox and Aaron Michael Jones, were under lifetime bans against making telemarketing calls after lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Texas. 

“At one point, it seemed like these calls were everywhere. They were more than just a nuisance. That’s because this scheme flooding our lines marketing fake car warranties was part of a scam to gain access to our personal and financial information. So the Federal Communications Commission kicked into high gear,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. 

The fine comes after the FCC last year directed all U.S.-based voice service providers to stop carrying traffic associated with certain members in the enterprise, dropping illegal auto warranty robocalls by 99 percent, according to the agency.

Enforcement action was taken in coordination with the Ohio attorney general’s office, which sued several entities and individuals associated with the scheme. 

The FCC also announced new robocall investigation partnerships Thursday with the attorneys general of Hawaii and New Mexico. With the two new signatories, 46 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Guam, have signed an agreement to join with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to share evidence and coordinate interventions to combat robocalls. 

“We know the scam artists behind these calls are relentless — but we are coming for them and won’t stop until we get this junk off the line,” Rosenworcel said.