Robocallers who made 1 billion calls get $225 million fine from FCC businessinsider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessinsider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The marketers, under the business names Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, used robocalls to falsely sell short-term health insurance plans. They made about one billion robocalls, according to the FCC.
The fine, originally proposed last summer, is one part of an expanded effort to rein in automated sales calls the FCC announced on Wednesday. It s the largest fine in the commission s history.
Robocalls are a daily annoyance for many Americans, and they have been rising in recent years, with some estimates showing that billions are made per month. The number of spam calls received in the U.S. rose 26% in the last year, according to Robokiller, an anti-spam call app.
FCC Inks $225M Fine Over Spoofed Health Insurance Calls law360.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from law360.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Spiller told the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group, a group authorized by the FCC to investigate robocalls, that he knowingly called consumers on the Do Not Call list, the FCC says. He told the group that his firm made millions of calls per day and that he was using spoofed numbers, the FCC said in its original fine proposal.
In addition to enforcing the agency s largest-ever fine, the FCC also issued several cease-and-desist orders against other robocallers and created a robocall response team.
“Unwanted robocalls are not only a nuisance, but they also pose a serious risk to consumers who can inadvertently share sensitive, personal information in response to bad actors’ malicious schemes, acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. I’m proud to unveil my first set of actions to put a renewed focus on what the FCC can do to combat the issue that we receive the most complaints about.
Federal regulators slap telemarketers with historic $225 million fine for 1 billion robocalls Print this article
The Federal Communications Commission imposed the largest fine in its history, $225 million, on a Texas-based telemarketer for sending out 1 billion robocalls to entice people into buying misleading, at times fraudulent, health insurance plans. The FCC’s investigation found that the Rising Eagle spoofed its robocalls to deceive consumers and caused at least one company whose caller IDs were spoofed to become overwhelmed with angry call-backs from aggrieved consumers, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.
John Spiller and Jakob Mears are accused of being responsible for the massive robocall operation through two businesses they controlled, Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom. The fines have been assessed through the Truth in Caller ID Act.