The FCC is really cracking down on those annoying robocalls with some power moves made on Wednesday. The FCC fined two Texas-based telemarketers $225 million in fines for spam calls they made back in 2019 – the largest fine in the commission’s history. According to the FCC, the two companies under the names of Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom made more than 1 billion automated sales phone calls selling phony short-term health insurance.
The fine is part of the FCCs expanded dedication to cracking down on robocalls. The commission also announced Wednesday that it’s created a “Robocall Response Team” comprised of 51 of its employees who will be in charge of stopping robocalls by reaching out to the FTC, DOJ, and state attorney generals for support.
The FCC has also sent out sent cease-and-desist letters to companies who have violated the rules and pretended to offer fake refunds from retailers like Apple or Amazon, as well as those who have spread false COVID relief programs.
“Also, today’s cease and desist letters should serve as a warning sign to other entities that believe the FCC has turned a blind eye to this issue. We certainly haven’t and we’re coming for you,” FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
The war on robocalls has been a long and drawn-out one that continues to feel like an uphill battle. With scammers using technology to fake local area codes on caller IDs and more, its become a huge problem and annoyance for consumers. The number of spam calls received in the U.S. rose 26% in the last year, according to anti-spam call app Robokiller. Hopefully, that number will go down this year as phone companies adopt robocall fighting tools as directed by the FCC.