FCC To Block Phone Company Over Robocalls Pushing Scam 'Tax Relief Program' (arstechnica.com) 27
The Federal Communications Commission said it is preparing to block a phone company that carried illegal robocalls pushing fake programs that promised to wipe out consumers' tax debt. From a report: Veriwave Telco "has not complied with FCC call blocking rules for providers suspected of carrying illegal traffic" and now has two weeks to contest an order that would require all downstream voice providers to block all of the telco's call traffic, the FCC announced yesterday.
Robocalls sent in the months before tax filing season "purported to provide information about a 'National Tax Relief Program' and, in some instances, also discussed a 'Tax Dismissal Program,'" the FCC order said. "The [Enforcement] Bureau has found no evidence of the existence of either program. Many of the messages further appealed to recipients with the offer to 'rapidly clear' their tax debt." Call recipients who listened to the prerecorded message and chose to speak to an operator were then asked to provide private information. Nearly 16 million calls were sent, though it's unclear how many went through Veriwave.
Robocalls sent in the months before tax filing season "purported to provide information about a 'National Tax Relief Program' and, in some instances, also discussed a 'Tax Dismissal Program,'" the FCC order said. "The [Enforcement] Bureau has found no evidence of the existence of either program. Many of the messages further appealed to recipients with the offer to 'rapidly clear' their tax debt." Call recipients who listened to the prerecorded message and chose to speak to an operator were then asked to provide private information. Nearly 16 million calls were sent, though it's unclear how many went through Veriwave.
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Get some help. Talk to loved one, touch grass, call a hotline, anything before you snap.
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A rich person can pay someone to kidnap and hang you. A poor person has to abandon his job, his family, his friends, then break-in to the mansion and fight bodyguards before laying a finger on a rich person. That's easier with a violent mob but most days, poor people don't have time for that.
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Speed bump (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, may as well have said "we're giving you two weeks to incorporate another company and put in the work orders for the telephone circuits you need to continue your fraudulent business under a different corporate charter."
Cutting off an entity that only exists on paper from abusing the phone system is just asking for another entity that only exists on paper to be created, so that the individuals responsible can continue abusing the phone system.
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I know because for 1 year I worked for a company who did something similar on some levels. They were clickbait "win a x" company where we took calls and subscribed people to shitty services that scrape news and relink it.
When I found out, I quit pretty soon after. Guess what, that company doesnt exist anymore... weird.
Congress & the Courts (Score:2)
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They have teeth. They decline to use them. The laws concerning spam and robocalls were deliberately written with enormous gaping holes in them to allow telecoms to continue to be paid for the services and avoid the expense of enforcing anything, but there is enough regulation left to act against deliberate fraud. Unfortunately, the cases bounce to police, to the telecom, to the FBI, to the Secret Service occasionally for wire fraud, or in different order and no one takes ownership of the problem and of actu
And next (Score:4, Interesting)
Right after Veriwave Telco is blocked, a new company called Veriwove Telcon will be formed with all the same customers. Doing things like just blocking companies means nothing when companies can be dissolved and new ones set up in minutes for very little cost. We need to stop pretending companies are somehow completely separate from the people running them.
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Don't worry, SCOTUS and the Republican party will certainly shut down the FCC's overreach. /s
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Which is why we should get rid of limited liability for corporations for criminal activity. It should only apply to financials. If a company commits a crime, SOMEONE at the company has to get the sentence. If no particular individual can be found liable, then the board and CEO should be held liable (split the jail time if you want). All of a sudden, you'd find an outbreak of companies looking for ways to ensure all company decisions can be traced to a specific individual.
FCC (Score:5, Informative)
The FCC could do much, much more to stop scammers and help people. e.g. it could mandate that all telcos disallow number spoofing - so you could actually rely on caller ID. But, they don't.
Re:FCC (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently not yet 100%, but it's definitely a goal. (the STIR/SHAKEN thing)
https://www.fcc.gov/call-authe... [fcc.gov]
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I get 10+ phone calls a day from numbers in my area code trying to sell me some bullshit with Medicare part C. I have over a thousand local numbers blocked permanently because they were unused numbers that a spammer was allowed to "use". I have no idea how many people have tried to contact me but couldn't because they are on my blocklist and Google's robocall list.
This could be solved, but it won't. Fuck the FCC. It is corrupt as fuck... (probably because of Congress forcing them to be, but it doesn't matte
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The FCC is under the umbrella of federal agencies the republicans are trying to strip power from. For example https://archive.ph/bOdss [archive.ph]
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There are good reasons to have spoofing. You might have a single number that routes to many people. When making an outgoing call (from a device which does not necessarily share that incoming number), you might want to spoof the primary number. That way callbacks get routed back into the system. This was also pretty common during COVID work-from-home phone warriors, so they could use their personal lines without their numbers being exposed to the customer. VOIP I believe requires spoofing to provide cal
Not a dent (Score:2)
Can we get the FCC to jail/nuke/cut off *all* robocalls? I get between 30 and 50 scam calls per day. More than 90% are robocalls. I get 2-3 legit calls per week from customers. I have to answer every call I can. :(
The biggest scam robocalls I get:
1. Medicare gobbledygook. I don't have Medicare.
2. Car accident ambulance chaser referral "service"
3. Electric company rate reduction scam
4. Cable TV discount scam
5. Medical device sales pitch
6. "Final expense" insurance
7. Is your property for sale? Th
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How about not giving your phone number to every pizza app, ride-sharing service, doorbell app, and 5%-off coupon site. Don't text "cash" to a random number to enter a contest or radio give away, don't enter your phone number in every warranty registration, don't use it as TFA for your email account, don't give it to a restaurant to text you when your table is ready, and don't use it as an account identifier to collect reward points for discounts.
People provide their cell number like it is their nick name,
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It's too late for that. The previous owner of your number already did it for you.
can we just... (Score:2)
can we just block all companies who make more than 1000 calls per day to new numbers? Seems like that would solve the problem without impacting any legitimate businesses that anyone cares about.
23 of 15.8 million scam calls traced back? (Score:2)
Ephemeral Shell Company? (Score:3)