Security News > 2022 > December > FCC proposes record-breaking $300 million fine against robocaller
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposed today a record-breaking $300 million fine against an auto warranty robocall operation that made billions of calls to more than 550 million phones across the United States.
Today's announcement follows previous action taken by the FCC in July when the federal government agency ordered 8 U.S.-based voice service providers to stop offering their services to the operation behind these auto warranty scam robocalls within 48 hours.
In all, the number of car warranty robocalls plummeted from almost 1 billion in June to less than 7 million in September, amounting to just 1% of all robocalls, a severe drop compared to the previous 17%. Today's proposal follows an FCC order from May 2020 saying it will no longer warn robocallers before fining them for violating the law and harassing U.S. consumers.
The same order increased the maximum penalty for each intentional unlawful robocall to $10,000 and extended the timeframe within which robocallers can be fined to four years since they violated FCC rules.
FCC's fight against malicious robocalls was prompted by a call to action issued by Attorney Generals from 35 states in 2018, who called on the agency to end the rising tide of robocalls that people are receiving on mobile and landline devices across the country.
"Today's proposed fine is the largest such action in the FCC's history largely because the FCC found that the robocallers met the agency's criteria for egregious violations and thus deserved a substantially escalated proposed fine," the FCC added on Wednesday.