Security News > 2022 > December > FCC calls for mega $300 million fine for massive US robocall campaign

US regulators want to fine the operators of a claimed massive robocall operation almost $300 million that made more than 5 billion pre-recorded calls over three months early last year.

Those five billion calls went to more than 500 million phone numbers between January and March 2021 in what the Federal Communications Commission called the largest robocall operation it has ever investigated.

The scheme, apparently run by Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones, made "Enough calls to have called each person in the United States 15 times during just those three months," the FCC said in a statement.

According to the FCC, entities under the Cox/Jones Enterprise umbrella placed almost 5.2 billion calls to more than 550 million wireless and residential phones during those three months, using more than 1 million unique caller ID numbers.

"[They] called health care workers during a pandemic and spoofed the phone numbers of hospitals which resulted in confused consumers calling the hospitals to complain - tying up the phone lines of vital public safety institutions," the FCC wrote.

In a report, RoboKiller said the FCC identified Cox and Jones as being behind the bulk of those calls and eight carriers that were letting the calls go through unchecked.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/12/22/fcc_robocalls_fine/