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FCC Proposes $120 Million Fine On Florida Robocall Scammer (reuters.com)
The FCC on Thursday proposed a $120 million fine on a Florida resident alleged to have made almost 100 million spoofed robocalls to trick consumers with "exclusive" vacation deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies. Reuters reports: The man, identified as Adrian Abramovich, allegedly made 96 million robocalls during a three-month period by falsifying caller identification information that matched the local area code and the first three digits of recipient's phone number, the FCC said. The calls, which were in violation of the U.S. telecommunications laws, offered vacation deals from companies such as Marriott International Inc, Expedia Inc, Hilton Inc and TripAdvisor Inc. Consumers who answered the calls were transferred to foreign call centers that tried to sell vacation packages, often involving timeshares. These call centers were not related to the companies, the FCC said.
but not a dime for the various cable companies that took billions in state and federal cash and didn't deliver promised network upgrades. Sounds about right. This guy just didn't grease the right palms.
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Great, a hefty fine is a good idea. But if he's not in prison for this, you might as well make it legal and tax it - this is a drop in the bucket.
fled.
I've been getting Marriott Hotel calls w/my area code, sometimes 2-3x daily on my business phone line. Fucking annoying and such a time/concentration waster, even with a callblocker (as it obviously spoofs a different number each time). I hope this guy gets what's coming to him.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Now give ten times that to all the rest of them. Telemarketing should be illegal.
Religious groups, and other social activist groups, please keep this in mind: This is why we must continue to allow capital punishment to be an option.
I'm a former Florida resident and have literally have been getting these almost daily for the last few months.
The phone number always starts with the same area code and first three digits.
It's always obvious to me it was nonsense as I no longer live in Florida and really had no friends from Florida who would call me up.
Clearly this guy forgot to grease the right palms like having a membership at Mar-a-Lago...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
$120,000,000 for 100M calls? That's $1.20 per call.
Unless the scammer made $120M in profits, this goes a little beyond punitive.
It's too bad net neutrality doesn't get this kind of strong support.
Legalize the televised breaking of bones as punishment for scammers then give me 5 minutes and a Louisville Slugger to make an example of this scum bag... calls like these would drop in half overnight.
Functionality exists within the telephone system to id and block spoofed caller id calls before they get to the subscriber line. Telcos are loathe to spend any cash to shore up security on a system that no longer makes a profit. My local provider responded to complaints with an offer to sell me security features none of which were of any real help.
That is not a disincentive if they made more than that.
The hell with prison. necklace the bastard on live TV. He deserves it; and it's a valuable message.
Get one of these or make your own... https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It was a text message from straighttalk (my cellphone) I gave it a try, out of my call history it marked many as scammers, robocalls; and caught any calls after that. It can be found here http://extras.straighttalk.com...
by falsifying the caller id they were tampering with vital safety infrastructure (911). They should be facing criminal charges.
I was just adjusting my headset. How are you today?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I'm afraid that we're living in a new age where evil is admired and illegal activity is spun as creative problem solving.
He's got the infrastructure to do what our duly elected "representatives" want to be illegal for everyone but themselves. I can see a public finger-wagging then a very lucrative job offer from the *.* Nat'l Committee (fill in your favorite party).
Alternatively, a job with the CIA and unleash his system on the Russians. How'd ya like them apples vladimir.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I'll just put this here.. AT-5000 Auto Dialer
640k ought to be enough for anyone.
If they caught him, why is this still happening? There must be more than one.
Everyone he called has the right to 5 minutes with him. Unsupervised.
Or is that in violation of the 8th?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I just received a call a few hours ago with my area code and the same as my trunk (first three digits) offering me something about Hilton. I totally hung up before listening to the scam. But it's interesting that this is still going on. Is it the same guy, or are there copycats now?
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
If you have a legitimate need to spoof a number (multiple business lines, etc.), you can get a waiver with a documented reason why. All others, nope.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
I got a whole bunch of those calls. Sometimes there would be voicemails left and the associated voicemail number wouldn't match that of the incoming call. It was always the same message with the same female voice.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Same Area Code and prefix as my cell phone. Caller started talking about vacation, and I hung up immediately.
So whatever the Feds are doing, IT'S NOT WORKING YET!
And I got one of those robocalls just a few minutes before reading about this.
Fines? Bullshit. This bastard should be drawn and quartered. Publicly.
Spam - both email and phone - won't stop until the people who do it start dying for it.
Unrelated: what the hell is going on with Slashdot's server certificate? "analytics.1010phonerates.com"?
If you have nothing else to do then go through the prompts (they're total voice-rec) until you get a person, speak slowly and wait forever. Just annoy the fuck out of them and waste their time.
This shit will get a lot more expensive for them. I sometimes tell the operator I think there is a government reward if they report them to the government but maybe I'm wrong.
I'm pretty sure I got a few dozen identical robocalls from this scumbag in the last 9 months, despite immediately blocking every number he called me from. He should go to federal pound me in the ass prison, not white collar resort prison or just a fine.
Extradite him to Singapore for some good old fashioned caning.
If the companies were paying him for referrals, that sounds related to me. The companies were paying him to act on their behalf, and should also face fines.
Whoever places a call, pays the callee (say) a few cents.
Those who place bulk calls pay lots, those who receive lots of calls make money... to help fund their call centers.. (and reduce service fees elsewhere).
It'll stop robo calling.
I got SOOOO many freaking calls from this assholes. It's time to execute him. We need that much of a chilling effect on this problem. Not even fucking around, half my call volume at my business is spam, scams, and shit like this. HALF. 50% of the time the phone rings, it is a scam. That is UNACCEPTABLE!
It's a good first start, but your proposed punishment seems too lenient.
Why is call spoofing like this still possible? Way to sit back and do nothing telcos. Hard to believe people might want to migrate to an entirely different paradigm. Does anyone know of an Android app that will silently send to voicemail any incoming calls which aren't on my contacts list?
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Caller ID is not what 911 uses to track you. It's a separate message you can't spoof called ANI/ALI.
Now that being said, why can't they use ANI/ALI to actually locate the scammers and go after them?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I'm getting called constantly by fake caller id's lately. And so are my friends.
3 to 5 calls a day. They leave voice mail and eat up my voice mail box.
It's a problem.
I tried answering, saying hello and then ignoring it to max their downtime.
lately I just answer then immediately hang up (to prevent the voice mail).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Where does the line start to kick this guy in the groin.
Improvements are welcomed; though humans have the annoying tendency to fail under load long before justice is done with them.