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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.
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.
The law says the robocaller can be liable for much more than that. He's getting off easy.