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Florida Man Behind 100 Million Robocalls Hit With $120 Million FCC Fine (chicagotribune.com)

In a massive strike, the Federal Communications Commission issued a $120 million fine on a massive robocall spoofing operation it deemed a threat to public safety. From a report: The FCC announced Thursday morning that it would leverage the fine against Adrian Abramovich, a Miami man who the commission said made almost 100 million spoofed robocalls over a three-month period at the end of 2016. The FCC argued that Abramovich's operation made the phony calls to trick consumers into answering them and listening to his advertising messages. The fine was based on 80,000 spoofed calls the commission had verified.

A complaint filed by the FCC against Abramovich in June 2017 alleged he had broken the Truth in Caller ID Act -- which prohibits callers from falsifying caller ID information to disguise their identity with intent to harm or defraud -- in perpetrating "one of the largest -- and most dangerous -- illegal robocalling campaigns that the commission has ever investigated."

21 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Capital Punishment? by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't believe in capital punishment, not when there is something a LOT worse...Hoe Squad. In the south we have farm prisons and hoe squad, where they chunk your ass out in a field at the crack of dawn and work your ass like a dog until dusk....day after day after day.

    This is a hell of a deterrent, I even had to LMAO at an episode of cops where they chased a criminal in a car covered in flames who refused to stop until he crossed the border to the next state. When the cops asked him "Man what is wrong with you? You could have killed yourself over a simple theft charge, why didn't you just stop?" and he said "Didn't want to go to the hoe squad" and promptly confessed to a robbery in the state he had just made it to LOL.

    You want to teach someone that what they did wasn't the smartest thing? Throw their ass on a hoe squad, trust me they won't forget it.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Re:Capital Punishment? by subanark · · Score: 2

    I completely disagree with you, since:
    1. We should not practice eye for an eye.
    2. He did not take away our lifespan, he took away our ability to be productive or "have fun". I think jail does that too.
    3. We have partly ourselves to blame for making this easy to accomplish.

  3. Re:Capital Punishment? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    Since he has aggregately stole or taken away several human lifespans... I say capital punishment would be appropriate.

    Death by 1000 cuts seems an appropriate method

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  4. Florida Man by Moof123 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What can't he do?!

    1. Re:Florida Man by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What can't he do?!

      Exercise good judgement.

    2. Re:Florida Man by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Funny

      What can't he do?!

      Beat Triangle Man.

  5. Re:Capital Punishment? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    Since he has aggregately stole or taken away several human lifespans... I say capital punishment would be appropriate.

    I think his phone number should be made public and distributed to everyone that got robocalled. And he be barred from getting a new phone number.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  6. Headlines that start "Florida Man" are awesome. by slacktide · · Score: 3, Informative

    They even have a twitter feed for it! https://twitter.com/_floridama...

  7. DEATH PENALTY! by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh good, he owes money he doesn't have and thus doesn't have to pay. So what? Give him life in prison or the death penalty and see if anyone still wants to make robocalls?

  8. Re:Capital Punishment? by nwaack · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had a different image in my head when I read 'hoe squad.'

  9. Interesting by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I get robocalls from spoofed caller IDs on a weekly basis. It's obvious that they are spoofing the caller ID, because the first 6 digits are exactly the same as my own number, and I don't know anybody whose phone number is close to mine! So... how do I go about getting the people that keep harassing me arrested and charged with violating the Truth in Caller ID Act? I can't ask for their real number to call them back on, because it's a recording -- it doesn't even give me a chance to request that they remove me from their list.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  10. Re:Capital Punishment? by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You know what else works really well? In Saudi Arabia, they will chop of the hand of people convicted of theft. It's more than just a deterrent, it actually makes it much more difficult to steal again. Impossible, in fact, if you get caught twice. Fuck yeah.

    Also makes it virtually impossible for that person to ever hold a respectable or half-way decent job and virtually dooming him to a life of ostracism, poverty, and whatever crimes he can still commit. At the very least he is now dependent on government support for survival.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  11. A real punishment by yorgasor · · Score: 5, Funny

    I say, make the time fit the crime. Send him to jail. His cell has a single phone that can ring at any time, including the night. It does so, quite frequently. Each call is a recording with some bogus sales pitch. At some time during the sales pitch, which could last up to 5 minutes, a 5 digit code may or may not be given. This code can then be entered into an interface on the wall, which will deliver a food pellet. This is his only way to eat (although he can get water). He may get time in the yard, but if he misses an important call, he might miss his food.

    --
    Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
  12. Re:What "intent to harm or defraud"? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    Sadly, the First Amendment keeps spammers (of all kinds) protected from most measures that could be taken against them.

    The first amendment keeps the government from preventing speech before the fact.

    It does NOT keep the government from, after the act, penalizing a crime, of which fraudulent speech was a central element, in which harm was deliberately (and improperly) caused.

    Truth is an absolute defence. Fraud? Nope.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  13. Re:Capital Punishment? by Jon314 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What the hell is wrong with you? What glamor is there in getting gender reassignment surgery in prison? What glamor is there in being in prison?
    Gender reassignment is a medical issue, not a fashion choice.

      Anonymous Cowards should be forced to do physical labor as a punishment for the stupid stuff they say while hiding. It would take away some of the glamor in it.

  14. I *just* got one of these calls today, dangit! by MobyDisk · · Score: 2

    I've gotten calls like this with phone numbers similar to local friends, but up until today it never was actually one of my friends. I answered, thinking it was my neighbor, and *bam* robocall. How can they possibly make any money off of this? Who doesn't recognize it as a robocall and hang-up immediately? And of that percentage, who actually buys stuff?

  15. Re:Ridiculous numbers imply a ridiculous system. by EndlessNameless · · Score: 2

    This is the age of digital communication. It's time to update the communications protocols; if our solution is political rather than technical (e.g., we rely on reactionary regulatory agencies or Congressional "inquiries"), then we're fucked by definition. We can do better.

    Upgrading the PTSN switches to support authentication or CAPTCHAs will be very expensive.

    And you pretty much have to do them all, otherwise callers from a switch without authentication support won't be able to reach people on the new hardware.

    So you're faced with a classic externality. The phone companies are the only ones who can fix the problem, but they aren't really being affected by it. They see no reason to spend the money. Traditionally, these issues have been addressed by regulation.

    This is why America needs a functional federal government without partisan identity politics. Stop the constant screaming about liberals or privilege (whichever side you're on), and only support politicians who will work across the aisle to fix problems that affect everyone.

    The fundamentally insecure and broken POTS/cellular infrastructure is one of those things. It shouldn't matter whether you're a D or R---the protocols are so outdated that there is no justification for using them anymore except rampant greed.

    --

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    According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
  16. and?? by ohgary · · Score: 2

    So someone in 2016 did bad stuff and was fined more money than he could ever pay back. Issue still exist in 2018 and is easy to fix. FORCE telcom's to not route calls from numbers that dont provide valid caller ID.

  17. Re:What "intent to harm or defraud"? by bws111 · · Score: 2

    You don't see what law he broke? You quoted it directly in your original post. He broke the 'Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009', which prohibits doing what he did - spoofing caller ID 'with intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value'.

  18. Obligatory Simpsons by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2
    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  19. Re:What "intent to harm or defraud"? by bws111 · · Score: 2

    From http://www.miamiherald.com/new...

    Abramovich's scheme involved calling unsuspecting customers with a prerecorded message instructing them to “Press 1” to hear more about an “exclusive” vacation deal offered by a well-known travel or hospitality company, like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Marriott, or Hilton, the FCC said.

    They would then be transferred to a call center, where live operators would attempt to sell them one or more “discounted” vacation packages, like timeshares.

    But neither the call center nor Abramovich were affiliated with the well-known brands presented to the customer during the prerecorded message.