FCC proposes $10 Million fine for spoofed robocalls

Thu Dec 12 20:37:47 UTC 2019

On Monday, U.S. FCC Chairman Pai and Canadian CRTC Chairperson Scott made 
the first official cross-border SHAKEN/STIR call.
https://www.fcc.gov/document/pai-scott-make-first-official-cross-border-shakenstir-call

Today, the U.S. FCC announced a proposed nearly $10 million fine for 
spoofed robocalls.
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-nearly-10-million-fine-spoofed-robocalls

A U.S. telemarketing firm spoofed the caller-id of a competitor to make 
approximately 47,610 political robocalls shortly before a California State 
Assembly primary election.

I think this case is somewhat unusual for robocall spoofing, because the 
alleged perpetrator, victims, and 'crime scene' occured within the same 
jurisdiction.

While the FCC likes to announce large enforcement actions in splashy 
press releases, its actually bad about collecting fines. The FCC must 
rely on the Justice Department to initiate separate prosecution to 
enforce payment from non-license holders because the FCC can't do that 
itself.  So don't expect anyone to actually pay soon (or ever).