FCC Targets Illegal Calls and Text Messages

The FCC continues its never-ending battle against illegal robocalls. In its upcoming September 26, 2024, meeting, the Commission is set to adopt its Eighth Report and Order in CG Docket No. 17-59, and Third Report and Order in CG Docket No. 21-40 (Proposed Order), establishing new rules for voice providers to try to stop unwanted and illegal calls and texts.

These illegal calls continue to be a growing problem. “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report[ed] a median loss of $1480 [per person] for fraud by phone call and $1000 for fraud by text. All told, consumers lose over a billion dollars to fraud via call and text every year.”

Industry data also bears out the problem. One industry estimate indicates that the average U.S. consumer receives 13 spam or fraud calls per month, and that on average those who are scammed by phone calls lose $865.70.  On the text messaging side, Robokiller estimates that U.S. consumers received 78 billion robotexts and lost $13 billion to robotext scams in the first half of 2023.80. These numbers indicate that, despite industry, Commission, and law enforcement efforts, significant room remains for additional measures to combat illegal calls and texts. (Proposed Order, at para. 4)

In the Proposed Order, the Commission adopts the following rule changes:

  • Require all voice service providers in a call path, rather than only gateway providers, to block calls based on a reasonable do-not-originate list, which may include unused, unallocated, or invalid numbers, as well as numbers for which a subscriber has requested blocking.
  • Require terminating and non-gateway intermediate providers to block illegal voice traffic following Commission notification of such traffic.
  • Strengthen the rules to allow the Enforcement Bureau to issue an order requiring all providers downstream from a voice service provider that fails to comply with an order to block illegal traffic to block all traffic from that provider.
  • Adopt a base forfeiture for failure to comply with Commission rules requiring voice service providers to adopt affirmative, effective measures to prevent new and renewing customers from originating illegal calls and authorize the Enforcement Bureau to increase this forfeiture to the maximum forfeiture allowed under the Commission’s rules for non-common carriers.
  • Ensure that callers learn when and why their calls are blocked based on reasonable analytics, so they have access to redress when blocking errors occur. Voice service providers will immediately notify callers with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) code 603+.
  • Require originating mobile wireless providers to block texts from a particular source following Commission notification of illegal texts and, in cases where a mobile wireless provider fails to comply, allow the Enforcement Bureau to issue an order requiring all providers downstream from the mobile provider that fails to comply to block all traffic from that provider.
  • Require mobile wireless providers to only offer email-to-text services, a source of illegal texts, on an opt-in basis. Providers that would prefer to fully sunset the service may elect to do so, as nothing in our rules requires providers to offer email-to-text.
  • Declines to adopt a mandate requiring all providers to block text messages based on reasonable analytics. However, it may revisit this matter later.

The FCC believes that the benefits of its new rules easily outweigh the costs.

The record supports our conclusion that the actions we take now to strengthen our rules will yield benefits to consumers that exceed the costs of their implementation. We previously estimated that illegal and unwanted texts cost consumers at least $16.5 billion annually and that illegal and unwanted calls cost consumers an additional $13.5 billion annually, for a combined $30 billion in annual costs. Even if the actions we take now to strengthen our rules eliminate only a small fraction of these unwanted and fraudulent texts and calls, the benefits will be substantial and will significantly outweigh the costs. (Id., at para. 84).

The Proposed Order will become effective 60 days after it appears in the Federal Register.