Better Business Bureau: FCC blocks originator of scam robocalls

Randy Hutchinson
·3 min read

The FTC and other regulators have gone to court to shut down many scammers who contact their victims via robocalls. Another way to combat them is to prevent them from placing the calls in the first place by denying them access to the telecommunications network. That’s where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) comes in.

The FCC’s Robocall Response team announced that the agency’s Enforcement Bureau ordered telecommunications companies to stop accepting robocall traffic from Urth Access, which originates calls on behalf of customers. The FCC saw an increase in scam student loan debt relief robocalls since President Biden announced his plans to forgive many student loans and determined that Urth Access and associates generated a high percentage of them.

The call blocking company YouMail estimated that approximately 40% of all student loan-related robocalls reaching YouMail subscribers in October 2022 appeared to originate from Urth Access. One robocall said “Hello this is to inform you that the Student Loan payment suspension has been extended to December 31 of this year. Also, everyone is now going to get $10,000 dismissed upon income verification. If you do not verify your income, on January 1, your payments will start back up automatically.”

Urth Access is headquartered in Newport Beach, California. Its website describes the company as “TRANSMITTING THE VOICE OF YOUR BUSINESS.” The BBB always warns consumers to be suspicious of communications and websites with spelling and grammatical errors, such as this heading in Urth Access’ website: Network Implimentation Aand Maintenance.

Robocalls are legal if the consumer has consented to receiving them from a company. Urth Access claimed its customers had express consent to place the student loan forgiveness calls. In some cases that was based on consumers agreeing to receive calls from “marketing partners.” However, the FTC noted that websites that captured the alleged consent included healthcare websites such as “gohealth.healthcare” that had nothing to do with student loans and that a secondary website consumers would have to hyperlink to listed over 5,000 marketing partners, which the FCC said did not constitute “informed” consent. Finally, the FCC said it appears Urth Access and its customers are the same entity.

Since companies must have permission to place a sales-related robocall and few people give permission, most of them are illegal to start with. The FCC and BBB offer these additional clues a student loan debt relief call may be a scam:

  • Pressures you to provide money or information.

  • Says you need to pay any sort of fee to apply or appeal your application.

  • Directs you to any website outside of StudentAid.gov

  • Purports to be calling from somewhere like the “student loan forgiveness center” or from a state forgiveness center.

  • Uses suspicious caller ID, such as a name that is inconsistent with the substance of the message, or the same area code and first three digits of your phone number.

  • Asks for your Federal Student Aid ID, bank account, or credit card information. (The real application requires your name, birth date, Social Security number, phone number, and email address.)

Many of these tips apply to any robocall. Don’t share any personal or financial information with a robocaller. If you think the call may be legitimate, hang up and call the institution using their publicly available phone number.

Randy Hutchinson is president & CEO Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South. This column is in partnership with Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee & Southern Kentucky.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Better Business Bureau: FCC blocks originator of scam robocalls