Florida joins feds to target illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalls
Sick of spam calls? So are state leaders.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Thursday announced a new investigative partnership against illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalls with the Federal Communications Commission.
The partnership, Moody explained, will allow Florida to access more resources. It will also allow broader communication between federal and state investigators. Caller ID spoofing is when a caller disguises themselves and provides a false caller ID.
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“The FCC and state leaders share a common enemy: robocall scammers targeting consumers and businesses around the country,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “My team’s commitment to protecting consumers fits hand-in-glove with state Attorney’s General ongoing efforts to combat these scams.”
Robocall investigations are no less complex than other law enforcement operations, Moody said in a statement. Investigators gather evidence, analyze records and speak to witnesses.
The partnership, struck through a "Memorandum of Understanding," will give state leaders access to federal information they operated without previously. Such information, Moody said, will likely further the state’s ongoing investigations.
“By combining efforts and utilizing FCC resources, we are bolstering our fight to stop scams involving illegal robocalls,” Moody said.” This new state-federal partnership will allow our office to more quickly obtain information to expedite and strengthen investigations — while eliminating any duplicative efforts.
According to the FCC, robocallers dialed U.S. consumers more than 4 billion times per month in 2020. Most calls originate in five U.S. states, including Florida and California, and five countries — Costa Rica, Guatemala, India, Mexico and the Philippines.
Florida is joined by Texas, California, Georgia and New York as states receiving the most robocalls. The recent rise in robocalls coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic changed the way we work, learn and socialize — further popularizing the tools we use to communicate remotely, including cellphones,” Moody said last October when addressing the same issue.
“With this rise in cellphone use, it is no surprise that we are seeing an increase in the number of robocalls targeting Floridians.”
Spam is more than a nuisance. It often is linked with cyber-crime, fraud and identity theft. And it's a bipartisan issue in Washington, drawing the ire of Florida lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, penned a letter last October to the U.S. Department of Justice demanding the agency prioritize the collection of fines against spam callers and add stiffer penalties to include jail time.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, sent a letter to the FCC last October pressing the agency to demand that all telecommunications companies put into place the anti-spam technology mandated by Congress.
In 2019, Congress passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, to curtail illegal robocalls and prosecute penalize scammers with fines up to $10,000 per call.
The legislation required phone companies to upgrade their caller ID systems to notify customers if a call is coming from a legitimate number, but Buchanan said most telecommunications companies had not complied.
He cited a report issued late last year by the U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Groups) that found only about one-third of mobile and home phone companies had installed caller ID verification to squash illegal robocalls.
The U.S. PIRG estimates that illegal robocalls result in an estimated $10 billion in fraud losses annually.
Buchanan, in his letter to the FCC, said almost 52 billion robocalls were lodged in 2021, or about an average of 4.3 billion per month.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida joins FCC in fight against robocalls, illegal caller ID
