You’re About To Get Far Fewer Warranty Scam Calls

Service providers are now being ordered to block the companies responsible for robocall scams. The FCC has identified several organizations including “Roy Cox, Jr. Aaron Michael Jones, their Sumco Panama companies, and international associates” as being responsible for the nuisance calls. Officials claim that the companies have targeted American consumers with over eight billion scam calls since 2018, and removing their access to U.S. phone networks will bring about a significant reduction in phone scams. In addition to this recent enforcement action, the organizations are also subject to an ongoing FCC investigation, and a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Attorney General.

If service providers fail to block the calls completely, they must regularly report their actions to mitigate the problem to the FCC. Acting FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal has made it clear that the commission’s enforcement arm will be checking in to make sure phone companies are complying with the order. “Now that U.S. voice service providers know the individuals and entities associated with this scheme,” said Egal, “the Enforcement Bureau will closely monitor voice service providers’ compliance with this order and take appropriate enforcement action as necessary.”

A Robocall Response Team was also created to combat the calls and has already resulted in record fines, the closure of international gateways the callers use, and an uptick in the implementation of caller ID. The team consists of a cross-agency group of enforcers, attorneys, policymakers, engineers, economists, and outreach experts. A total of 41 U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia and Guam have signed up for what the FCC calls “robocall investigation partnerships.”