Fitch seeks better protection from illegal robocalls
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has joined a bipartisan coalition of 51 Attorneys General urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to accelerate the implementation of caller ID technology meant to protect consumers from illegal robocalls.
“The flood of robocalls is disruptive to our daily lives and is often used to perpetrate scams,” said Fitch. “The TRACED Act, and the STIR/SHAKEN technology that it required, are meant to put an end to illegal robocalls and caller ID spoofing that bad actors use to harm consumers. I urge the FCC to rein in the companies that are acting in bad faith to spam families, facilitate fraud, and evade detection.”
STIR/SHAKEN technology is an essential tool to help consumers feel confident about who is on the other end of a line when they choose to answer a call. Large voice service providers were required to implement it by June 30, 2021; but small companies, with 100,000 subscribers or less, were given a two-year extension by the FCC.
New evidence indicates that a subset of these smaller companies is responsible for a high volume of illegal robocall traffic, using the extension to continue to route the calls that STIR/SHAKEN will help reduce or eliminate.
In their comment letter submitted today, Fitch and the other 50 Attorneys General ask the FCC to move up the deadline for implementation of this anti-spoofing technology for those who are demonstrated bad actors.
“The FCC was right to mitigate hardship with an extension for the small providers that many Americans rely on for phone services,” continued Fitch. “But the companies acting in bad faith shouldn’t be rewarded for their bad behavior. They need to be held accountable and eliminating this free pass is a good start.”
A copy of the comments is available here.
DeSoto County News Service
