New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal
Attorney General calls on FCC to allow telephone service providers to block robocalls
TRENTON Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal this week called on the Federal Communications Commission to create new rules to allow telephone service providers to block more illegal robocalls being made to unsuspecting residents in New Jersey and across the country.
Grewal joined a bipartisan coalition of 34 attorneys general in formal comments to the FCC, explaining that scammers using illegal robocalls have found ways to evade a call-blocking order entered last year by the FCC.
Despite the FCC's order, robocalls continue to be a major irritant to consumers across the country. In 2017, the Federal Trade Commission received 4.5 million illegal robocall complaints two-and-a-half times more than in 2014. Robocalls are among the most common complaints submitted to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and the FTC, with New Jersey residents submitting more than 134,000 complaints to the FTC in the past 12 months alone.
Following last year's FCC order granting phone service providers authority to block certain illegal spoofed robocalls, the coalition now seeks added authority for providers to work together to detect and block more illegal spoofed robocalls including neighbor spoofing.
These robocalls are not just disruptive and bothersome. They are used to deceive the elderly and other vulnerable populations, and to facilitate scams that can result in identify theft, credit card fraud and other crimes, Grewal said. As Attorney General, I take seriously my responsibility to protect New Jersey residents from this kind of unlawful activity. We need the FCC to heed our request and create new rules to let telephone service providers block more types of illegal robocalls.
Spoofing allows scammers to disguise their identities, making it difficult for law enforcement to bring them to justice.
Virtually anyone can send millions of illegal robocalls and frustrate law enforcement with just a computer, inexpensive software and an internet connection, the attorneys general wrote in the formal comments letter filed on Oct. 10.
One tactic on the rise is neighbor spoofing, a technique that allows calls to appear on a consumer's caller ID as being made from a phone number that has the same local area code as the consumer. This manipulation of caller ID information increases the likelihood that the consumer will answer the call.
On Nov. 17, 2017, the FCC issued the 2017 Call-Blocking Order. In Wednesday, letter, attorneys general expressed support for the new initiative, which will give phone service providers the ability to authenticate legitimate calls and identify illegally spoofed calls and block them.
The added authority sought by the Attorneys General will allow service providers to use new technology to detect and block illegal spoofed calls even those coming from what are otherwise legitimate phone numbers. Service providers will be ready to launch this new authentication method in 2019.
The initiative for which the Attorneys General seek FCC approval concerns illegal robocalls that are made to consumers regardless of whether or not they sign up for do-not-call lists.
