FCC slaps robocaller with record $120M fine but it’s like ’emptying the ocean with a teaspoon’ Devin Coldewey @ 7 hours
Robocalls are a menace growing in volume and even a massive $120 million fine leveled against a prominent source of them by the FCC likely won't stem the flood.
Adrian Abramovich received a record fine for making nearly 100 million robocalls in three months.
Abramovich and his legal representatives could not be immediately reached to comment on the fine.
Abramovich, who claimed in Senate testimony that he was "not the kingpin of robocalling as alleged", must now pay the FCC's $120 million fine or bring the dispute to federal court.
Additionally, the FCC says that Abramovich spoofed his ID information to make it seem like he was calling from well-known travel and hospitality companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton, and TripAdvisor.
Indeed, FCC spokesman Will Wiquist said that while the FCC is attempting to address illegal robocalls with enforcement, government-industry partnerships and consumer information campaigns that warn about neighbor spoofing, among other things, it's an uphill battle. After answering the calls, people were redirected to foreign call centers that attempted to sell timeshares and vacation packages.
These call centers were not related to the major companies, the FCC said. He denied any "fraudulent activities" and said he was engaging in legitimate telemarketing practices by offering real vacation deals.
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The FCC said in June "Abramovich is the perpetrator of one of the largest - and most unsafe - illegal robocalling campaigns that the Commission has ever investigated".
Investigators said Abramovich used the robocalls to "trick" consumers into answering and listening to his advertisements.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said a year ago "Americans are mad as hell" at robocalls and the agency gets more than 200,000 complaints annually.
Consumers get almost 2.5 billion robocalls a month.
The complaint against Abramovich and his companies, Marketing Strategy Leaders and Marketing Leaders, said these companies made some 96 million computer-dialed calls over a three-month period.
That sounds impressive until you hear that these calls took place in 2016, and meanwhile there were 3.4 billion robocalls made last month alone.
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