FCC Issues Largest Fine Ever Against Fake Health Insurance Robocallers
By: Rachel Sandler (Forbes)
The FEC, normally with a neutered partisan Board of two appointed Democrats and two appointed Republicans.
has found it's balls during the Biden Administration.
A small case about healthcare fraud has developed into the largest fine by the FEC ever.
Unanimously.
And that is rarer than finding hen's teeth by the light of a blue moon...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rachel Sandler
Forbes Staff Business
I cover the world's richest. Updated Mar 17, 2021, 04:29pm EDT
Topline
The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday fined two Texas-based telemarketers $225 million—the largest fine in commission history—for making nearly a billion illegal robocalls in less than five months, the latest effort to crack down on the uptick in unwanted calls plaguing Americans on a near-daily basis.
Federal Communication Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel testifies before Congress on ... [+] December 5, 2019.
Key Facts
Under the business names Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, John Spiller and Jakob Mears placed nearly a billion robocalls in the first four and a half months of 2019, according to the FCC, falsely claiming in automated messages to sell short-term health insurance plans from companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna.
According to the FCC, the telemarketers used spoofing technology to disguise their Caller ID, while one admitted to knowingly calling individuals on the National Do Not Call Registry because "he believed that it was more profitable to target these consumers."
The telemarketers weren't acting alone, and were instead making calls on behalf of clients, the largest of which was Health Advisors of America, a Florida-based company sued by Missouri's attorney general in 2019 for telemarketing violations, the FCC says.
Surprising Fact
If a recipient indicated they were interested in a health plan from a company such as Cigna, consumers were transferred to a call center with no affiliation to the named company, where "representatives then would attempt to convince the consumer to purchase an insurance product sold by one of Rising Eagle's clients," according to the FCC.
Key Background
Robocalls have become a nationwide scourge in recent years, despite efforts from the FCC and Congress to crack down on them. The National Do Not Call Registry only prevents legal telemarketers from calling consumers, leaving out the estimated 47% of calls that come from scammers impersonating a legitimate company or a government agency. According to the FCC, unwanted calls are the most common complaint the agency receives, and a monthly estimate from YouMail, a company that provides anti-robocall services, found that Americans received 4.6 billion robocalls in February alone.
Crucial Quote
"Unwanted robocalls are not only a nuisance, but they also pose a serious risk to consumers who can inadvertently share sensitive, personal information in response to bad actors' malicious schemes," FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
Tangent
The fine is just one of several anti-robocall actions announced by the FCC Wednesday. The agency sent cease-and-desist letters to six voice providers for allegedly carrying out illegal robocall traffic and launched a Robocall Response Team comprising 51 FCC staff members.
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Originally they were charged with a variety of robocall violtaions and thought they would face minimum fines
while enjoying the fruits of their felonies....but the case just kept getting worse and worse for them.
Right-wing trolls Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman charged with felony voter intimidation | Salon.com
I'm sick of any and all robocalls. Wish they could all be outlawed somehow.
Additionally
The FEC reportedly levied a 5 million dollar fine against Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman for calling black Michigan voters to threaten and discourage them from voting.
Let's try to keep Trump and Biden out of this discussion.
Awesome!
This is some good news
Not to mention Jacob Wohl and crew (who are nothing but right wing trolls and propagandists) getting hit with 5.1 million dollars in fines for fake robocalls to electors in their efforts to skew the election.
They, like the former 'president' need to be stripped of every penny and behind bars as long as legally allowed.
On top of the spam calls I am now getting spam texts. Not to mention many of them are Group texts so it is almost impossible to get rid of them.... I got one the other day saying that a position in the trucking company I applied to opened up & I should text them back with my information.
I forgot about the spam texts. I get both mostly on a daily basis.
I have fun now with some of the phone calls - I'll answer on speaker and not say anything.
But I guess the robocalls - it's useless doing that.
We had to do SPF testing yesterday because spammers have hijacked some company emails and addresses
and are sending fake invoices to our customers with remittance to some oveseas address.
smh