US telecom watchdog wants to impose a $300 million fine on robocall company

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to impose a fine of $299,997,000 on ‘the largest robocall company ever investigated by the watchdog’. If the fine is imposed, it will be the largest fine the FCC has issued to date.

According to the FCC, two Americans are behind the robocall operation, which was carried out by their company Cox/Jones Enterprise. The regulator bases the fine on the scale of the fraud campaign. Cox/Jones Enterprise is said to have made more than 5 billion calls in three months last year. That’s enough calls “to call every person in the United States fifteen times,” he wrote the FCC Wednesday.

In the calls, the company allegedly stated that it was trying to reach the caller about his car’s warranty. The caller is then transferred to a scammer posing as a warranty specialist to obtain the caller’s information. Consumers described the calls as ‘incessant’ and ‘intimidating’.

In addition, the company “called healthcare workers during a pandemic and spoofed hospital phone numbers.” This resulted in long wait times when calling the hospitals and people calling the hospitals to complain about the intrusive calls.

Furthermore, the company violated several FCC rules, such as failing to identify the caller at the beginning of a message or obtaining express permission from the caller to contact them. The FCC says Cox/Jones Enterprise will still be given a chance to respond.