US regulators have launched a nationwide crackdown on companies inundating US consumers with billions of unwanted and illegal telemarketing robocalls.
The action, known as Operation Stop Scam Calls, was announced Tuesday by the Federal Trade Commission and involves more than 100 federal and state law enforcement agencies across the country, as well as state attorneys general. 50 States and Washington, DC.
In addition to telemarketers, the action will target so-called consent farms that provide your personal information to calling bots while falsely claiming that consumers have consented to receive the calls. The crackdown also targets voice-over-Internet-protocol providers that facilitate illegal robocalls, which often originate outside the United States.
“We are taking action against those who trick people into giving false consent to receive these calls and those who make these calls easy and cheap,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau, said in a statement announcing the crackdown.
The FTC received more than 1.8 million complaints about robocalls in 2022, up from 3.4 million the previous year. More than 2.5 million people registered last year for the Do not call register, which allows consumers to register their numbers with the FTC to let telemarketers know not to be called for solicitations. In November, the register contained more than 246 million telephone numbers.
See also: How to stop those annoying spam emails you receive every day
The FTC said it filed 167 lawsuits against illegal calling bots and do-not-call registry violators, with defendants ordered to pay more than $2 billion.
One such FTC target is Fluent, a New York-based media company that allegedly operated a consent farm that lured consumers to its websites with the promise of job interviews and gift cards. $1,000 Walmart. Instead of providing the promised job opportunity or reward, the websites tricked consumers with their personal information and “consent” to receive robocalls, which they then sold to third-party marketers, said the FTC.
Fluent used these tactics to obtain and sell more than 620 million telemarketing leads between January 2018 and December 2019, the FTC said. Fluent faces a $2.5 million fine and a ban on robocall activity under a proposed settlement.
Fluent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For tips on minimizing robocalls, see how to block unknown calls on iphone and how to set up Google’s call screen feature.
