The Justice Department is looking to set an example of two sets of telecommunications providers in robocall cases where it alleges the scams are knowingly allowed. First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the agency is initially seeking to put an end to the practice by one company in New York and another in Arizona.
According to the Justice Department, the calls in question primarily stem from India. All of them appear to be coming from overseas. The scammers are reportedly sending out hundreds of millions of calls on a monthly basis. Those are calls the carriers are alleged to allow to go through.
Many of those are falsely claiming to be from the IRS or Social Security. So the bad actors seem to be deliberately targeting at-risk consumers. Victims of the calls include the elderly and the disabled. But in at least some cases, the scams have sought to pressure victims into transferring money at the risk of being arrested or deported.
The Justice Department is just following through on robocall promises
The robocall cases in question are being brought by the Justice Department following a long-running effort across various agencies to bring an end to the practice in the US. In part, that started last year with a call by the FCC for carriers to either eliminate robocalls. Carriers would either need to protect customers or face consequences.
From there, the agency worked to allow carriers to block robocalls for consumers by default. That took some of the call-screening burdens off of consumers while still allowing customers to opt-out.
Around the same time that those changes were in the works, laws were passed that made it easier for the appropriate agencies to go after robocalls. More directly, those made it possible to pursue legal action against perpetrators even if they were outside of the US. The FTC took advantage of the circumstances to begin cracking down on bad actors behind the calls.
A similar tactic may ultimately be employed by the agency here. But that won’t likely impact the case against the two sets of providers in this case.
How will these cases pan out?
The exact nature of the consequences that might result from the robocall cases brought by the Justice Department hasn’t been detailed just yet. But what the cases will likely do is to set a precedent and criminal charges aren’t out of the question. That makes the two cases vitally important even though the carriers in question aren’t necessarily the largest.
If the case carries through and the companies are forced to abide by the rules, future cases can point to that outcome as guidance for how robocall cases should be handled. The same holds true if the two companies in question don’t adhere to the constraints and end up being fined. Conversely, regardless of what consequences the two companies might face.
If the cases brought by the Justice Department fall through, that will still set legal precedence in robocall cases. Namely, that could act as a guiding principle in future cases that prevents action against companies.