Robocall and Caller ID Complaints Declining, FCC Tells Congress
The number of consumer complaints about possible robocall or misleading and inaccurate caller identification information violations continues to drop year over year, the FCC told Congress. That information was included in the latest annual report to lawmakers on robocalls and…
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caller ID issues, as required by the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act. The FCC's Enforcement, Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus compiled the report. Through Nov. 30, the agency received 29,038 reports of unauthorized or nonemergency calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice message. That figure compared with more than 39,000 in 2022 and better than 46,000 in 2021. It said it received 53,725 telephone solicitation complaints through Nov. 30, compared with nearly 71,000 the year before and nearly 98,000 in 2021. It said it received 13,607 complaints about noncompliant calls using a fax machine or automatic telephone dialing system through Nov. 30, compared with more than 19,500 last year and nearly 29,000 in 2021. And it said that through Nov. 30 it received 29,216 spoofing complaints, compared with nearly 40,000 last year and roughly 57,000 the year before. The agency said that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Nov. 30 of this year, DOJ collected no forfeiture penalties or criminal fines for robocall and misleading caller ID cases the agency referred to the department. "A disproportionately large number of calls" come from VoIP providers, said the FCC, which also noted that declining "call costs over the past few decades have eliminated financial barriers to entry for would-be robocallers." The report said that while industry and government collaboration "has led to a decline in the number of robocalls," the tools illegal robocallers deploy are evolving to include, for example, voice phishing attacks that use AI-powered robocalls mimicking a real conversation. Illegal robocallers often attempt to evade blocking and labeling by using VoIP services such as number rotation, the report said.