FCC Invites Comments on its Attempts to Stop Scam Calls

On May 6, 2020, we wrote about several steps taken by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC") to deter robocalls, implementing new authority given by Congress last year in the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act"). In addition to adopting several new rules to be effective immediately, the FCC invited comments on how it should fulfill its obligation under the TRACED Act to take steps to prevent one-ring" scams. These scams involve placing a call but hanging up after one ring, with the intent that the call recipient will dial the caller ID to find out who called, or leaving a message asking the recipient to call a certain number to schedule a delivery or to obtain some kind of reward. In both cases, the callback number is an international number that causes the consumer to incur charges, with revenues shared with the scammer.

The invitation to comment has now been published in the Federal Register, establishing June 19, 2020, as the deadline for filing Initial Comments and July 6 as the deadline for Reply Comments.