In January 2024, the Fraud Victim Rights Organization filed two complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding voice service providers who registered with the FCC using the names and addresses of real people in the United States without those individuals’ knowledge or consent. In one case, unknown criminals used the name of a real U.S. business and the name and address of a real U.S. person to register with the FCC. In another case, unknown criminals incorporated a business in the U.S. and registered with the FCC using the name and address of a real U.S. person. In both cases, U.S. phone companies traced immigration agent impersonation calls to these voice service providers.
In all likelihood, both voice service providers where actually located outside the U.S. and resorted to identity theft to register with the FCC because they knew U.S. phone companies would trace illegal robocalls back to these entities once they received complaints.
It is FVRO’s position that the FCC is obligated to investigate and refer this matter to the Department of Justice under the Federal Crime Victim Rights Act and the TRACED Act. It is FVRO’s strong recommendation that if the FCC were to exercise better due diligence in allowing registration of voice service providers, additional reductions in illegal robocalls could be achieved.
The FCC has since removed the names and residence addresses of identity theft victims used to register these two providers from the 499 database and the Robocall Mitigation Database. One of the two providers has since been decertified. The other provider remains a voice service provider in good standing, but with all contact names and addresses redacted.
FVRO will monitor the FCC’s year-end TRACED Act report to make sure these matters were referred to the Attorney General, as required by law.
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