The Fraud Victim Rights Organization (FVRO) seeks to educate law enforcement officials and public policy makers about the best strategies for stopping consumer fraud.
SUMMARY
The TRACED Act requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide an annual report to Congress about its efforts to protect Americans from illegal robocalling. The FCC has published this report every year in the last week of December since the TRACED Act was passed. Each annual report has presented information about the FCC’s anti-robocalling efforts during the previous year and the previous calendar year. The 2020 report presented information about anti-robocalling efforts in 2019 and 2020; the 2021 report presented information from 2020 and 2021; the 2022 report contained information from 2022 and 2021; and so on.
The 2024 report, published on December 27, 2024, contains no new statutorily required information about anti-robocalling efforts in 2024. It is largely a duplication of the 2023 report.
FVRO has contacted the FCC for comment and/or clarification, but has received no response.
ANALYSIS
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (47 USC 227 and 227b, et al) was signed into law by President Trump on December 30, 2019. Among other things, the Act requires the FCC to provide an annual report to Congress about certain efforts to protect Americans from illegal robocalls.
- Section 3 requires the FCC to publish annual statistics about consumer complaints related to robocalls.
- Section 4 requires the FCC to publish an annual summary of enforcement actions related to robocalls.
- Section 11 requires the FCC to report evidence of criminal robocalling violations to the Department of Justice and to publish an annual summary of such referrals.
- Section 13 requires the FCC to publish an annual report about industry led efforts to trace robocalls.
Consumer Complaints
The 2023 annual robocalling report provided information about consumer complaints between January 1, 2018 and November 30, 2023. (See pages 3 and 4.) The 2024 annual robocalling report provided information about consumer complaints between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2023. (See pages 3 and 4.) In other words, the 2024 report provided only one month of consumer complaint data that was not previously provided in the 2023 report.
Enforcement Actions
The 2023 annual robocalling report provided information about enforcement actions between January 1, 2023 and November 30, 2023. (See pages 4-6 of the 2023 report.) The 2024 annual robocalling report only provided information about the exact same enforcement actions in 2023. (See pages 4-6 of the 2024 report.) In other words, the 2024 report provided no information about robocalling enforcement that was not provided in the 2023 report.
Criminal Referrals
The 2023 annual robocalling report provided information about “five instances” of criminal robocalling that had been referred to the Attorney General “between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023.” (See pages 18 and 19 of the 2023 report.) The 2024 annual robocalling report provided information about “four instances” of criminal robocalling that had been referred to the Attorney General “in 2023.” A careful examination of the four descriptive bullet points in the 2024 report shows that they are four of the exact same cases referenced in the 2023 report. (See pages 19 and 20 of the 2024 report.) In other words, the 2024 report provided no information about criminal referrals that was not provided in the 2023 report.
Traceback Efforts
The 2023 annual robocalling report provided information about industry traceback efforts between November 1, 2022 and November 13, 2023. (See pages 22 and 23 of the 2023 report.) In addition, the FCC published an accompanying spreadsheet that detailed traceback efforts between February 2019 and November 2023. The 2024 annual robocalling report provided information about industry traceback “in 2023.” (See page 24 of the 2024 report.) In addition, the FCC published an accompanying spreadsheet that detailed traceback efforts between February 2019 and November 2023. In other words, the 2024 report provides no new information about industry traceback efforts other than those efforts that took place in December 2023.
CONCLUSIONS
Unless the FCC is planning to release a different 2024 report in the near future, this reinterpretation of its statutory reporting requirements will delay providing critical information to Congress and the public for up to as much as two years.
It seems unlikely this reinterpretation is based on a legitimate issue with the technical language of the TRACED Act since the FCC has provided required information for both the immediate prior year and the prior calendar year each year it has published a report. It is troubling that this change comes immediately before a change in Administration and the leadership of the Commission.
The withholding of Section 11 information is particularly concerning. Section 11 does not simply allow the FCC to provide evidence of criminal robocalling to the Justice Department. Section 11 requires the FCC to provide such evidence. The FCC has been in material non-compliance with this law since it was enacted. The FCC’s own publications document thousands of instances where it was aware of evidence of criminal robocalling. The Industry Traceback Group has traced more than 10,000 suspected illegal robocalls since the TRACED Act went into effect. Private entities have submitted more than 500 reports about illegal robocalling though the FCC’s Private Entity Reporting Portal (the creation of which was also mandated by the TRACED Act).
Yet the FCC has only disclosed seven such referrals to the Justice Department since the TRACED Act went into effect. Congress’ intent in requiring annual disclosure of these referrals is obvious: to assess the Justice Department’s effectiveness in addressing the illegal robocalling problem.
FVRO alone filed 13 reports in 2024 through the Private Entity Portal—most of which should have been covered by Section 11’s mandatory reporting requirements. By pushing disclosure of these referrals until the end of 2024 (if that is the FCC’s intent) the FCC is directly undermining the proven most effective tool for protecting Americans from robocalls.
The FCC has not provided FVRO with any sort of clarification or explanation, nor has FVRO been able to identify any public statements from the FCC on this matter. Without such explanation, Congress and the public can only speculate about the FCC’s intent.
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