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The terrible person behind millions of robocalls has been fined $120 million
An internal investigation from TripAdvisor is what led the FCC to the culprit.
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The man behind millions of robocalls has been fined $120 million by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Adrian Abramovich of Miami, Florida was fined for spoofing caller ID information in the name of defrauding people.
Although robocalls aren’t against the law, spoofing is illegal. That’s when someone disguises the first three digits of phone numbers to make them look like they are legitimate calls from local numbers.
Interestingly, it was TripAdvisor who tipped the FCC about Abramovich. The travel company had received complaints that its name was being used to sell vacation packages. After an internal investigation, it determined Abramovich’s firm was to blame.
In total, 96,758,223 calls were made over a three-month period in 2016. According to the FCC, this was “one of the largest spoofed robocall campaigns that the Commission has ever investigated.”
As someone who works from his home, this is welcome news. Hopefully, the FCC will go after similar people in the weeks and months ahead.
The U.S. Truth in Caller ID Act and Rules prohibit any individual from falsifying caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. This prohibited practice is better known as “spoofing.”
Just weeks ago, we told you how AT&T subscribers get more robocalls than any other wireless carrier. We also explained what the proposed Sprint-T-Mobile merger might mean to customers.
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