Big week in Consumer Protection News as it pertains to Robocalls! Stop the Calls….Stop the Scams
In case you missed our Consumer Protection Team Tweets last week, a recap is below:
Nationwide effort to block illegal robocalls
Attorney General Ashley Moody today announced a new, nationwide effort to block illegal robocalls. Attorney General Moody and a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general are partnering with 12 leading voice service providers to adopt a set of Anti-Robocall Principles to help block and trace illegal robocalls. Following the new principles, the voice service providers will implement new technology to help eliminate millions of these illegal calls and track the source of the calls.
Thank you General Moody for leading the way in finding solutions to combat illegal robocalls – Great to have 50 other regulators behind the movement!
House and Senate Bills to increase penalties for illegal robocalls
The phone companies have agreed to a set of principles to cut down on the billions of illegal robocalls in the U.S. annually. They include a commitment to cooperate with law enforcement in investigations of illegal robocallers.
Don’t Cash That Check: BBB Study Shows How Fake Check Scams Bait Consumers
“I think cashier’s checks are being used in a growing number of schemes,” says Tejasvi Srimushnam, staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. These scams are common on Craigslist and other online marketplaces, and the number of fake check complaints to the FTC and the Internet Fraud Complaint Center doubled between 2014 and 2017 from 12,781 to 29,513, according to a report by the Better Business Bureau.
According to the BBB, the number of fake check complaints to the FTC and the Internet Fraud Complaint Center doubled between 2014 and 2017.
“Congratulations! You’ve won an all-expenses paid vacation.” RoboCalls – Stop the Calls….Stop the Scams
Over half of all Americans report getting more than one robocall per day and more than 93 percent said they get at least one per month We can and must do more to protect consumers from illegal robocalls and crack down on the scammers responsible for them. It’s time to stop them once and for all.
Last year, the FCC received 232,000 complaints regarding robocalls, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 3.7 million robocall complaints.