By Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON -- In the war against illegal robocalls, enforcers
claim something unusual: a few wins.
Scam phone calls pitching bogus coronavirus tests, phony
remedies and nonexistent economic aid have proliferated in recent
weeks, telecom tracking companies said, adding to other
long-running cons aimed at draining bank accounts or obtaining
credit-card information.
A telecom-industry task force, led by trade association
USTelecom, said it recently identified and cut off a barrage of
virus-related calls it suspected were phony, with help from federal
agencies. The alleged scams included pitches for free testing kits,
work-from-home jobs with Amazon.com Inc. and cleaning of air ducts
supposedly to fight the virus.
Phone companies shut down the accounts where the calls
originated after being notified and, in some cases, threatened with
legal action, said officials from USTelecom and the Federal
Communications Commission.
"It's progress," said Alex Quilici, chief executive of YouMail
Inc., which tracks robocalls through a consumer smartphone app and
flagged some of the suspect calls. "It's showing that certain
classes of these calls can be shut down."
It is rare for authorities to act on a stream of robocalls so
quickly, said Kevin Rupy, a communications lawyer at Wiley Rein
LLP, who previously worked at USTelecom.
"Rapidly identifying the source of these calls and getting them
shut down -- that is a game changer," he said.
More broadly, some evidence suggests Americans are receiving
fewer unwanted phone calls.
Starting around March 16, TNS Inc., another robocall-tracking
firm, saw daily volume of unwanted robocalls drop as much as 40%
compared with the previous week. YouMail also reported robocall
volumes declined, from 4.8 billion calls in February in the U.S. to
4.1 billion in March.
That trend may be temporary, and TNS numbers show the rate of
decline has slowed. "We think calls were coming from call centers
that had difficulty adjusting to this work-from-home order," said
Bill Versen, chief product officer for TNS.
But to put a lasting dent in the number of scam robocalls,
experts said phone companies must get better at detecting and
responding to them. "The most effective way to block these calls is
to prevent them" in the first place, Mr. Rupy said.
A suspected coronavirus-testing-kits scam has provided a
real-time test.
On March 13, YouMail said it detected a wave of dubious phone
calls mentioning the virus.
"If you want to receive a free testing kit delivered overnight
to your home, press one," said a voicemail, captured by YouMail.
Certified testing kits have been difficult to obtain in the U.S.
and aren't generally available for home delivery.
YouMail forwarded information about the calls to the Industry
Traceback Group, a team of telecommunications experts led
USTelecom. On March 17, the ITG traced one of the calls using
information provided by U.S. phone companies, a USTelecom spokesman
said.
The trail led to a phone company in the Philippines. USTelecom
said. The FCC and Federal Trade Commission identified the company
as VoIPMax, which couldn't be reached for comment.
"ITG notified this provider it was carrying suspect traffic
bound for the U.S. related to the coronavirus," said the spokesman,
Brian Weiss, in an email. "Within 24 hours the provider responded
to ITG, telling us that it had 'identified the customer and
disabled/removed the account.'"
Between March 17 and March 18, suspect calls pitching
coronavirus tests dropped by about 75%, according to YouMail's
analysis of evidence including robocall volumes and captured
voicemails. After March 20, YouMail said they had virtually
disappeared.
Things might have played out differently as recently as a year
ago. The traceback effort significantly increased in 2019, thanks
to technology changes and intensified telecom industry efforts.
Traces can now be completed in an hour, according to USTelecom. It
can take weeks or months for federal investigators to gather enough
evidence to bring a legal case against a suspected robocaller.
USTelecom doesn't have the authority to order a phone company to
cut off a customer. But its requests carry more weight because the
Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have recently taken
small phone companies to court for failing to shut down customers
identified as the source of illegitimate calls.
The FCC and FTC on Friday wrote public letters to three U.S.
providers of Internet-based phone services, accusing them of
facilitating fraudulent coronavirus robocalls from
Philippines-based VoIPMax and another company in Pakistan. The
agencies threatened the providers with an effective shutdown of
their business: If they don't stop transmitting harmful traffic
from the customers in question within 48 hours, the FCC will
authorize other U.S. phone companies to block their calls.
The three providers have cut off the customers, an FCC official
said in an interview Friday. The agency hopes the letters sent a
message to other phone companies, the official said.
To be sure, illegal calls continue to flood the telephone
network, according to robocall-tracking firms. Robocall scammers
often work with multiple phone companies, hiding their calls amid
millions of legitimate robocalls, such as those about pharmacy
prescriptions or school closures.
Once authorities cut off one path for illegal calls, criminals
can often find another, leaving authorities to play a game of
"whack-a-mole" according to experts.
One longer-term solution could come from Congress.
On Feb. 21, Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine), Kyrsten Sinema (D.
Ariz.) and Martha McSally (R. Ariz.) wrote to the FCC asking if it
had the authority to require phone companies to vet customers
before allowing them to place large numbers of calls.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hasn't yet responded, according to the
agency's website.
In the meantime, authorities and phone companies are working to
cut off more scams. "Whack-a-mole only works when you have a big
hammer, you pound it quickly and you pound it often," Mr. Quilici
said.
Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 05, 2020 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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