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FCC Cracks Down On Spam 'Auto Warranty' Robocalls (axios.com) 111

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday told carriers to stop delivering those annoying auto warranty robocalls and said it has launched a formal investigation. The scam has resulted in more than 8 billion unwanted and possibly illegal phone calls. It has been the top consumer robocall complaint for the past two years.

The FCC said it is working with a number of other agencies, including the Ohio attorney general, which is suing Roy Cox, Jr., Aaron Michael Jones, their Sumco Panama companies and other international associates said to be a part of the scam. The agency's enforcement bureau said it sent cease-and-desist letters to Call Pipe, Fugle Telecom, Geist Telecom, Global Lynks, Mobi Telecom, South Dakota Telecom, SipKonnect and Virtual Telecom to warn them to stop carrying this suspicious robocall traffic within 48 hours. The FCC said that its inquiry shows that the operation is still generating millions of apparently unlawful calls to consumers on a daily basis.

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FCC Cracks Down On Spam 'Auto Warranty' Robocalls

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  • hopefully up next... (Score:3, Informative)

    by smallerdemon ( 10077006 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:06AM (#62687420)
    How about those "I'm interested in buying your house!" texts and postcards next, please?
    • How about those "I'm interested in buying your house!" texts and postcards next, please?

      I came here to post the same. I get 20-30 of these a day, Its insanity,

      • by acroyear ( 5882 )

        Especially when the "House" they want to buy is actually a former apartment.

      • I'm wondering why the rest of the world don't get these spam calls? What is so different about America that this is a problem?
        Where I live we had a rash of those tech support spam calls a few years ago, but they stopped fairly quickly.
    • by LVSlushdat ( 854194 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:52AM (#62687638)

      Hardly a day goes by that I don't get -yet another- of those "we'd like to buy your house" letters in the mail. Prior to early 2020, I hadn't recieved the endless stream of these like I get since. I think the trigger was the fact that my wife passed away in April 2020, and I had to hire a lawyer to go to court to fix a problem with our home titile, and remove her name from it. Now I get those endless letters, which go into the trash before I even go into the house after picking up the mail. These are annoying enough, but what is FAR MORE annoying are the text messages, asking the same thing. They're worded as though they're a long lost friend and want to "follow up" to see if I still want to sell the house. I reply "NO I DON'T-GO AWAY", and I block the number and before you know it, here's another one, from a different number, which gets blocked. Wish there was *something* the carrier (tmobile) could do. smh

      • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

        They're worded as though they're a long lost friend and want to "follow up" to see if I still want to sell the house

        The realtor that sold me my house send a letter like that so I guess we could reminisce about the time we sat in a conference room and signed some papers together.

        • They're worded as though they're a long lost friend and want to "follow up" to see if I still want to sell the house

          The realtor that sold me my house send a letter like that so I guess we could reminisce about the time we sat in a conference room and signed some papers together.

          Send the realtor a note accusing them of being a stalker and saying you are thinking about having a conversation with your local police constabulary about that realtor's "unacceptable & personally threatening" ("in your opinion", be sure to say that) behavior.

      • Now I get those endless letters, which go into the trash before I even go into the house after picking up the mail.

        What you should be doing with them is shredding them and adding them to your compost heap. And if you don't already have a compost heap, you should start one. Junk mail, fruit and vegetable waste, coffee grounds add up faster than you'd think and cost nothing, unlike the chemical fertilizers your gardener is using now.
      • They're worded as though they're a long lost friend and want to "follow up" to see if I still want to sell the house. I reply "NO I DON'T-GO AWAY", and I block the number and before you know it, here's another one, from a different number, which gets blocked. Wish there was *something* the carrier (tmobile) could do. smh

        I got one asking if I'd like to "continue discussing the house i wanted to vend." Needless to say I've never discussed "vending" my house with anyone...

    • What I'd like is a sensible postal service that doesn't depend on sponsored mail by commercial interests for funding its budget in the first place. The only reason they're getting delivered is because they're giving Uncle Sam a cut of the action to mail it for them.
  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:06AM (#62687422)

    How about all the rest of the auto robocall spamm too? What's special about this one turd, does it smell worse than the others?

    • It has been the top consumer robocall complaint for the past two years.

      They're doing them in prioritized order.

      At this rate they might get around to your complaint by around the year 2060.

  • by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:18AM (#62687448)

    These calls are the great majority (80%) of the spam calls we get. The Caller ID numbers are forged, both local exchange and elsewhere in the US. ("No, I don't know anyone in Podunk, Iowa, so I'm not answering that.")

    What I want to know is why the STIR/SHAKEN requirement has failed to shut this crap down. Is this a technical problem in STIR/SHAKEN, a legal gap in the regulation,the little telcos slipping through the cracks with the longer implementation period, or is it telcos just failing to act?

    • by Oliver Wendell Jones ( 158103 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:17AM (#62687564)
      Legal gap - only applied to telecom companies of a certain size - that's why you probably never heard of these tiny podunk companies named in the legal challenge - they're small enough that they didn't need to implement the standard...
      • OK. I thought the smaller Telcos just had a longer period to implement. If they were exempted from this law, we should forward all those calls to Congress. :-)

        • The deadline for smaller telcos with fewer customers to implement STIR/SHAKEN was June 30 (less than 2 weeks ago). So we'll see what happens!
    • My thinking is that that these small telecoms were making enough money hosting robocallers that they were able to buy a congress-critter or three.
    • AFAIK the FCC never created an unqualified safe harbor to block all unauthenticated calls.

      So carriers can get fucked when one of the million incompetent government agencies who they aren't supposed to block get blocked and when the FCC suddenly decides just relying on stir/shaken is somehow unreasonable.

    • Because the phone carriers supporting the spammers just offloaded the bad customers to smaller providers - the smaller providers don't have to abide by stir/shaken - and to top it off, they can still use the original carrier to carry the calls - so in the end the only thing that happened is another middle man was put in place by telecoms so they didn't actually have to abide by stir/shaken - they only pretend they do.

      FCC: we're going to fine you for not implementing/adhering to stir/shaken for some customer

  • What the fu** is an "auto warranty robocall"?

    • This is far and away the most common spam call I get. "Hi, the warranty on your 2015 Toyota Camry has expired, and we have many attractive options to allow you to extend your automobile warranty..." It's kind of surprising to me that they know exactly what make and model of car I have owned. I saw have owned, because frequently I get a call for a car I no longer own.

      • So do they sell an actual product or do they just take money?

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Seriously, you are wondering about that? I have a warranty to sell you then!

          • Yes it's a genuine question. I saw the word "scam" used, and I was wondering if it's a key detail. Would it make a difference for the FCC if it was a real scam or if they were aggressively roboselling a real product?

            • Re: Question (Score:5, Informative)

              by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:03AM (#62687542)

              Here is an article about a company selling them. Seems like they were "real" but also "real crappy" in terms of what you could feasibly get covered.

              https://www.npr.org/2021/04/16... [npr.org]

            • Re: Question (Score:4, Informative)

              by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @11:30AM (#62687734)

              Would it make a difference for the FCC if it was a real scam or if they were aggressively roboselling a real product?

              Nope, because the FCC only cares about the communication, not the product, and either of your situations would be a scam in the FCC’s eyes.

              Robocalls of this sort have been illegal for years, regardless of whether you’re selling a “real” product. You’re only allowed to make calls of this sort if you have a previous business relationship, so the very act of calling is itself a scam in that it tells the recipient that you are someone with whom they have done business with in the past. And then these scammers do nothing to disabuse anyone of that false notion. Instead, they strongly imply through their verbiage that they are—or are working with—the manufacturer to extend your original warranty. They never actually say it, of course, but everything they’re doing is designed to trick people using illegal techniques.

              Anyway, the FCC only cares that the calls are happening. The FTC, however, both cares that the calls are happening—they operate the national Do Not Call list that these scammers are illegally ignoring—and they care whether there’s a real product or not. To say the least, they tend to take a dim view of the calls too.

        • Well, the answer is yes to both questions. They sell a “Repair Warranty” that is meticulously crafted to only cover “Non-wear parts” on the vehicle it “covers”. The trick being, nearly every component on a automobile is a “wear” item, so when someone tries to use the coverage, they can simply point to a line item list somewhere that defines the part being replaced as a “wear” item, and deny the claim. Sure, they’ll lose the customer, but they
      • You get calls that actually specify something?

        All the ones I get are totally generic "Hi this is Dave at the auto warranty department. Your file just came across my desk and I see your auto warranty is expiring..."

        I don't know what comes next as I always get it disconnected by then.

        No indication that they know who they are calling, because of course they don't. No doubt it will tell you to enter identifying information and your credit card next.

        • Yeah. I get generic ones. I talked to an operator for fun. I already get 5 of these calls a day, so finally answering one isn't going to really make it any worse.

          I asked what their company's name was. They kept telling me slightly different variations on "Auto Warranty Service (Center/Department/Company)".

          They told my warranty has expired. So I asked what car they were inquiring about: "The car you drive the most."

          When I asked to be removed from the list before I finished my sentence she hung up on me.

      • The ones that I used to get were always "We've been trying to get in touch with you regarding your car's extended warranty" -- but so far I've only received them on the cell phone that was issued to me by work (civil service for the US Navy). For a while I would go through the connect to a person, who would always ask for the details on my car; I would respond by asking them what my name was -- because if they've been trying to get in touch with me, they obviously should know who they're trying to contact,
    • It's a call about the automatic warranty for your robo. Don't you have one?
    • What the fu** is an "auto warranty robocall"?

      Translating to English from American..

      "Automated Car warranty sales call"

      • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

        auto = automobile
        warranty = a service to provide repairs
        robocall = a call performed by a robot (or computer)

        • Thank you, I was confused because in my mind "auto" meant "automated" or "automatic" and it made no sense.

  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:27AM (#62687470) Homepage Journal

    They have let this go so long that it's happened 8 billion times.

    Why would they do that? Who's profiting from this and also in a decision-making position?

    • I am going to assume that the carriers charge to place the calls. Without this revenue stream, prices will have to go up. At least, that's what I expect to hear. Then the government will step in with a subsidy.
    • by Ecuador ( 740021 )

      The carriers get revenue, so they have an incentive to let this happen.
      I had an ever more blatant case with a Greek cellphone. Even though I don't live in Greece, I still have a SIM card I've had since 1999 from back home as a secondary on my phone to get calls from family (well, same number, the SIM card itself is smaller now). At some point (like 3 years ago?), while I was having a tea somewhere in Bath, UK, I received an SMS on it telling me to send a reply to accept registration is some SMS list. I assu

    • If the FCC gets the "extended warranty" robo calls stopped, what will stand-up comedians and joke writers do for a living?

  • I've started holding the phone up to the fire alarm and setting it off in their ear lately.

  • About time! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TimHunter ( 174406 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:44AM (#62687506)
    Only two years? Try twice that at least. Scammers ruined the "phone" utility of my smartphone. I (along many other people) long ago stopped answering calls from numbers that aren't in my Contacts list. Will the FCC do something that will make it useful again? Somehow I doubt it.
    • by quall ( 1441799 )

      Same. I got an auto warranty call just yesterday, and the same one a week or 2 before. I want to ignore them, but I'm expecting a call so I need to pick them all up.

      The utility is gone for sure since voice calls are practically never from someone other than a solicitor. Pretty much just stick with texts for everything else.

      • My phone not only tells me the number and (if known) who's calling, it warns me if the caller isn't a contact and if it's suspected spam. Then, after the call, it gives me a chance to add it to my contacts and/or report it as spam or not spam. (Just yesterday, I got a call from my local hospital about a referral from the VA. As I was already dealing with the condition through a different doctor, I didn't set up an appointment or add it as a contact, but I did make a point of reporting it as Not Spam.)
  • by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve ( 949321 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:47AM (#62687510)
    I thought I'd share what my manager did some years ago when he got one of those auto warranty spam calls. My manager had a 2 year lease on an electric Nissan Leaf and he kept the car until the lease ran out and then turned it in. Many of these auto warranty calls work on old information. I still sometimes get letters in the mail from a local new car dealer asking me if I want to sell a car that I actually turned in when the lease expired almost 6 years ago. So my manager gets an auto warranty spam call and they ask him if he wants an extended warranty on his Nissan Leaf, which at the time he had already turned in when the lease had run out, which was maybe 2 years earlier. He told them that yes he was VERY interested in an extended warranty on the car. So they asked him how many miles it had on it and he said he didn't know. Of course, the reason he didn't know was that he no longer owned the car, so it was an honest answer. But they assumed he had the car parked outside his house. So they asked him to check and he said he couldn't (with no further explanation on his part) and then in desperation they asked him to guess. He said he really couldn't guess - which was true, because he had no idea how many miles a car he no longer owned currently had on it. Finally after 5+ minutes of wasting their time, he told them that the reason he couldn't answer their mileage question was that he no longer owned the car. They were pretty angry at him wasting their time, but he said that he didn't feel bad about it because they called him, their warranties were rip offs, and they never asked if he still owned the car.
    • by Ecuador ( 740021 )

      I doubt your manager's or anyone's time is worth less than the Indian call center employee's calling you. Unless you are doing a video or something, engaging with them is wasting your own time unfortunately...

      • Probably, but being known as a time waster gets you pulled off their call lists pretty fucking quickly. A time waster is the worst they can get. Even someone yelling at them that lets them hang up quickly does not warrant an entry in their lists. Only if you manage to routinely keep them from scamming people and be known as a waste of time, you're left alone.

        Source: Me not getting any spam calls anymore for over a year now.

        • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
          I may have to give this a shot. Just not answering unknown calls hasn't worked for me. I still get them all the time.
        • Ask them if they're naked and like it in the ass, better yet if it;s India then say fucking a cow. You sound like a hefty girl with those fat cankles that really turn me on. Tenticle sex is the best, I love seafood.

          At some point they may threaten you with phone harassment, which I point out is not possible since they called me. Next time bring your mom too.

        • I wish that wasting their time got you pulled off their call lists. My response to any question asked by a telemarketer is "Hold on, let me check!" and I put the phone down and keep working, keep eating, keep watching TV, etc. They usually hang up within a minute of getting no response from you but they seem to call back later. If everyone did this (wasted even 1 minute of their time for every single cold call without buying anything), then the whole industry would go bankrupt in short order.
      • by j-beda ( 85386 )

        I doubt your manager's or anyone's time is worth less than the Indian call center employee's calling you. Unless you are doing a video or something, engaging with them is wasting your own time unfortunately...

        Sure, but sometimes we "waste" a bit of our own resources for the public good. You know, pick up a piece of litter while walking down the street to keep everything a bit tidier, or spend a few minutes of your (admittedly "expensive") time, to waste the "cheap" time of a call centre. Wasting a bit of the scammer's time is VERY expensive to the scammers if anything more than a tiny tiny tiny fraction of their call recipients does it. Scammers like this make money because using computer dialers and voice inter

  • They busted one of these operations years ago. Frequency of robocalls dropped not one bit.

    Jail time, not a simple fine.
  • These spam robocalls are a major annoyance and a big reason why I simply send any number that is not in my contact list to voicemail. If it is important enough, the person will leave me one. It's good to see the FCC starting to take action, however, I think some of these might be overseas call centers that are simply purchasing a VoIP trunk. These auto warranty scams are probably one of several that an illegitimate call center tries. It wouldn't surprise me if the same call center also tries to impersonate
  • by rotorbudd ( 1242864 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:06AM (#62687546)

    with 550K miles.
    Is it eligible?

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      with 550K miles.
      Is it eligible?

      I work for an American company so occasionally get these via one of our direct lines for vendors... It's fun as they don't even figure out I'm in the UK... First they struggle with a UK number plate format (location of registry - year of registration - unique ID, I.E. LL 13 ABC) then I have a car that was sold worldwide by have a Europe/UK only manual version. So I can tell them the model and make (Toyota MR2 MK3) but then specify that it's a manual trans which is hilarious.

      Also they stopped making the M

    • For an insurance you pay for through the nose that only pays out if you have an accident on a blue moon when it's at least 110F outside, and it happens between September and March north of the 60th parallel? Sure.

    • I save on my car warranty every few days, thanks to these robocalls. Why, I'm even on a first name basis with Jennifer of customer services!
    • While not quite as extreme as you, my car really is a 2001 model, bought used, long after any extended warranty had expired. Not only that, but I understand that extended warranties are a type of scam that hasn't been outlawed yet, and never buy them. When I hear that mine is about to expire, I know it's a scammer, hang up and report the number through my phone's software.
  • Idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kackle ( 910159 ) on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:27AM (#62687580)
    I like the idea another Slashdotter proposed: Make a law setting up the following system. The person who was called can press a number button during any call, charging the caller, say, 25 cents. The phone company gets half of that money, the call recipient gets the other half.

    The amount is trivial if there's a charge accidentally made to a legitimate caller, the spammers would be put out of business, and the phone company would be incentivized to make it happen.
    • I like the idea another Slashdotter proposed: Make a law setting up the following system. The person who was called can press a number button during any call, charging the caller, say, 25 cents. The phone company gets half of that money, the call recipient gets the other half. The amount is trivial if there's a charge accidentally made to a legitimate caller, the spammers would be put out of business, and the phone company would be incentivized to make it happen.

      This is a pretty clever solution and could conceivably work.

    • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      We could also try forwarding spam calls to our phone service provider's support center. I think it would be funny if the scammer was located in the same call center as the phone service provider's support center.
    • The person who was called can press a number button during any call, charging the caller, say, 25 cents. The phone company gets half of that money, the call recipient gets the other half.

      I like it.

    • That's bad, because the receiver is required to do work.

      Caller should be always automatically charged a tenth of a cent upon call completion, credited to the receiver. Net charges of less than $1 each month are waived.

      This has no net effect on normal people whose difference between calls placed and calls received is less than one thousand.

      • by kackle ( 910159 )
        I'm guessing it would only be temporary efforts as the scammers would dry up. But your idea might be an improvement.
    • Mom is going to pay 25 cents every time she calls. Tech support is no longer free, Mom.

    • by Nahor ( 41537 )

      But that requires to be able to identify the caller, and the lack of that ability is why we get so much spam in the first place.
      So we must first get STIR/SHAKEN to work 100% of the time.

    • This seems reasonable:

      1. Setup an VoIP system like Asterisk where you can auto answer a call and do some call control.
      2. Give out the number to this system as your main number. Friends and family get your actual number.
      3. The system will answer all calls and dial the charge code every time no matter the caller.
      4. The system does a supervised transfer to your actual number.
      5. If/when you answer, the system auto dials the charge number again for the second line and then completes the transfer.

  • Just block ALL calls originating from India. 99% of the problem solved. Now you can concentrate on the smaller operations elsewhere.
    • It's not just India. There are major criminal call center operations in Singapore and The Phillipines as well.
      • Well, ok, then maybe 98% of the problem solved. Most, if not all, of the scammers that call me have thick Indian accents. I inform them that cow was murdered in their honor and then hang up. If they believe in Karma then perhaps they'll think twice about making another call (highly doubtful as they already have no morals).
    • Do you really think *any* of these calls are showing up with a +91 country code?

  • I play along until I get connected to a real person. Then I ask ask "Does your mother know you steal from people older than she is? Is she proud that you are a criminal?" They generally hang up after that, and I get fewer calls lately too.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Do people really still answer unknown numbers? If you don't answer and the caller really wants to contact you, they'll message you, at which point you can apply extra filtering and call back if required.

    Also, is there a way to block all calls originating from India, Including the spoofed numbers?

    • Also, is there a way to block all calls originating from India, Including the spoofed numbers?

      Think: The Indians are paying your phone company to let the calls through.

      Do you imagine your phone company will give you a way to block them?

    • Not so. Doctors and banks will not message you. Instead, they will screw you.

  • The phone system must know the actual number where the calls come from, as well as the "official" one the scammers fake. If the phone could display both of them, it would be trivial to block or ignore calls that look suspicious.

  • FCC has been cracking down for at least 100 years, and so far no change. FCC cracking down is enough to make anyone crack up.

    Confucius say "Naked man who fly plane upside down have crack up."

  • Well, I recently started getting a ton of dick enlargement messages. Look at the spam in general, not just specific types.
  • I just tell them I have a 1915 Model-T. They're quiet for a second, then hang up.
  • How about DEFINITELY ILLEGAL. I do not believe in capital punishment, but if I keep getting these nuisance calls I may need to reconsider my position.
  • They'll identify themselves as something vague, like "the auto warranty center". Unhelpful. Stay on the phone and pretend you're interested. Ask some relevant questions, have some relevant concerns, then agree to buy their shit. When it's time for a credit card, go to DoNotPay.com and search for Robo Revenge (you have to sign up for it, it's like $5/mo). That will produce a dummy credit card (it's only valid for five minutes, so click the button at the last minute). Read the credit card to the scammer. They
    • Edit to add: a typical settlement amount is 50-70% of what you'd expect under the TCPA. Don't let them low-ball you too much, or you'll get a reputation for being a wimp (the scam industry has a small pool of lawyers that serve most of them). The last auto scam call I got was from Affordable Auto Protection LLC, of Boca Raton, Florida (ie, the scam capital of America).
  • I just wish they would stop with the stupid Car Shield commercials on TV. Who in their right mind would use something that has such a terrible rating?
  • This is supposed to be the 21st century, why does my caller id still have security worse than email?

    Just let me enable through my carrier the option to reject all source unverifiable calls. If that is too expensive for some Telcos maybe they shouldn't be operating anyway.
    • This is supposed to be the 21st century, why does my caller id still have security worse than email?

      This! Let them have 2FA. They can text you a code on your phone you have to read back... Oh, wait.

  • So, I know this is an old system vs new system, but since getting a copper line if you don't currently have one is *IMPOSSIBLE* in some places, then, fine: if they can't get an authoritative answer from the last 'man' up the chain, drop it if the person elects for verified calls only.

    Originally, the only argument was you would cut off 3rd world nations, but since it's MUCH cheaper to add phone service by dropping towers than running lines, most of your remote areas HAVE to use cellular.
  • Interestingly enough, I got one of these in the form of a letter today. Same basic structure; we reviewed your file, your repair warranty is about to expire, contact us at this number or that website to ensure continued coverage. All dressed up to look fairly official, sporting a generic enough sounding business name and letterhead to make a careless or confused person maybe follow up and get scammed. Strange they are wasting paper and postage on this, when robo calls are cheep and plentiful.
  • The first thing the FCC needs to do is crack down on caller ID spoofing.

    It's hard to make use of ideas like the do not call list when determined spammers cheat their way out of being held accountable for breaking the rules.

  • Put the jerks in jail and give them a phone-call, "Your ass-rape insurance is about to expire. Suck your own dick 50 times to continue your insurance. Bubba and Blade will watch to make sure you comply."

  • This is pure theatre and PR from the FCC. When it comes to stopping robocalls, the FCC and other state attorney generals have gone after the small bit players. Yes, they often are the address for scam robocallers. But if the FCC was serious about stopping scam robocalls, they would go up against the big telcos like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Comcast, and the other major players.

    https://brothke.medium.com/the... [medium.com]

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