Telephone Spam News
May 22, 2023
Mastermind Behind iSpoof Scam Site Jailed For 13 Years
A cyber criminal who ran a website which enabled fraudsters to trick 200,000 people around the world -many of them elderly- out of 100 million pounds has been jailed for 13 years and four months. Tejay Fletcher, 35, was the co-founder and administrator of iSpoof, a website which became a "fraud shop" for scammers who defrauded around 43 million pounds out of British residents and millions more from people in the United States and elsewhere.
Jan 24, 2023
FCC Issues Cease-and-Desist to Halt Targeted Mortgage Scam RobocallsCNET
PhoneBurner and Twilio were ordered to cease facilitating or carrying potentially illegal robocall traffic targeting homeowners.
Jul 16, 2021
Feds crack down on brothers behind 45 million illegal robocallsCBS News
Three New Jersey brothers will pay $1.6 million to settle charges of instigating more than 45 million illegal robocalls nationwide, including to tens of millions of Americans on the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry, the agency announced on Friday.
The siblings also agreed to a permanent ban on telemarketing and will hand over a residential property to resolve the agency's allegations, made in a complaint filed by Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC.
According to the FTC's suit, Joseph, Sean and Raymond Carney initiated more than 45 million illegal telemarketing calls to people across the U.S. between January 2018 and March 2019 to pitch a line of septic tank cleaning products. Most of the calls, or 31 million, were placed to numbers on the FTC's registry of people who don't want to receive marketing calls.
Dec 31, 2019
Congress passes legislation expanding robocall penalties - Ars Technica
Dec 25, 2019
S.151 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Pallone-Thune TRACED Act - Congress.gov - Library of Congress
Apr 09, 2019
Feds charge CEOs, doctors in telemarketing scam that targeted Medicare recipients, costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion
The scam relied on telemarketers scattered throughout the Philippines and Latin America who sought out elderly patients eligible for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older Americans. Using television and radio ads, as well as cold calls, the companies promised a "free or low-cost" brace for a patient's back, shoulder, wrist or knee.
Sep 12, 2018
Alarm.com may pay $28M to settle telemarketing class-action lawsuit
The settlement agreement hasn't damped the company's stock price, which continues to hover near $56 per share - close to the $57.67 the company hit on Aug. 22, which is the highest it has been in company history.
Jul 24, 2018
FCC Fines Massive Neighbor Spoofing Robocall Operation $120 Million
Agency Concludes Investigation into Adrian Abramovich's Massive ?Neighbor Spoofing' Telemarketing Operation with Largest FCC Forfeiture Ever
Jun 05, 2018
FTC Accuses Group of Running Empire That Made Billions of Unwanted Robocalls
The complexity of the alleged operation simultaneously shows the lengths people will go to continue this business that no one likes and the fact that this scam enterprise must still be profitable enough to be worth it. According to the complaint, James Christiano controls the companies that operate TelWeb, an automated dialing platform. Two other men, Aaron Michael Jones and Andrew Salisbury, allegedly handled connecting telemarketers to TelWeb's system.
Apr 21, 2018
Justice Department wants info from all four major US wireless carriers in probe of alleged collusion
The antitrust division is looking into whether or not carriers colluded in stifling technology that allows customers to switch providers without having to change out their SIM card.
Apr 19, 2018
Who Is Adrian Abramovich? Miami Man Accused of Making 97 Million Robocalls Fights $120 Million Fine
Abramovich said that his robocalls - automated messages delivering a recording or advertisement that often spoof numbers to appear local - could be done "with the click of a button" and thousands could be instantly sent thanks to modern software.