President Trump has signed a law increasing fines on spammy robocalls and requiring phone service providers to begin authenticating calls across networks.
President Trump decided to crack down on them in the United States. With the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act signed into law, the federal government can start issuing significant fines against perpetrators of robocalls. Fines can now go as high as $10,000 per call.
It’ll require wireless networks to authenticate calls. From there, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) aims for service providers to block robocalls at the discretion of their customers. Any violators can be fined up to $10,000 per call, and perhaps that’ll be enough to deter them from occurring frequently. Overall, it’s an effort to protect American citizens after nearly 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018.
Prior to Trump’s signature on the bill, Congress had passed the TRACED Act almost unanimously. Lawmakers agree that robocalls are not only annoying but dangerous. Some signs will assist in realizing if a robocall has targeted you to steal information, but often people aren’t aware that they’re being tricked into doing so.
Trump’s signing of the TRACED Act into law is just another step in the ongoing battle the FCC has taken to fight robocalls under Pai. The commissioner announced over the summer that the FCC would move to make it illegal to send spoofed calls or texts from overseas. Congress passed new rules in 2018 allowing the commission to do so.
“I applaud Congress for working in a bipartisan manner to combat illegal robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Specifically, I am glad that the agency now has a longer statute of limitations during which we can pursue scammers and I welcome the removal of previously-required warning we had to give to unlawful robocallers before imposing tough penalties.”
