FCC orders block on company tied to fraudulent student loan robocalls

The action follows a similar order in July that prevented phone companies from fielding calls from several companies alleged to be responsible for a glut of offers for car warranties.

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it had blocked all U.S. phone companies from taking calls from a tiny communications company accused of sending robocalls that push fraudulent student loan relief services.

Tens of millions of such calls, which often claim to come from a generic “student loan center,” went out to U.S. phones in recent months, said Alex Quilici, the CEO of the anti-robocall company YouMail, which helped the FCC with its investigation. The calls usually referred to the White House student loan forgiveness program and falsely claimed that people in the U.S. with student loans needed to either tell the caller their personal information or pay a fee to receive up to $10,000 in student debt relief.

“Today we’re cutting these scammers off so they can’t use efforts to provide student loan debt relief as cover for fraud,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in an emailed statement.

The FCC’s action to block student loan robocalls follows a similar order in July that prevented phone companies from fielding calls from several companies alleged to be responsible for a glut of offers for car warranties. The calls became so common that they inspired their own internet meme...