The FCC’s robocall offensive: text messages and international ‘spoofed’ calls targeted

July 8,2019

The Federal Communications Commission is expanding its war on robocalls.

New rules, proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and expected to be voted on at the agency’s Aug. 1 meeting, would ban the use of fake numbers in international robocalls and text messages.

This “spoofing” technique uses a false caller ID, to make it appear as if the perpetrator is calling or texting from a nearby location, as a way to get recipients to answer or respond.

As regulators combat robocalls, more are coming from overseas, they say. In the first half of 2019, the FCC got more than 35,000 complaints about caller ID spoofing.