FCC-Alleged Robocaller Abramovich Denies Wrongdoing at Senate Hearing, Risks Contempt Charge

“I am not the kingpin of robocalling that is alleged” in the FCC's 2017 citation and order against MSL, Abramovich said. He cited several cases, including the FTC's case against Caribbean Cruise Line and seven other companies (see 1511190024), with "as much or more call volume than my case and the exact same spoofing.” The FCC claimed Abramovich's operation made more than 96.7 million spoofed robocalls in Q3 violating the Truth in Caller ID Act. The agency said Abramovich used "neighbor spoofing" -- making it appear calls were coming from phone numbers in the same area code and the first three digits of the recipient's phone number -- and purportedly sold vacation deals falsely associated with travel and hospitality companies such as Expedia, Marriott and TripAdvisor. People who answered the calls were apparently transferred to foreign call centers that often tried to instead sell vacation packages involving time shares (see 1706220046).

Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., invoked the possibility of a coming citation for contempt against Abramovich, saying during the hearing he was “disappointed” in the witness's “failure” to consistently provide answers on his own operation's robocalling practices. Thune, Blumenthal and other senators cited Abramovich's opening statement as proof he may have waived his Fifth Amendment rights. “You are the face of this problem,” Blumenthal said. “If you didn't want to draw attention to yourself, you should have” answered questions Thune and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., asked in an October letter about his robocall practices (see 1710110073), said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. “You potentially would not have been here today and you wouldn't have the cameras focused on you.” Thune and Senate Commerce aides cautioned after the hearing they are evaluating whether to pursue action.

Abramovich repeatedly insisted on only addressing general industry robocall and spoofing practices, saying he feared more specific testimony would “prejudice” his case for reducing the proposed fine and could expose him to criminal charges. Less than 2 percent of consumers “have any meaningful interaction” with robocalls, with 96 percent of MSL's calls “detailed by the FCC being less than one minute,” Abramovich said. “The majority of those do not bother anyone.” Spoofing technology “is easy to obtain and can be used by anyone,” including customizable open-source software and hosted autodialer services, he said: “Once you have this software," you just need to install the platform, connect “to a cloud service and [use] the right long-distance” carrier. He cited carriers that advertise to robocall operations with offers to “dialer/short duration termination” calls. “Regulation needs to address the carriers and providers and require the major carriers to detect” robocall activities, Abramovich said.

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, led the filing of the proposed Robocall Enforcement Enhancement Act, which would extend to three years the one-year statute of limitations for violations of federal robocall laws. It would also extend the statute of limitations for spoofing violations to three years. All other Senate Communications Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said such legislation is necessary because of perceptions that robocallers have concluded that the potential profits to be made from such operations outweigh the likely cost of civil penalties. FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold backed harmonizing the statute of limitations for violating robocall and spoofing laws but didn't mention Schatz's bill by name.

Blumenthal said he's reintroducing the Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones (Robocop) Act amid “bipartisan loathing” for abusive robocalls. “They are extraordinarily prevalent despite enforcement efforts by the FTC under existing law,” Blumenthal said. “The Do Not Call list is totally ineffectual against them. The evidence is that consumers still are plagued with them.” The Robocop Act, first filed during the last Congress, would force all telecom companies to install free telemarketing blockers and verify the numbers on caller IDs (see 1604130056 and 1606060030).

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and 15 other Senate Democrats urged the FCC Wednesday to re-establish effective anti-robocall consumer protections in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's reversal earlier this year of parts of a 2015 FCC robocalling order (see 1803160053). The FCC is expected soon to seek comment or otherwise address industry concerns about TCPA, and particularly the definition of automatic telephone dialing system, in response to the D.C. Circuit ruling (see 1804160044). “In an era when the onslaught of unwanted and abusive robocalls is on the rise, we are concerned that the absence of these core protections could result in even more invasive calls and texts,” the senators said in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Without swift and robust action by the FCC to ensure these sensible protections are in place, consumers may lose the right to both provide and revoke consent, subjecting them to a deluge of unwanted calls and texts.”

“We'll look at” Democrats' legislative proposals to address robocall proliferation along with suggestions from the FCC and FTC on “things that we could do” to update their regulatory authority, Thune told reporters. “They're taking a lot of enforcement actions, it's just that it's become more prolific than it ever has been before. And as was pointed out all the new technologies make it easy for bad actors to do what they want to do.”

Harold suggested Congress make technical changes to TCPA that she said gave operations a “get out of jail free card” to change their practices. The FCC is concentrating its efforts on going after “major” robocall operations and will “pay attention” if Congress decides to give them additional authority to take action, she said. FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Associate Director-Marketing Practices Division Lois Greisman cited the FTC Act's common-carrier exemption as a “real impediment” to further agency enforcement action against robocall operations. Harold and Greisman noted the Do Not Call list has been effective in preventing a limited set of telemarketing calls it was originally designed to address. The list “was not designed” to prevent fraudulent, spoofed robocalls, Greisman said.