The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a record fine of nearly $300 million on Wednesday for an alleged robocall scheme that involved more than five billion calls about extended vehicle warranties.
"Maybe it happened to you this last year," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "You picked up the phone and someone you don't know, who you didn't ask to call, tells you they have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty. It's a scam."
According to the agency, the proposed $299.997 million fine comes in response to the largest robocall operation the FCC has ever investigated. Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones allegedly placed more than five billion robocalls to sell auto service contracts fraudulently marketed as car warranties.
The pair violated federal anti-robocalling and spoofing laws, through their Sumco Panama company, the commission said.
Cox and Jones allegedly called 550 million phone numbers 5.19 billion times between January 2021 and March 2021, though they began placing the calls as early as 2018.
They allegedly spoofed the phone numbers of hospitals for some of the calls, prompting people to call the hospitals in confusion. Other calls allegedly came from foreign entities but were spoofed to make them appear local.
"The calls then misrepresented the product or service being offered and made false or misleading statements to induce call recipients to purchase goods or services," the FCC said.
The agency took initial action against the operation in July by directing U.S.-based voice service providers to stop carrying traffic related to the scam calls, which led to a huge drop in volume, the FCC said.
"We will be relentless in pursing the groups behind these schemes by limiting their access to U.S. communications networks and holding them to account for their conduct," FCC acting Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said in a statement.