Are Robocalls Illegal?
A robocall is a phone call placed by an autodialer and delivers a pre-recorded message. Robocalls are usually unwanted and unsolicited calls. They are commonly used by political campaigns and telemarketers to reach large numbers of people quickly and easily. State, county, and federal government agencies can also use robocalls to deliver public service announcements and to deliver emergency warnings.
Besides these legitimate uses of robocalls, there are also scam robocalls. The vast majority of robocalls received by residents of the United States are from scammers and telemarketers. These entities usually call without permission and with the intent to deceive or defraud call receivers. Robocalls represent the largest number of complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Both of these agencies have well-defined sets of rules that callers must obey when using automated systems to contact consumers.
Not all robocalls are illegal. In itself, a robocall is not illegal. Its legality is determined by the intended purpose, the entity deploying it, and how it is used. Generally, when used to sell something, a robocall is illegal. However, if the individual or organization using it as a marketing tool gains consent from the individual called, then the robocall is legal.
In most cases, the FTC and FCC require robocallers to obtain written consent from the phone users they contact. Permission may be given in paper or electronic form. Consent given by paper includes completed and signed permissions forms, while electronic permissions include consent delivered via signed web forms. In some cases, verbal permission is also deemed sufficient. FCC rules also accept consent given by customers via buttons pressed on their phones.
A robocall used with the intent of stealing money, information, or anything else of value is illegal regardless of whether consent was sought and obtained. Robocalls used in phone scams are also illegal.
Do All Robocalls Require Permission?
According to the FTC, not all robocalls require permission. Phone users do not have to provide consent before they can receive these types of robocalls:
- Political robocalls - Calls from political campaigns soliciting support, donations, and votes are considered legal and do not require prior authorization from recipients
- Public service messages - Automated calls to deliver relevant information to the populace do not require permission to be sent out. Such robocalls include those used to provide flight information, appointment reminders, and announcements about school closures due to inclement weather. These robocalls must not contain ads and must not attempt to sell goods or services to those receiving them
- Debt collection robocalls - Debt collection agencies are empowered to use robocalls to contact debtors without requiring their consent. However, no agency can legally use robocalls to sell services intended to repair credits or reduce debts. Such calls are most likely from scammers
- Robocalls from healthcare providers - Hospitals can call out-patients about their appointments or with instructions about tests, test results, and other diagnostic or treatment aspects of their treatment. Similarly, pharmacies do not require consent to use robocalls to remind their customers about refilling their prescriptions
- Calls from charities - Charities can make robocalls without permission when soliciting donations. If they contract this task to a third party, such robocalls can only be to past donors or members of the charities. The FTC requires robocalls from charities to provide call recipients with the option to stop receiving further calls
What Are Robocall Scams?
These are phone scams perpetrated using robocalls. Robocalls require very little human intervention when set up and can reach large numbers of people with minimal effort and at a low cost. These advantages make them attractive to scammers. Robocall has also made it easier for scammers outside of the United States to run their cons and target phone users in different states. They can set up robocalls using VoIP phone numbers showing up as US phone numbers. Prior to the widespread adoption of VoIP, international call rates would have made such arrangements too expensive.
An estimate puts the number of scam calls targeting Americans at 50 billion in 2020. About 2.5 billion of these are robocalls, according to a report by the US Broadband Association, and that figure is expected to rise in the coming years. The most common scams associated with these calls involve social security, credit card, student loans, health insurance, and the IRS. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new areas of focus for robocall scams. These include stimulus checks and vaccine scams.
The sharp rise in robocall scam cases has led to more Americans refusing to answer their phones especially for calls coming from strangers. Most phone users rely on voicemails to sift through possible scam calls and potentially valid ones. Reverse phone lookup is a more effective way to tell a valid call from a robocall from a scammer. Phone number lookup searches are useful for identifying strange callers. Some reverse phone number search providers can easily identify phone numbers commonly used by scammers.
How Are Robocalls Used in Scams?
Phone scammers usually use robocalls when looking for new targets. By sending out thousands or millions of such unsolicited calls, they can find a few likely leads from those who believe their bogus offers and respond by showing interest.
Another common use of robocalls in phone scams is impersonation. Scammers usually impersonate trusted sources such as government agencies, law enforcement, local businesses, banks, and multinational corporations. Generally, if you receive a robocall offering you a business opportunity or asking you to send a payment or provide a confidential piece of information, it is most likely a robocall from a scammer.
Robocallers trying to scam unsuspecting phone users also use caller ID spoofing. This involves changing their names or numbers as they appear on their targets’ caller ID. Knowingly transmitting a wrong caller ID with the intention of defrauding, stealing information, or causing harm is a crime in the United States. The Truth in Caller ID Act is a federal anti-spoofing law that codifies the FCC’s anti-spoofing rules and the associated punishment recommended for offenders.
In robocall scams, caller ID spoofing is used to impersonate legitimate businesses and other entities with earned public trust. The scammer changes their caller information to that of the impersonated entity to increase the likelihood that their target will pick up their calls and believe their claims. The most commonly impersonated government agencies include the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Does the US Have Anti-Robocall Laws?
Yes. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal legislation designed to curtail robocalls and punish those deploying illegal robocalls. However, the first definite federal anti-robocall law is the TRACED Act. Signed into law in December 2019, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act expanded the power of the FCC over illegal robocalls and recommended more severe punishment for offenders.
The TRACED Act empowers the FCC to prosecute first offenders and increases the statute of limitation for past offenders to up to 4 years. Following the passage of the law, the FCC can fine spam robocallers up to $10,000 for each illegal robocall. Besides punishing offenders, the anti-robocall law also requires phone companies to speed up the rollout of call authentication systems when it comes into effect in 2020.
In line with the requirements of the TRACED Act, major carriers such as Verizon and AT&T are already rolling out the STIR/SHAKEN authentication system. The FCC will begin requiring big phone companies to implement this system followed by smaller and regional phone companies.
Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) are two call authentication technologies capable of stopping caller ID spoofing. They make it much harder for scammers and spammers using illegal robocalls to hide their identities. The STIR/SHAKEN system requires the originating carrier to digitally sign and confirm the identity of a caller before connecting them to a recipient. Every carrier involved in routing the call to its final destination will also authenticate the caller’s identity.
The TRACED Act not only seeks to reduce the number of unwanted calls received by Americans. It also aims to protect phone users from unwanted text messages or robotexts.
Does Registering on the Do Not Call Registry Stop Robocalls?
Registering your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry or a state Do Not Call List may reduce the number of robocalls received, but it will not stop robocalls. The national Do Not Call Registry is a database of phone numbers that have elected to opt out of receiving unsolicited calls from telemarketers. Besides the national registry, 12 states also operate local Do Not Call lists with the same purpose. Other states have adopted the national registry.
The FTC and FCC expect legitimate businesses and telemarketers to avoid robocalling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. However, most robocalls come from illegitimate telemarketers and scammers. These entities do not obey the Do Not Call rule and definitely do not care if certain phone users wish not to be contacted.
Even though the FTC cannot force everyone to obey the rules of Do Not Call Registry, listing your number in this registry can still help stop robocalls. Robocalls received after joining the Do Not Call Registry are most likely from scammers. Therefore, you can safely block and report these and be wary if you decide to answer these calls.
How Do I Stop Robocalls?
Both the FCC and FTC recommend blocking calls to stop robocalls. There are different ways to do this depending on what type of phone service you use. For call-blocking options available to you, contact your carrier for available solutions. Most carriers offer subscribers this feature. However, it may only be available as part of a premium paid package. Note that mobile phone carriers are not the only ones offering call-blocking features. VoIP service providers and landline operators also offer this feature.
Mobile phone users also have other options. They may use the call-blocking feature built into their phones. iPhones and most Android phones have the ability to block calls from certain numbers. You may set your phone to only allow calls from people in your contact list. While call-blocking features of smartphones are limited, they are available for free.
There are also third-party apps that offer this feature. These are available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Some of these are free ad-supported apps while others charge one-time or subscription fees. One advantage of these apps is that they have regularly updated databases of phone numbers currently used for robocalls. Many of these rely on crowdsourced blacklists generated when users tag robocall numbers.
If you are a VoIP phone user, you may also find third-party solutions outside the call-blocking feature offered by your carrier. There are online-based call-blocking services for VoIP users. Like mobile phone call-blocking solutions, users can set these to stop suspected robocalls, let them ring silently, or send them to voicemail.
Besides seeing what their carriers offer, landline users can also install call-blocking devices. These attach to phones and vet incoming calls before allowing them to go through. Most of these come with blacklists of known robocall and spam numbers against which they check the numbers for incoming calls. Some allow users to add to these blacklists while others prompt users to build their own whitelists of allowed numbers and block calls from other phone numbers.
What Do I Do If I Pick an Illegal Robocall?
Hang up on an unsolicited call as soon as you realize it is a robocall from an unapproved source. The pre-recorded message may make an attempt to sound genuine and apologetic by instructing you to press a number on your phone to speak with a live operator or to stop receiving further robocalls. Do not follow this instruction, as it is usually a step to confirm that your phone number is active. If you follow the robocall’s prompt, you will receive even more robocalls.
Report the illegal robocall to the FTC. The FTC accepts complaints about illegal robocalls and robocallers disobey the rules of the Do Not Call Registry. You can also submit a robocall complaint to the FCC, especially if it was used in a scam attempt along with caller ID spoofing.