Man Accused Of Making Millions Of Robocalls Faces Biggest-Ever FCC Fine

[Eugene]

Source: NPR

Federal regulators on Thursday said they've identified "the perpetrator of one of the largest ... illegal robocalling campaigns" they have ever investigated.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $120 million fine for a Miami resident said to be single-handedly responsible for almost 97 million robocalls over just the last three months of 2016.

Officials say Adrian Abramovich auto-dialed hundreds of millions of phone calls to landlines and cellphones in the U.S. and Canada and at one point even overwhelmed an emergency medical paging service.

Making prerecorded telemarketing phone calls to people without their prior consent is prohibited. So is making telemarketing calls to emergency phone lines and deliberately falsifying caller ID to disguise identity with the intent to harm or defraud consumers.

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Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533970545/man-accused-of-making-millions-of-robocalls-faces-biggest-ever-fcc-fine

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June 22, 20175:05 PM ET
ALINA SELYUKH

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Related: Citation and Order - Prerecorded Message Violations and Wire Fraud (FCC)

[moonscape]

1. Excellent. 1 down, 1000 to go. n/t

[christx30]

2. I hope they get them all.

These guys are lower than dirt.
But maybe seeing one of their own go down like this will get them to get a real job.

[Shrike47]

3. Proposed fine is too small.

[mitch96]

4. I detest those robocalls. I get too many

I'm at the point I just don't answer the phone if I don't know the number...
I hope he goes to jail and becomes Bubba's bitch...
m

[moonscape]

7. I can recommend Nomorobo ...

if your phone qualifies. https://www.nomorobo.com

I set this up last week and it's (so far) a dream. I used to get so many, and now Nomorobo catches them all (thus far). All I hear is one ring now. I did Google a number that came through that I didn't recognize, to learn it's a number Nomorobo uses to send through a call from a number on the black list where a human was at the calling end. Nomorobo apparently gives the caller a chance to quickly punch in the calling number - if they don't, they don't get through.

Bliss!

[onit2day]

11. My own phone # would show up on ID

[moonscape]

13. They spoof your number to call you? That's brutal! n/t

[cry baby]

5. I think I got a postcard telling of this...talking about some sort of

class action lawsuit.

Anyone else get one of those in the mail?

[Ms. Toad]

6. I was hoping it was Heather from card services

Who calls me daily from a different number every time.

Unfortunately, since part of my job requires me to respond to student phone calls - and my students could come from anywhere in the US - I can't just not answer the strange new number from Florida, Texas, South Carolina, etc.

[moonscape]

8. Look just upthread - about Nomorobo. It's wonderful. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

10. Are you getting calls from Heather from card services?

I don't believe Nomorobo would work.

To the extent it learns numbers - that won't work. Heather's been calling me daily for months on end, without a single repeat number.

To the extent it requires my friends to go through a screening process - I'm not inclined to do that. I've had to reach friends who set up a screening service & I just stopped calling them becuase it was so annoying to be screened every time I tried to reach them.

[moonscape]

12. No, I didn't explain it well. They have a massive database of

spamming/robo numbers,and those are the only ones Nomorobo catches. Your friends wouldn't be on that list.

I checked reviews before I signed up, and so far have been pleased. Not a single friend, or business which is legitimate that I do business with has been blocked or had to punch in my number.

[Ms. Toad]

18. That does alleviate one concern.

But I still suspect it still wouldn't catch Heather, from card services.

I track where calls come from by adding them as a contact number for "spam." Heather has been calling for months, and every single time she calls from a different number (ie. it doesn't tell me "spam" is calling.) She seems to have an unlimited supply of different randomly selected numbers.

[moonscape]

19. Actually, I think those are exactly the spammy calls they

block. So-called Heather might have a lot of numbers, but they all get reported and into the database.

If your carrier supports Nomorobo, it's worth a try. Free for landline, which is what I'm using it for.

I have Comcast and they only allow 25 numbers to block, so I had been blocking just the most frequent ones but 25 is nothing! Saw that Nomorobo was an option when I checked messages online at Comcast and decided to try it. Has been great for me.

[tymorial]

9. I generally lurk and do not post

I have at least 50 random phone numbers blocked from robot callers with fake phone numbers. I have another 30 on my cellphone. I would change my numbers but I have a lot of clients and patients that call for legitimate reasons. I setup a Google voice with a forward hoping that would help but that just made the issue worse. I get at least one a day. One came in 15 minutes ago. Between fake roof assessment scams, free home security scams, fake electricity cost savings scams, and those $&$ card holder services vermin, I am disgusted.

Fines will not solve this problem. Half of these people are not even located on the US. The others don't pay. If they do, they will just relocate and start all over again. Put them in prison.

[Tracer]

15. Oh lord.

Those electricity savings scams are as bad as Heather/Rachel from "Card Services".

I get at least 4 of them every damn day.

I'll definitely investigate Nomorobo.

[dalton99a]

17. Pretty soon people will answer only calls from their named contact list

[Stuart G]

14. k and r... I went on line to read several stories about this.

But there are no pictures of this con man...anywhere on the internet..at least not where I looked...None of his businesses or the stories about this con job have a single picture...He is good at hiding, oh the companies that ran the scheme, have all been shut down...

[NCjack]

16. Lock up Abramovich in a prison cell with 25 telephones that only receive robocalls. nt