Rock Island Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17) led 35 members of Congress in requesting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provide plans to address scam robocalls and texts, which heavily target seniors. 

"It's no secret that scam robocalls and texts are huge burden to anyone who gets them. But these attacks are also responsible for billions of dollars in theft carried out against seniors each year," said Sorensen. "I'm proud to lead over 35 of my colleagues in demanding solutions so we can finally push back against the scammers behind these vicious attacks.” 

Read Congressman Sorensen’s full letter here and below: 

Dear ChairwomanRosenworcel, 

Too many Americans, particularly our senior citizens, are taken advantage of by bad actors and scammers with robocalls and, more prevalent in recent years, robotexts. Instances of robocall and robotext fraud have skyrocketed despite ongoing efforts by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and Congress to address this issue plaguing consumers. So far, in 2023, it is estimated that there are over 300,000 robotexts sent every single minute to Americans across the country and over 3 billion robotexts are sent every week, according to Robokiller, an application company working to prevent spam messages. In April 2023 alone, Americans received over 13 billion robotexts. These numbers only continue to rise year after year. In 2022, the American public received over 225 billion robotexts, which marked a 157% increase from 2021 and a 307% increase from 2020. 

As you know, data breaches and data selling have made once private information, like cell phone numbers, public on the dark web for hackers and bad actors to access, leaving countless Americans open to being scammed. The FCC recommends consumers do not “respond to texts from unknown numbers, or any others that appear suspicious” and “never share personal or financial information by text,” yet the texts continue to come. Once appearing as obvious spoofs, robotexts are becoming more sophisticated and look like genuine texts from real people. 

According to the Better Business Bureau, the sophisticated robotexts can be more convincing than traditional phishing texts and can use AI chat bots to generate responses in the interaction to get critical information from the recipients. Even generic spam texts are still generating positive interactions for scammers. In 2022, Americans were scammed out of an estimated $20 billion as a result of robotext scams, often from texts posing as their banks or fake “package updates” from Amazon or USPS that are phishing scams. By collecting this information, scammers can steal the identity of vulnerable Americans or sell their information to the highest bidder who will then abuse this information. 

In 2019, Congress passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which aimed to cut down on the amount of robocalls Americans received from this same type of actors. The TRACED Act requires carriers to offer call-authentication technology to all customers with no additional fee, provide opt-in and opt-out of robocall blocking, and allows the FCC to fine individuals behind robocalls. In March 2023, the FCC adopted its first rules focusing on robotexts, blocking texts from phone numbers that are “unlikely to transmit text messages” and requiring wireless providers to establish a point of contact for text senders. Given the persistent volume of robocalls and robotexts, and their impact on consumers, especially seniors, it clear that additional action is needed. 

We urge you to use every tool at your disposal to crack down on these bad actors that take advantage of working Americans. In that vein, could you please answer the following questions and report back on your efforts to combat these robocalls and robotexts: 

• What next steps is the FCC taking to help regulate and decrease robocalls and robotexts? 
• Are there any noted gaps in coverage with the TRACED Act, such as international calls, that could be addressed with Congressional action? 
• Can programs designed for the TRACED Act or intergovernmental cooperation with the FTC and the Do Not Call registry apply to robotext recipients to ensure text messages see some sort of authentication process? 
• What else can the administration do to address the proliferation of robotexts?

We look forward to working with you and the administration to address and hopefully end once and for all the scourge of robocalls and robotexts. Thank you for your prompt attention and response to this matter.

Congressman Eric Sorensen is the first openly LGBTQ person elected to represent Illinois at the federal level and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition. He serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Prior to serving in Congress, Sorensen was a local meteorologist in Rockford and the Quad Cities for nearly 20 years. His district includes Illinois’ Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal.

Original source can be found here.