The Federal Communications Commission said it is preparing to block a phone company that carried illegal robocalls pushing fake programs that promised to wipe out consumers' tax debt. Veriwave Telco "has not complied with FCC call blocking rules for providers suspected of carrying illegal traffic" and now has two weeks to contest an order that would require all downstream voice providers to block all of the telco's call traffic, the FCC announced yesterday.
Robocalls sent in the months before tax filing season "purported to provide information about a 'National Tax Relief Program' and, in some instances, also discussed a 'Tax Dismissal Program,'" the FCC order said. "The [Enforcement] Bureau has found no evidence of the existence of either program. Many of the messages further appealed to recipients with the offer to 'rapidly clear' their tax debt."
Call recipients who listened to the prerecorded message and chose to speak to an operator were then asked to provide private information. Nearly 16 million calls were sent, though it's unclear how many went through Veriwave.
Veriwave is an "originating provider" that distributes call traffic to other phone companies before calls are delivered to landline and cellphone users. The Industry Traceback Group (ITG), which is run by the USTelecom trade association and coordinates with the FCC, conducted tracebacks on about two dozen calls and determined that Veriwave was the originating provider.
"The ITG notified Veriwave of these calls and provided the Company with supporting data identifying each call," the FCC said in a previous order. "Veriwave did not contest it had originated the calls and identified one client as the source of all of the calls. Veriwave did not offer evidence of consent for the calls or contest the unlawful nature of the calls. Nor did Veriwave contest that any exceptions to the rules applied."