New Attempt to Stop the Robocall Epidemic

Despite stricter regulations and improved call-blocking technology, each year Americans are still bombarded with billions of illegal robocalls—automated phone calls with prerecorded messages from scammers and unscrupulous businesses. Unwanted calls and scam texts remain the top consumer complaint at the Federal Communications Commission.

Fraudsters use robocalls because they work. Americans lost about $25 billion to scam and spam robocalls in 2023, according to Truecaller, a spam-blocking service. The average loss per victim was approximately $452.

Anyone who receives an illegal robocall can sue the company responsible. Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the penalty is a $500 fine per call. But who has the time or money to do that? So, we just hang up or maybe file a complaint.

“Illegal robocallers are very clever, constantly changing their tactics,” said John Breyault, who runs the National Consumers League’s Fraud.org website. “Our telephone system has many layers, so it’s not exactly easy to go after these guys, and frankly, our enforcement agencies are not getting the funding they need to enforce the law.”

Checkbook previously reported on the ongoing attempts to thwart robocallers.

A Different Approach

Nomorobo, a robocall blocking service launched in 2013, believes more can be done to combat the robocall epidemic. It has taken the unusual step of suing four companies—all debt collectors—it claims are “significant violators” of the TCPA.

These companies were identified through Nomorobo’s “honeypot” monitoring system, which records, transcribes, and analyzes calls it receives. The honeypot consists of 290,000 phone numbers that have not been active for nearly a decade; therefore, any calls or texts to those numbers are automatically considered unwanted and a violation of the TCPA.

“Because we have this data set, and the fact that no one else is doing this— and that it’s our mission to protect consumers—we thought this would be a great time to file these lawsuits,” said Matt Mizenko, Nomorobo’s general manager. “At the end of the day, this affects more than just us. It potentially affects our customers and others as well, who don’t have our service.”