Free Republic

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed what would be its largest fine ever - just under $300 million - against the biggest robocall company that it's ever investigated. The company made a staggering 5 billion scam calls over the course of three months last year, which the agency notes is enough to 'have called each person in the United States 15 times.' Since the robocallers met the definition for 'egregious violations,' the FCC decided to impose its largest fine ever: $299,997,000. Consumers were subjected to relentless calls that often began with something like: 'We've been trying to reach you concerning...

AT&T settles with FCC over customer data that was stolen from data centers overseas and used to unlock stolen mobile phones. AT&T has reached a $25 million settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over stolen customer data from three international call centers. The data breaches took place at contracted call centers in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines, and involved the unauthorized disclosure of almost 280,000 U.S. customers' names, full or partial Social Security numbers and unauthorized access to protected account-related data. The FCC said the information obtained from these breaches was used to unlock codes for stolen phones. Workers at...

Fla. Station Fined $4,000 for Castro Prank MIAMI (AP) - A radio station that crank-called Cuban President Fidel Castro and broadcast the recording should be fined $4,000, the Federal Communications Commission said. The Spanish-speaking hosts of "The Morning High Jinks" used snippets of an earlier prank involving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to move the call from a receptionist up the chain to Castro in a five-minute broadcast June 17. The hosts of the show on WXDJ-FM, Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos, fed pleasantries to Castro before breaking in and calling him an assassin. The conversation ended after Castro denounced the...