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The total amount of money secured by the Federal Trade Commission through court judgments in cases involving civil penalties for robocalls or National Do Not Call Registry-related violations, plus the sum requested for consumer redress in fraud-related cases, is $1.5 billion since 2004. It has collected $121 million of that total, said Ian Barlow, coordinator of the agency’s Do Not Call program, or about 8%. The agency operates the National Do Not Call Registry and regulates telemarketing. An FCC spokesman said his agency lacks the authority to enforce the forfeiture orders it issues and has passed all unpaid penalties to...

How to stop robocalls, block numbers on your iPhone, Android and even landline

The call sounds like it is coming from President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. It even uses a recording of the President's voice: "I'm Donald Trump. Tonight I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border, out of love and devotion to our country." A deep-voiced narrator then comes on asking the listener to "be one of the hundreds thousands of patriots that helped President Trump finally build a the wall by making a one-time urgently needed donation to the campaign." Calls like this one, said to number more than 200,000, have helped raise more than $100,000 in...

Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), warned phone service providers that if they don't crack down on fraudulent caller IDs from robocallers his agency will step in with regulation. Pai sent letters to major wireless carriers in November demanding that they adopt industry-wide frameworks to crackdown on the practice of "spoofing," where robocallers mask a call's origin with a fraudulent number on their caller ID. On Wednesday, the FCC chair followed up with another demand that they implement caller authentication systems this year and a threat over the repercussions if they don't comply.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $37.5 million fine against a Tucson company for allegedly placing more than 2.3 million “maliciously-spoofed” telemarketing calls to sell home-remodeling services during a 14-month span starting in 2016. FCC officials said Affordable Enterprises of Arizona made the telemarketing calls that apparently manipulated the caller-ID information so that many of the calls appeared to come from consumers not connected to the operation.

My phones are ringing off the hooks with robocalls from smug politicians telling me that it's going to snow tomorrow. (I listened to the first ten seconds of the first call.) So far my town and my county, judging by the caller-ids, have called. (Their system isn't sophisticated enough to recognize that they are calling duplicate addresses so I get two of each of these annoying calls.) How stupid do these people think we are? What do they think we all did before they had their "emergency phone system"? ML/NJ

At least one Alabama resident has received a robocall from someone posing as a Washington Post reporter and looking for women willing to make damaging remarks about Roy Moore for cash rewards, according to WKRG in Alabama. A voicemail left for Pastor Al Moore of Creola, Alabama reportedly said: "Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I'm a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars....

SIERRA VISTA — Unsolicited automated phone calls are a top source of complaint for the Federal Communications Commission, which is way the government agency is trying to enact new restrictions in order to protect consumers. A proposal brought forth by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last month would allow voice service providers to block certain calls that “falsely appear” to be unable to make outgoing or taking incoming calls, according to an October FCC fact sheet. The commission estimated that U.S. consumers received more than 2.4 billion automated calls per month in 2016, many of which included a caller with a...

The nationally organized, local left-wing grassroots group known as Indivisible is getting pretty ticked off about being described as “scripted” — even though its members are raising their own concerns about Wisconsin Indivisible chapters working from scripts. The outrage – at least the latest outrage – follows an op/ed last week in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by an Nicole Tieman, communications director for U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls. The piece, takes aim at the notion that the so-called Indivisible “uprisings” are part of an organic movement, instead of a scripted, well organized and, it appears, well financed national “resistance...

An unfamiliar number appears on your cellphone. It’s from your area code, so you answer it, thinking it might be important,” Christopher Mele writes for The New York Times. “There is an unnatural pause after you say hello, and what follows is a recording telling you how you can reduce your credit card interest rates or electric bill or prescription drug costs or any of a number of other sales pitches. Another day, another irritating robocall. If it feels as if your cellphone has increasingly been flooded with them, you’re right.” “In a Robocall Strike Force Report in October, the...

Telemarketers have a new trick to get you to answer the phone — and it’s hitting close to home. Caller ID spoofing, a technique to fake the number a call is coming from, makes detecting pesky robocalls more difficult. One increasingly popular way telemarketers are getting people to answer the phone is by mimicking the user’s number — copying the recipient’s area code and sometimes even the first few digits of their number. Not even the head of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates phone lines and telemarketers, is immune. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told NPR he’s been targeted by...

It wouldn’t be a Republican primary without charges of foul play levelled at Ted Cruz. And New York is no exception. A few hours before polls closed in the Empire State, John Kasich’s strategist John Weaver tweeted that the Texan was responsible for misleading robocalls—which falsely claimed that New York’s Democratic governor had endorsed Kasich.

Mitt Romney took his willingness to support Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz one step further by recording robocalls for the Texas senator. In the calls, first reported by The Daily Caller, Romney encourages voters in Arizona and Utah to support Cruz. A call targeting Arizona voters was released today and another call will begin ringing in Utah homes tomorrow. Both Utah and Arizona will hold nominating contests tomorrow. “I’m calling to ask you to join me in supporting Ted Cruz for president this Tuesday in the Utah Republican caucuses. This is the time for Republicans across the spectrum to unite...

Mitt Romney recorded robocalls for Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign that are going out in all four states voting on Tuesday, CNN has confirmed. It's part of an escalating effort by Romney to block Donald Trump from securing the Republican presidential nomination. First reported by The New York Times, the robocalls do not represent an outright endorsement of Rubio, and a spokesperson for Romney indicated the 2008 GOP nominee would be willing to help Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich as well. "Gov. Romney has offered and is glad to help Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Gov....

Mitt Romney has recorded robocalls to encourage voters to cast ballots for GOP presidential candidate John Kasich, as he did for Kasich's opponent Sen. Marco Rubio, telling them it is important to elect "a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud." The robocalls started going out to voters in Michigan this morning, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols told ABC News. "Hello, this is Mitt Romney calling, and I'm calling on behalf of Kasich for America," the recording begins, referring to the Ohio governor's campaign. "Today, you have the opportunity in Michigan to vote for a Republican...

Just when you thought the Republican Establishment couldn’t sink any lower…. The GOP establishment is desperate — And they will run any smear they can against GOP frontrunner Donald Trump to take him out.

Tommy Harken is an undecided Republican who has been receiving a stack of political mail and numerous daily phone calls. One of the calls was even in Spanish, he said. "Can't tell you if it was for or against Rubio, all I could understand was 'Rubio,'" he said.

A pro-Ted Cruz robo-telephone call is blasting Donald Trump for butting his nose into support of the Confederate flag coming down. The recorded message, coming late in the campaign, also takes a jab at Gov. Nikki Haley. “Put it in a museum, let it go,” the recording says, quoting Trump and his view on removing the flag. An announcer then picks up by saying “That’s Donald Trump supporting Nikki Haley removing the battle flag from the Confederate memorial in Columbia.” It adds “people like Donald Trump are always butting their noses into other people’s business,” and that “Trump talks about...

Some registered voters in Iowa received robocalls Saturday from a white nationalist super PAC that urged them to support Donald Trump in the 2016 election. "I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America," Jared Taylor said on the robocall, paid for by the American National Super PAC. "We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump." Taylor is the founder of the white supremacist magazine American Renaissance. The robocall included two more...

Part 273 of 271 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Watchdog MADISON, Wis. – While Senate Republican leadership attempts to woo a few members cool to a key provision in a Government Accountability Board overhaul bill, a vocal target of the GAB’s secret probe is using his constitutional rights to target lawmakers holding up reform. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, tells Wisconsin Watchdog that the bill will be taken up, although likely not until next week. The proposal, which passed last week in the Assembly along party lines, could be...