FCC Adopts New Rules Banning Malicious Caller ID Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls | Practical Law

FCC Adopts New Rules Banning Malicious Caller ID Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls | Practical Law

On August 1, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules to ban malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign robocalls.

FCC Adopts New Rules Banning Malicious Caller ID Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls

by Practical Law Commercial Transactions
Published on 07 Aug 2019 • USA (National/Federal)
On August 1, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules to ban malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign robocalls.
On August 1, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules that broaden the scope and effect of its malicious caller ID rules. The new rules close a loophole that prevented the FCC from prosecuting text scammers and foreign robocallers, increase civil penalties, and make criminal sanctions available for willful and knowing violations.

Background

On March 4, 2019, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The proposed rules made modifications to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 (TICIDA), which prohibits anyone from causing a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value (spoofing). The proposed new rules expanded the TICIDA by giving the FCC power to ban not only spoofed calls, but also unwanted text messages and robocalls from outside of the United States (84 Fed. Reg. 7315).
The FCC proposed the new rules to incorporate the anti-spoofing provisions of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act of 2018 (RAY BAUMS Act). The RAY BAUMS Act directed the FCC to prescribe rules extending the scope of the current rules to text messages and international calls.
The FCC's proposed rules:
  • Expanded the scope of caller ID rules to target text messages.
  • Expanded the scope of caller ID rules to target calls that originate from outside the United States and target recipients inside the United States.
  • Adopted definitions of:
    • "text message";
    • "text messaging service"; and
    • "voice service."
  • Revised definitions of:
    • "caller identification information"; and
    • "caller identification service."
The FCC sought comments on the new rules. Comments were due on April 3, 2019, and replies were due on May 3, 2019.
For more details about the NPRM, see Legal Update, FCC Releases Report and Proposes Rule to Combat Robocalls.

New Rules

On August 1, 2019, the FCC adopted the new rules. The new rules extend the previous prohibition against spoofed calls to:
  • Spoofed text messages.
  • Calls originating outside the US to recipients in the US.
  • Additional types of voice calls, including one way Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls.
The new rules also strengthen the FCC's power to combat spoofing, including by:
  • Giving the FCC two years to investigate any calls or text messages that fall with the new, expanded definition of spoofing.
  • Imposing a $10,000 civil penalty for each violation.
  • Imposing criminal fines and up to a year of imprisonment for willful or knowing violations.
The new rules follow several other recent FCC measures to combat malicious caller ID spoofing and robocalls, including:
  • Handing down the largest fines in FCC history for violations of spoofing rules.
  • Pushing the phone industry to implement a caller ID authentication framework.
  • Empowering service providers to:
    • offer robocall blocking services by default; and
    • create a database to reduce calls to reassigned numbers.
For more information about the FCC's efforts to combat spoofing and robocalls, see Legal Updates, FCC Releases Report on Robocalls, FCC Votes to Allow Robocall Blocking by Default, and FCC Imposes Largest Forfeiture Ever for Illegal "Neighbor Spoofing" Robocalls.