US Blocks Telecom Companies from Facilitating Robocall Fraud
The United States Department of Justice issued injunctions
on Friday barring two telecom carriers from facilitating robocalls that led to
people paying millions to fraudsters for solving made-up legal predicaments.
“These massive robocall fraud schemes target telephones of
residents across our country, many of whom are elderly or are otherwise
potentially vulnerable to such schemes,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt
said in a statement.
The injunctions follow the Justice Department’s first ever
complaints against robocall companies. The defendants have defrauded victims
out of millions of dollars, according to the Justice Department.
Fraudsters operating overseas would record themselves
impersonating government officials or well-known businesses and send these
recordings over the internet to telephones, according to one of the complaints.
The recordings contained false alarming messages such as saying that the
recipient’s social security number is connected to criminal activity, that they
face imminent arrest, and that their assets will be frozen.
The fraudsters also tried to scare people by saying their
bank accounts would be suspended, their benefits would be stopped and that they
faced deportation.
If the victims answered the calls or called back, the fraudsters
would offer to resolve their purported legal matters by settling their “legal
obligation” through a direct payment.
“In reality, the individual is neither under investigation
nor in legal jeopardy, and the same threatening robocall was made
simultaneously to thousands of other U.S. telephones,” according to the
complaint.
One of the two complaints at the basis of the injunctions
was filed in January against two intermediary telecom companies and Nicholas
and Natasha Polumbo from Arizona. The second was filed on the same day against
Jon Kahen and three companies from New York State.
The complaints allege that the telecom businesses were used
to funnel hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls a month.
Through the voice over internet protocol services offered by
these companies, international call centers were able to forward robocalls to
victims in the U.S. In the Polumbos case, the court noted that they had been
warned over a 100 times that their service was being used to facilitate fraud
but took no action.
The defendants received payments from the fraudsters abroad
and often these payments consisted of money coming directly from the victims,
“a portion of which is deposited directly into defendants' accounts in the
United States, before the remainder is transmitted to the fraudsters overseas,”
according to the complaint.
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