Washington – December 20, 2022 – The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau today announced the opening of a new online portal by which private entities can alert agency enforcement staff of suspicious robocall, robotext, and spoofing campaigns. For example, a private hospital or small business might use the portal to seek support from the FCC in cutting off or taking enforcement action against robocallers flooding their institution’s phone lines with robocalls or spoofing the entity’s legitimate phone number to trick consumers.
“This new tool will help us support companies and businesses that see their phone lines jammed with robocalls or their valuable and hard-won brand awareness undercut by scammers spoofing their numbers,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal. “While we will always rely on consumer complaints about massive robocall campaigns and have existing lines of communications with many public institutions, we now also have a direct line of communications with private entities that sometimes seem under siege by robocalls and now have an avenue to reach out for help.”
In the TRACED Act, Congress directed the FCC to streamline the methods used by private entities to share information with the Commission regarding suspected robocall and spoofing violations. The FCC adopted rules in June 2021 to establish an online web portal where private entities, including small businesses, can voluntarily submit information regarding suspected violations.
The portal is available for use by private entities seeking to submit information about suspected robocall or spoofing violations and by private entities whose numbers have been spoofed – complaints from public entities or individual consumers will be transferred to the existing informal consumer complaint process. To ensure the Enforcement Bureau can fully investigate suspected violations if it has reason to believe legal violations have occurred, entries submitted via the portal should state detailed information, including, but not limited to: entity name, contact information, caller ID information, phone number called, date and time or relevant calls or texts, service provider, and description.
The private entity portal is now available at: https://www.fcc.gov/enforcement/private-entity-robocall-spoofing-portal.
