The Federal Communications Commission proposed a record $225 million fine against “Texas-based health insurance telemarketers for apparently making approximately 1 billion illegally spoofed robocalls.” The violators are John C. Spiller and Jakob A. Mears, doing business as Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom. This is the largest proposed fine in FCC history, according to the press release.
From January to mid-May 2019, Rising Eagle made around 1 billion spoofed robocalls nationwide, allegedly “on behalf of clients that sell short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans.” Further “Mr. Spiller admitted to the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group that he knowingly called consumers on the Do Not Call list as he believed that it was more profitable to target these consumers. He also admitted that he made millions of calls per day, and that he was using spoofed numbers.” The robocalls “falsely claimed to offer health insurance plans from well-known health insurance companies such as Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group.” If a user expressed interest, by pressing the specified key, they were “transferred to a call center with no affiliation to the named companies, where call center representatives then would attempt to convince the consumers to purchase an insurance product sold by one of Rising Eagle’s clients,” not from an insurance provider that they originally believed to be expressing interest with.
Commissioner Carr stated, “Our enforcement action today represents a major win for the industry-led approach. A consortium of telecom companies called the Industry Traceback Group used its members’ data to identify the origin of these apparent scam calls, and it then passed that information over to our enforcement staff. The conduct at issue in this case appears particularly troublesome, as it was not merely about annoying calls interrupting dinner. The calls in this case appear designed to defraud Americans on health insurance.”
Rising Eagle’s biggest client, Health Advisors of America, was sued in February 2019 by the Missouri Attorney General for telemarketing violations. The FCC said in 2018 there were more consumer complaints and robocalls relating to health insurance and other health-related products. An investigation revealed that Rising Eagle accounted for a large portion of these robocalls. The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s investigation found that Rising Eagle’s robocalls “were spoofed in order to deceive consumers, targeted millions of DO Not Call list participants, and were received on many wireless phones without prior consumer consent.” Companies who had their caller ID spoofed, received an influx of angry call-backs from affected consumers and “[a]t least one company was hit with several lawsuits because its number was spoofed, and another was so overwhelmed with calls that its telephone network became unusable.”
The FCC has allowed phone companies “to block suspected malicious robocalls before they get to consumers; led the push for caller ID authentication using STIR/SHAKEN standards; worked to reduce unwanted calls to reassigned numbers; took steps to prevent scam robotexts; and provided many alerts, tips, and other education tools to help consumers protect themselves from scammers.” This action, officially known as a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, or NAL, informs a party how it has violated the law and if there is any penalty; the FCC is not allowed to increase a fine once it is proposed in the NAL.
Chairman Pai stated, “Today’s Notice of Apparent Liability is the latest action taken by the Commission to combat illegal robocalls since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency. It proposes a landmark forfeiture of $225,000,000—the largest fine ever in FCC history. That’s because operating through various companies—collectively, Rising Eagle—John C. Spiller and Jakob A. Mears made approximately one billion spoofed robocalls—yes, that’s billion with a “b”—in the first four-and-a-half months of 2019 with the intent to defraud, cause harm, and wrongfully obtain something of value, in apparent violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act.”
“What made Mr. Spiller’s scheme so insidious from a consumer perspective was something he admitted to investigators,” Chairman Pai added. “Not only did he make millions of calls a day using spoofed numbers, but he took particular care to include customers who had put their names on the National Do Not Call Registry—because he “found his sales rates . . . rose substantially” when he did so. Rising Eagle even continued to make abusive robocalls despite being warned on multiple occasions that the calls were unlawful and were generating complaints. Thankfully, Rising Eagle’s scam has now run its course.”
This is not a final action and the parties will have an opportunity to respond.
