The FCC has proposed a $4,492,500 fine against voice service provider Telnyx for allegedly violating “Know Your Customer” rules and enabling a robocall scam. The fraudsters had their con game of impersonating FCC officials blow up in their face when they made the unfortunate mistake of targeting actual FCC employees with their robocalls.
Ars Technica reports that robocallers posing as employees of the FCC inadvertently targeted real FCC staff members and their families with a scam aimed at intimidating and defrauding unsuspecting victims. The incident, which occurred on the night of February 6, 2024, has prompted the FCC to take swift action against the voice service provider allegedly responsible for enabling the illegal robocalls.
The FCC has proposed a substantial fine of $4,492,500 against Telnyx, a Chicago-based company that offers voice services and APIs. The agency alleges that Telnyx violated its “Know Your Customer (KYC)” rules by providing access to calling services without properly verifying the identities of its customers, thus facilitating the robocall scam.
According to the FCC, the robocallers used an artificial voice claiming to be from the “FCC Fraud Prevention Team” and instructed recipients to press specific keys to either speak with a representative or schedule a callback. However, the FCC clarified that no such “Fraud Prevention Team” exists within the agency. One victim reported being connected to an individual who demanded payment of $1,000 in Google gift cards to avoid jail time for alleged “crimes against the state.”
The robocalling scheme, which lasted only two days, was carried out by two Telnyx customers using the pseudonyms Christian Mitchell and Henry Walker. These customers, referred to as “MarioCop accounts” in the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL), provided fake identities and paid for Telnyx’s services using Bitcoin. Records obtained by the FCC through a subpoena revealed that one MarioCop account placed 1,029 calls between February 6 and 7, while the other account placed 768 calls on February 6.
The FCC alleges that Telnyx failed to adequately verify the legitimacy of the limited identifying information provided by the MarioCop account holders, such as physical addresses in Canada and IP addresses from Scotland and England. The agency stated that Telnyx “accepted the names and physical addresses at face value, without any further requests for corroboration or independent verification.”
In response to the FCC’s allegations, Telnyx CEO David Casem expressed surprise at the agency’s decision and denied the accusations. Casem stated that Telnyx has done “everything and more” than the FCC has required for KYC and customer due diligence procedures. He also argued that the FCC has not previously demanded “perfection” in stopping illegal traffic and that Telnyx took swift action to block the unlawful calling activity within hours of detection.
Read more at Ars Technica here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
