Robocallers posing as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently had an “oh crap” moment when the group accidentally tried to scam employees of the very body they were pretending to be. According to Ars Technica, more than a dozen staff and their family members started receiving calls from the group.
The calls reportedly used an artificial voice that introduced themselves as agents from the “Federal Communications Commission Fraud Prevention Team” and that the recipient could speak to an “agent” or schedule a callback. Ultimately, the game was the same: calling back the number and speaking with the agent would result in the person demanding that they pay the FCC US$1,000 (~RM4,435) for their “crimes against the state”.
The FCC blames Telnyx, the telecommunications company that it says provided the robocallers with the infrastructure and fully-meshed private IP networks. Telnyx gave its account on how the robocallers got through their vetting process: two customers by the name of Christian Mitchell and Henry Walker provided the company with fake Canadian addresses and some really sketchy “mariocop123.com” domains. Further, the actors paid with cryptocurrency which, technically, should have been a big red flag.
Telnyx said that it already shut down the accounts but not before the robocallers launched approximately 1,800 calls to unsuspecting victims. In light of their accident, the FCC proposed a US$4.5 million (~RM20 million) fine against Telnyx, on the grounds that the company violated US “Know Your Customer” rules.
Telnyx told Ars Technica that it denied the FCC’s allegations and that it would be contesting the penalty.
(Source: Ars Technica, Techspot, FCC)
