President Trump has recently signed a law increasing fines on robocalls and requiring phone service providers to begin authenticating calls across networks.
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act) was signed on Monday, after Congress approved the landmark bill earlier this month to give the federal government new abilities to go after illegal robocallers.
Now the max fines has been increase to $10,000 per call. The law also requires major carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to use a new technology called STIR/SHAKEN to help customers know if they’re being targeted by a robocaller with a spoofed number.
In a statement Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said: “I applaud Congress for working in a bipartisan manner to combat illegal robocalls and malicious caller ID spoofing.”
I am glad the agency has a longer statute of limitations to pursue scammers Pai added.
Carriers have already begun to deploy the STIR/SHAKEN technology in anticipation of the new law, though support is still limited. Eventually, companies like AT&T and Verizon should be able to verify calls between their networks, ensuring a call is coming from a real, authentic number.
