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FTC To 'Crack Down' On Robocalls, Companies Fined Millions

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Nearly five billion Americans received robocalls last month alone.

Now, the government is said to unveil a major crackdown on the companies behind the calls.

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new crackdown on three robocall companies, hitting them with millions in fines.

Americans lost $10.5 billion to phone scams from March 2018 to March 2019.

The joint state and federal enforcement also targets several operations that authorities say were using robocalls to sell everything from "bogus credit card interest rate reduction services," "fraudulent money-making opportunities," and "medical alert systems."

According to investigators, the companies they are targeting were behind around one billion robocalls.

However, some fear this action may not have much of an effect.

According to Alex Quilici, CEO of call blocking company YouMail, when there's a crackdown like this, there will be fewer calls from the companies that are targeted but those companies are then replaced by another company that often does the same scam.

The government recently gave phone companies more power to stop robocalls from reaching our phones, but it was not clear when that will go into full effect.

For now, expect those spam calls to continue.

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