Texas joins federal crackdown on illegal robocallers
Texas joins federal crackdown on robocallers
Operation Stop Scam Calls is a joint state and federal effort to crack down on illegal robocalls by targeting telemarkets and those who provide them contacts and equipment.
AUSTIN, Texas - The state of Texas is joining Operation Stop Scam Calls, a federal effort to crack down on illegal robocalling centers.
Officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, in announcing this partnership, say they have already shut down a massive Texas-based robocall operation.
The joint state and federal law enforcement sweep is targeting telemarketers and anyone else who helps them by providing consumer contact information and the equipment to make the illegal calls.
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To get some insight on this kind of operation, FOX 7 Austin spoke to security expert Doug Kouns with Veracity IIR, a retired FBI agent, about the crackdown and how AI technology is making it more difficult to determine if it’s a crook that’s calling.
"It's really just developing too. I think it's going to get a lot worse with this AI," Kouns said. "We've seen it not only in this type of scam, but on even more nefarious things where they pretend to be a family member that's in trouble. It'll sound just like your son or your grandchild or whoever, and they'll say, in jail, I need $5,000 to bail. They just need your credit card number. Well, it's not really you. It's an AI program imitating your voice. And they're very convincing."
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Cracking a case involves more than a simple wiretap, according to Kouns.
"It's peeling an onion. And again, like I said before, these voiceover Internet protocol numbers are very disposable," he said. "So they might use it for a few days or even a week, get rid of that number and just get a new VOIP number to continue this. So as soon as you're homing in on this one phone number that's responsible for a series of robocall scams, it gets disposed of and a new one pops up and you got to start the whole process over. So it's very difficult."
This type of scam is expected to ramp up during the political season.
"It does, because although the political calls are legal, that's if they're a legitimate political call, you'll have people trying to scam you and saying that this is a fundraiser for whomever. And if you'd like to donate. Press here, Enter your credit card number. Don't do that. You know, I would if you want to donate to whomever that is. Go to their website. You know, hang up on that call, go to their website and donate it that way," said Kouns.
Phone numbers can be copied in what’s called spoofing. That’s why Kouns said you can't trust your phone's Caller ID. So when in doubt, just hang up and report the call to the FTC.
Click here to read more from the Texas Attorney General's Office on how to spot and report phone scams.
Click here to read more about robocalls from the Federal Trade Commission.