- Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
Washington DC — Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Karen Charles recently attended the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (“NARUC”) Winter Policy conference in Washington DC. Commissioner Charles moderated a panel discussion, “Robocalls, Spam Texts, Call-based fraud, Oh My!” which tackled how regulators and industry members are employing technological, policy and regulatory solutions to combat the increased frequency and severity of robocall activity.
An important takeaway from the panel discussion was the consensus that there can be no singular action plan on this issue. The group must be ready to combat current robocall tactics as well as anticipate and prepare for dismantling future forms of robocall scams. Other recommendations included ongoing consumer awareness initiatives to help the public identify and report robocall scams, upstream service providers to be held accountable for downstream providers’ actions, and the enforcement of hefty penalties for companies that are enabling these calls to make their way through their systems, including discontinuing their ability to operate.
