[Author: Katie Trial]
On September 27, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to adopt the New Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to Fight Scam and Spam Text Messages with Network-Level Blocking & Sender ID Authentication.
The FCC summarized in the following proposal in the NPRM, in which they propose:
- To require mobile wireless providers to block illegal text messages, building on ongoing work to stop illegal and unwanted robocalls
- To require mobile wireless providers to block texts, at the network level, that purport to be from invalid, unallocated, or unused numbers, and numbers on a Do-Not-Originate (DNO) list
- To comment on the extent to which spoofing is a problem with regard to text messaging today and whether there are measures the Commission can take to encourage providers to identify and block texts that appear to come from spoofed numbers
- To seek comment on applying caller ID authentication standards to text messaging
Below, we have summarized the significant topics discussed within the notice.
Magnitude of the Problem
The FCC began its notice by providing data that reveals the magnitude of the problem of scam/spam text messages. The FCC stated that they had received 15,300 consumer complaints about unwanted texts in 2021 and 8,500 such complaints through June 30, 2022. They also reported that in 2020, scammers stole over $86 million through spam texting fraud schemes and the median amount stolen from consumers in such scams was…
