The FCC has opened proceedings to fight scam text messages that have become an increasing part of daily life for US consumers (and techies who have to talk grandma out of clicking that FedEx package delivery link).
The FCC’s plans are less about reinventing the wheel and more about applying existing rules toward a new end – in this case the FCC is taking comments on applying caller ID authentication standards and call blocking requirements to text messages.
According to the FCC, the number of scam, unwanted and/or illegal text messages reports that the Commission has received has grown rapidly in the past few years. In 2020, the Commission said it received 14,000 unwanted text complaints, a 146 percent increase from the year prior. In 2021 that number rose to 15,300, and by June 30 of this year the FCC had already received 8,500 similar complaints.
“Scam text messaging has become a growing threat to consumers’ wallets and privacy. More can be done to address this growing problem and today we are formally starting an effort to take a serious, comprehensive, and fresh look at our policies for fighting unwanted robotexts,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said last week.
