US Congress seeks to identify foreign countries behind scam calls
US lawmakers are trying to identify which foreign countries are the biggest sources of unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as Congress steps up efforts to combat a surge in phone scams. The inquiry follows a string of US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s…
US lawmakers are working to identify the foreign countries responsible for the surge in unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as part of a larger effort to combat phone scams. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee passed the bipartisan "Foreign Robocall Elimination Act," which directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish an inter-agency task force focused on tracing unlawful robocalls from overseas.
The task force would study the volume of these calls, their financial impact, and assess how countries could collaborate to authenticate international calls and incentivize cooperation with US law enforcement. While China is not named explicitly, it is acknowledged that major scam operations are concentrated in Southeast Asia, with US officials linking many to Chinese criminal networks.
Brief written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
