The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed fining a Texas-based telemarketer $225 million for making 1 billion illegally spoofed robocalls selling health insurance. It would be a record-breaking fine for the agency.
Rising Eagle allegedly made 1 billion robocalls across the country attempting to sell short-term health insurance plans for a client over the first five months of 2019. Many of these calls went to consumers on the Do Not Call list, and one of Rising Eagle's founders, John C. Spiller, said he targeted those people because he felt it was more profitable.
Rising Eagle claimed it offered plans from Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and UnitedHealth Group, FCC said. But their client was an unaffiliated call center for Health Advisors of America.
"The FCC's investigation found that the robocalls made by Rising Eagle were spoofed in order to deceive consumers, targeted millions of Do Not Call list participants, and were received on many wireless phones without prior consumer consent," the agency said in a press release. :The scam also caused the companies whose caller IDs were spoofed to become overwhelmed with angry call-backs from aggrieved consumers."
Spiller allegedly admitted to making millions of robocalls every day, many of which used spoofed numbers. Spiller and his colleague Jakob A. Mears will have an opportunity to respond to FCC's proposal.
