They are the scourge of telephone solicitors, and federal authorities are going after robocallers in a big way, launching landmark lawsuits against five companies and three people behind hundreds of millions of annoying interruptions.
Not only are the calls viewed as a nuisance, but they are often fraudulent money-making schemes targeting gullible consumers, including elderly victims who have been scammed out of millions of dollars.
"Robocalls are an annoyance to many Americans, and those that are fraudulent and predatory are a serious problem, often causing devastating financial harm to the elderly and vulnerable members of our society," said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice's Civil Division.
According to Hunt, many of the robocalls originate abroad _ mostly in India _ and feature foreign fraudsters who impersonate government investigators, scaring Americans with alarming messages about bogus tax bills, imagined identity or phony frozen asset claims.
Each of these claims is a lie, designed to scare the call recipient into paying large sums of money, authorities said.
The callers are convincing because they use sophisticated technology to generate "spoofed" numbers that appear to come from legitimate government agencies.
Instead, they use internet connections to carry the calls with the help of "gateway carriers," that are now the targets of new federal lawsuits.
The defendants include Global Voicecom Inc., Global Telecommunication Services Inc., KAT Telecom Inc., aka IP Dish, and their owner/operator, Jon Kahen, 45, of Great Neck, Long Island.
Kahen could not be reached for comment.
The Justice Department is seeking temporary restraining orders to force the companies to heed the government warnings and stop making calls.
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