Federal Communications Commission "FCC XX-XXX" STATEMENT OF ACTING CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL Re: In the Matter of John C. Spiller; Jakob A. Mears; Rising Eagle Capital Group LLC; JSquared Telecom LLC; Only Web Leads LLC; Rising Phoenix Group; Rising Phoenix Holdings; RPG Leads; and Rising Eagle Capital Group – Cayman, Forfeiture Order, File No. EB-TCD-18-00027781. The FCC receives more complaints about robocalls than any other issue. It’s easy to see why! Robocalls are intrusive and annoying—and during the last few years the number has skyrocketed. Worse, many of these calls involve scams. To protect ourselves, many of us rely on Caller ID and only pick up the phone if we recognize the number. So one of the most insidious things robocallers do is trick people into taking the call. They disguise who they are by spoofing their number and instead use numbers that we trust—friends, family, and familiar institutions. This isn’t just frustrating—it’s dangerous. When we can’t trust that the number we see is the number that is truly calling, we’re less likely to pick up the phone and more likely to miss important calls from those we really care about. So today we do something historic: we impose the largest fine ever for the illegal spoofing of telephone numbers. The individuals involved didn’t just lie about who they were when they made their calls—they said they were calling on behalf of well-known health insurance companies on more than a billion calls. That’s fraud on an enormous scale. This is a just outcome. But the truth is that given the size and scope of the problem, we have to do much, much more. That’s why I’m announcing today the creation of a Robocall Response Team at the Federal Communications Commission. The Robocall Response Team will consist of over 50 attorneys, economists, engineers, and analysts from the agency, including the Enforcement Bureau, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the International Bureau, the Wireline Competition Bureau, the Office of Economics and Analytics, and the Office of General Counsel. Many of these folks have worked on robocall issues in the past, but coordination has been case-by-case and far too scarce. So we are putting in place a structure that allows us to think more broadly and act more boldly. The Robocall Response Team will meet regularly, with input directly from my office. Its first order of business? A top to bottom review of our policies, laws, and practices, to identify gaps we need to close. But we don’t have to wait for more aggressive enforcement. So today we are sending six Robocall Cease and Desist letters to providers that appear to be facilitating illicit robocalls. We have already warned providers that they have to stop carrying illegal robocalls. The letters today represent our final notice: if these providers don't act within 48 hours to stop transmitting these illicit robocalls, we will authorize other carriers to block this unlawful traffic.  These missives won’t be the last. We are going to redouble our efforts to issue Cease and Desist letters to get providers to keep these junk calls off of our networks. Finally, because we need a whole-of-government approach, today I am sending letters to the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and National Association of State Attorneys General to reaffirm our interest in coordinating to crack down on robocalls. I look forward to working with them to leverage the knowledge, skills, and jurisdictional reach we each have to address this problem. I also hope that we can expand these efforts to include additional law enforcement partners in the near future. A big thank you to the agency staff who helped prepare this effort, including Monica Echevarria, Lisa Gelb, Rosemary Harold, Jermaine Haynes, Shannon Lipp, Balkisu Macauley, Jessica Manuel, Raul Rojo, Daniel Stepanicich, Kristi Thompson, Ashley Tyson, Lisa Zaina, and Bridgette Washington from the Enforcement Bureau; Valerie Hill, Rick Mallen, Linda Oliver, and Bill Richardson from the Office of the General Counsel; Rachel Kazan, Virginia Metallo, and Emily Talaga from the Office of Economics and Analytics; Ed Bartholme, Kurt Schroeder, Mark Stone, and Kristi Thornton from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau; and Pam Arluk, Daniel Kahn, and Melissa Kirkel from the Wireline Competition Bureau. 2