The FCC has fined a voice service provider who allowed fake customers to run a scam via their network. The fraud was uncovered when the scammers called FCC personnel and tried to rip them off.
There are so many robocall and robotext scams. The FCC going after their infrastructure providers is excellent news. The denial here from Telnyx is pretty shaky, and it'll be interesting to see how they knew their customer, who was buying with anonymized money under the name MarioCop.
The FCC notice continued:
Our rules require Telnyx to know its customers. Yet it did not know who the MarioCop Account holders were. We therefore conclude that Telnyx apparently violated section 64.1200(n)(4) of our rules by allowing the First MarioCop Account and the Second MarioCop Account access to outbound calling services without actually knowing the true identities of the account holders. By extension, we believe we could likely find that Telnyx apparently violated our rules with regards to every customer it onboarded using the same process as it did for the MarioCop Accounts. We decline to do so here absent further investigation.
Telnyx will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations and argue that it shouldn't be fined. In some cases, the FCC and the telecom reach a settlement for a lower amount.
Telnyx CEO David Casem told Ars today that "Telnyx is surprised by the FCC's mistaken decision to issue a Notice of Apparent Liability stating an intent to impose monetary penalties. The Notice of Apparent Liability is factually mistaken, and Telnyx denies its allegations. Telnyx has done everything and more than the FCC has required for Know-Your-Customer ('KYC') and customer due diligence procedures."
Ars Technica
Previously:
• FCC votes to end prison phone rate robbery
• The FCC literally doesn't know how the internet works
• FCC threatens to disconnect 2,400 phone companies enabling illegal robocalls
