Charter communications supports cspan is a Public Service along with these other Television Providers giving you a frontrow seat to democracy. Up next to look into of the Justice Department can be activated to counter robocalls, ways they can address the countries of origin for fraudulent calls and how Artificial Intelligence can be used to protect consumers. Tech Companies Offer testimony before senate commerce, science and transportation subcommittee. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible] i want to thank everyone for being here for the serving of protecting americans from robocalls and first of all i want to thank Ranking Member thune for working with me and my staff what you think his team and i especially want to thank senator fischer for being here with us, as she always is. But especially to serve in an Important Role today as well. Some want to thank you, senator fischer for joining us to preside today. Thank you so very much. And today we will hear from expert witnesses are protecting our constituents from the growing number of fraudulent and Illegal Robocalls and robotexts. Every month americans receive roughly 1. 5 billion3 billion scam calls and likely illegal telemarketing calls. This is an issue im confident everyone in the room that has dealt with, for those of you that have earphones on, im sure youre going to receive robocalls and robotexts that are predatory con even during this hearing. I would not be surprised if we did as well. Robocalls, the internet sleep if your not putting earphones in some privacy mode sleep mode or turn them off themselves. They interrupt time with friends and family. And as i sit even during hearings. So i wont be surprised if they came up. So if they do y feel free to hod your phone up and share with the rester of america whats happeng while in this room. Robocalls has eroded trust in our Nations Communications networks. I know many in my family including myself that you look at the phone now and youre not sure where its coming from and some of the phone provided a putting scam alerts or maybe its some other call, and folks a look at the device and it will drop it down as well. Many have become subject to those phishing attacks from those robotexts as well, which are causing the American People billions of dollars. In 1991 Congress Passed the telephone Consumer Protection act, the jcpa, and more recently a telephone robocall abuse criminal enforcement and deterrence act which acronym is traced. That was back in 2019. These two laws lawsuit to t americans from unsolicited robocalls syntax. In some ways that tcpa tcpy traced as are implemented, the number of unsolicited and illegal telemarketing calls has decreased. Do not call completes fcc has reduce as well. Not entirely but by some numbers and the federal Communications Commission has issued 500 million and Enforcement Actions against Illegal Robocalls over the last 12 months. The fcc has empowered the Industry Traceback Group and phone companies to block by default illegal or unwanted calls based onlt reasonable evidence. The fellow Communications Commission provided a statement foran todays hearing, and witht objection i would like to enter into the record. We will internet. However, it is important that we recognize the robocalls and robotexts are not just a nuisance. Scammers use our Telecom Networks to defraud americans out of an estimated 39 billion. Now that was just in 2022 a loan. Thats roughly enough money to provide affordable broadband to the current 21 maine households enrolled in a Affordable Connectivity Program for eight years. I hope weig understand the magnitude of what that 39 billion yeartoyear means. Scammers and flybynight companies are stealing American Families hardearned dollars using our Telecom Networks to do so and they dont face any consequences. The fcc levies fines but fines go t uncollected. The company dissolves and those assets elsewhere. Congress must about our regulators and enforcement agencies to ensure that when an individual or company breaks the law, they are held to account. Part of the reason he scammers are so effective at tricking consumers and evading enforcement is that the technology is constantly evolving. We will hear testimony that suggests consumer consent for telemarketing is increasingly falsified. Automated bots and other Artificial Intelligence systems are using public data to consent on behalf of other consumer for calls they never asked for. And do not want. Automated robocalls and robotexts are using chatbots and generative Artificial Intelligence to impersonate a realal live person, lulling the recipient into a false sense of security by mimicking voices and mannerisms. In the most frightening example bad actors are playing on our emotions and impersonating loved ones in distress. Earlier this year in the Senate Human Rights subcommittee, senator ossoff and Ranking Member blackburn heard testimony from jennifer of arizona who was a victim of a scam call impersonating her daughter. And without objection i would like to enter her testimony into the record for todays hearing. Hearing none, its entered. Now, she testified quote ai is revolutionizing and unravel on that by creating doubt and fear in what was once never questioned. The sound of a loved ones voice. This thing will examine how robocalls are evading enforcement, consider publicprivate efforts to combat Illegal Robocalls can unravel how new and evolving Technology Changes the landscape and investigate what next steps are neededed to protect americans fm fraudulent and illegal Text Messages and calls. Im very excited that we have the panel that we have with us today. I will introduce each ofod you momentarily, but first i want to recognize a friend and a leader that is with us today and want to turn this over to Ranking Member fischer for her opening comment. Good morning, and thank you, chairman lujan for holding this hearing. The persistent issue of Illegal Robocalls has been a longstanding concern of mine. Nationwide, illegal and spoofed robocalls continue to be the number one consumer complaint. I want to ensure that we have the right tools in place to protect consumers from these calls that prey on them. As we all know, our phones gie his connection to the world around us, whether its calling family, venture colleagues, scheduling appointments or summoning emergency services. They are integrated into our daily lives. Our phone numbers are very personal part of our identities as well. We use them to verify who we are, and we hold onto them for decades, sometimes for a lifetime. But as we know too well this allows scammers to reach directly into our homes and into our pockets. Bad actors are increasingly savvy in the technologies they use to defraud consumers. This can result in devastating financial losses. Criminals are engaging in more targeted calls and diversity businesses like banks to steal personal data or commit financial fraud. Phone scans are still yielding the highest reported fraud losses per person, despite the rapid growth of scammers on social media platforms. In fact, fraud losses due to phone scans are higher than ever. According to a recent report, over 68 million americans lost approximately 40 billion to phone scans in 2021 alone. In manywe ways it feels like wee had this conversation so many times over so many years. But crucially, in 2019 Congress Passed the traced back to put wideranging solutions in motion that would reduce Illegal Robocalls. I can in my colleague senator thune for leading this legislation and i was glad to be a cosponsor of it. Previously i also led the spoofing prevention act with snort bill nelson which passed into law8. In 2018. This law was a foundational effort to increase penalties and boost enforcement tools that fight illegal spoofing. Deterrence through fines for Illegal Robocalls activities is a key part of cracking down on nuisance calls that endanger consumers. On this front federal agencies, particularly the Justice Department, must improve how they Work Together to ensure that unpaid fines are collected. There are no Silver Bullet to eradicate the scourge of illegal scam calls and texts. Lawmakers have to remain diligent and monitor how Illegal Robocalls schemes are evolving. We must be able to empower consumers with the knowledge of who is actually calling them, and the ability to block illegal callers. We all share the goal of being able to pick up our phones safely, trusting that we know whos going to be on the other end of the line. But we are not there just yet. The industry has madead commendable efforts to reduce the prevalence of these illegal calls, including through advancements in call authorization to authorize them, and trace back technology. New statistics from the federallyth designated traced at to consortium, itc indicate that certain common robocalls scams have started to decline over the last couple of years. Continuing this trend will take the united cooperation of all Voice Service providers. As lawmakers we need to maintain this momentum and ensure that traced act efforts are fully supported. I urge the fcc to spend its time and resources to create meaningful safe harbors for businesses acting in good faith compliance with the law. I look forward to hearing from todays witnesses about where we are in this effort and were additional assistance may be needed. Thank you for being here, and thank you, chairman lujan. Thank you, senator fischer. I wantha to thank you again for being with us today but i want to commend you for your leadership in so many ways but especially in this case when it comes to robocalls and t robotes and what you been doing to work to bring support to the American People. So thank you so very much for that. As a introduce the panel, after the introduction we will then hear from ms. Saunders ms. Saunders who is awe senior attorney from the National Consumer law center. Thank you so much for being with us today. Ms. Megan brown a member of the net States Chamber of Commerce Cybersecurity Leadership Council and partner wiley rein of leaders with us as well. Mr. Josh bercu, like the city, i appreciate that, josh. Mr. Josh bercu, executive director, Industry Traceback Group and Vice President , advocacy for u. S. Telecom. Thank you so much as well. And mr. Mike rudolph, the chief Technology Officer from youmail. Thank you so much of beingff wih us today. Ms. Saunders, the floor issuers yours free Opening Statement for five minutes. Senator fischer, i appreciate the opportunity to testify today on what needs to be done to protect americans from robocalls. I provide my testimony today on behalf of the low income client of the National Consumer law center, and the Consumer Federation of america. The current regulatory structure allows criminals access to americans wallets, and she cited, billions of dollars are stolen every year through scans executed over this nations telephones. At the same time the combination of scam calls, along with the onslaught of illegal and unwanted telemarketing calls, have damaged our trust in our phones and made it more difficult for legitimate wanted messages to reach us. The sec has been trying to solve the problem fcc but to date its methods have not succeeded. Emmett tills when you can see a graph of the number of robocalls and telemarketing calls and scam calls over the years and it looks like unfortunately were about today when we were in 2019. In terms of the combined number of calls. But either the fcc doesnt have sufficient legal tools to stop the calls or it is not yet determined how to employ those tools effectively. The commission has issued numerous regulations to implement the traced act, brought multiple Enforcement Actions against scam callers and their complicit Voice Service providers, yet the number of calls and the losses to americans keep, are continuing. The problem is that complicit Voice Service providers responsible for these calls are making money for transmitting them. Stark said, quote, Illegal Robocalls will continue as long as those initiating and facilitating them can get away with it and profit from it. End quote. To eliminate these calls, there must be incentives for compliance. Which there are not currently. We believe that the calls can be dramatically reduced, but the dramatically but requires a shift in emphasis to the ftc. The primary goal should be to protect the nations telephone numbers from scam calls stealing billions of dollars. To do that requires change protecting service to telephone numbers and networks toward shielding consumers from these illegal calls. If the ftc adopt the system in which they quickly suspend the ability of a Service Provider to participate in the network once its determined to be a repeat offender, we think that would be a magic bullet. This is along thef line of the temporary restraining order procedure established in the procedure. There are procedures we think would change the structure and cause reduction. Additionally current regulation private telemarketers from calling without the express written consent. Telemarketers routinely explore requirements of these regulations and make a billion telemarketing calls every month. Then they dispel by relying on agreement for completely fabricated or based on suppose a consent agreement, sold and sold again. They could eliminate this Business Model reiterating current regulations. Instead, it has proposed new regulation less protective of consumers. In a nutshell we believe it could eliminate goals by changing current emphasis. Technologyl practice. Im here on behalf of the Chambers Institute for reform. The u. S. Chamber is the Worlds LargestBusiness Federation representing interest of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. Its institute for legal reform is a division of the chamber that promotes Civil Justice reform of the Global National state and localof levels. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Chamber has been involved for years and offers the perspective of the American Business community which values reliable trustworthy place to communicate with customers in the service. This isoc a highly regulated ba, something the chamber has been vocal about for yearse becauset remains a major source of class action litigation so the chamber would like the committee, American Businesses support cracking down on illegal and abusive protocols. To trust the ecosystem and enter calls and texts. American businesses work hard to comply with these complex regulations of this federal and state level. There i brought against consumers and because of those Arms Companies fight back against local scams and they did their own investigation into millions of calls placed illegally h using misusing it spread and work with the trace back group miserable because getting injunction against the marketing agency. You can ensure your hard work group encouraging the department of justice to make rogue local scams illegal spoofing priority. The federal Communications Mission has taken steps to implement all this new congressional electric she dino ftc staff have been working really hard on these issues. Enormous orders against doctors that break the law and cease and desist orders particularly impactful. The federal trade Commission Addressing scams using robo calls and text. State attorneys general partner with agencies and bring their own cases. D. O. J. Is a vital partner in congress should urge the department to make enforcement priority by acting aggressively on referrals to get and bring its own cases directly for violations of laws like the truth caller id act would mail and firefox will agree to scams. Third unfortunately, the private right of action and statutory damages continue to fuel negation against American Businesses. The institute for legal reform for years and operating environment continues to hurt businesses and consumers. Class actions seeking enormous damages and attorneys fees, professiona