Tag Archives: robocalls

The New York Times reports: If you owned a phone in America over the last 40 years, there is a good chance you got a call from Richard L. Zeitlin. He ran a telemarketing empire out of Las Vegas, using computers that mimicked human callers to raise money for charitable and political causes. Police and police dogs. Vietnam veterans and …

NBC News reports: A telecom company has agreed to pay a $1 million fine for its role in the deepfake robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden’s voice ahead of the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Lingo Telecom, a voice service provider that distributed the artificial intelligence-generated robocalls through “spoofed” phone numbers, will pay the seven-figure penalty and agreed to stricter oversight …

The Associated Press reports: The Federal Communications Commission has issued a $6 million fine against a political consultant who sent AI-generated robocalls mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice to voters ahead of New Hampshire’s presidential primary. Steve Kramer, who also faces two dozen criminal charges in New Hampshire, has admitted orchestrating a message that was sent to thousands of voters two …

Manchester’s NBC affiliate reports: A man who admitted to sending out robocalls mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice on the day of the New Hampshire primary is now facing criminal charges. Ten indictments have been returned against Steve Kramer out of Rockingham County for bribing, intimidation and suppression and impersonation of candidates. The indictments name five people who said they received …

From the New Hampshire Justice Department: Attorney General John M. Formella announces that the United States District Court in Arizona has denied Avid Telecom’s multiple attempts to dismiss and delay a bipartisan, 49-state lawsuit against the company Michael D. Lansky, L.L.C., dba Avid Telecom, as well as its owner Michael D. Lansky and its vice president Stacey S. Reeves. Forty-nine …

NBC News reports: Steve Kramer, a veteran political consultant working for a rival candidate, acknowledged Sunday that he commissioned the robocall impersonating President Joe Biden with artificial intelligence, confirming an NBC News report that he was behind the call. Kramer expressed no remorse for creating the deepfake, in which an imitation of the president’s voice discouraged participation in New Hampshire’s …

NBC News reports: A Democratic consultant who worked for a rival presidential campaign paid a New Orleans magician to use artificial intelligence to impersonate President Joe Biden for a robocall that is now at the center of a multistate law enforcement investigation, according to text messages, call logs and Venmo transactions the creator shared with NBC News. Paul Carpenter says …

CBS News reports: The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday declared the use of voice-cloning technology in robocalls to be illegal, giving states another tool to go after fraudsters behind the calls. The ruling takes effect immediately and comes amid an increase in such calls due to technology that offers the ability to confuse people with recordings that mimic the voices …

CNN reports: A robocall that used an AI voice resembling President Joe Biden’s to advise New Hampshire voters against voting in the state’s presidential primary has been linked to a pair of Texas-based telecommunications companies, the state’s attorney general announced on Tuesday. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, in a news conference on Tuesday, said the source of the calls …

Ars Technica reports: Attorneys general from all 50 states have created an Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force “to investigate and take legal action against the telecommunications companies responsible for bringing a majority of foreign robocalls into the United States,” they announced yesterday. In the task force’s first action, it “issued 20 civil investigative demands to 20 gateway providers and other entities …

Bloomberg News reports: The Federal Communications Commission has ordered phone companies to stop carrying traffic related to robocalls about scam auto warranties. US voice service providers must now “take all necessary steps to avoid carrying this robocall traffic,” or provide a report outlining how they’re mitigating the traffic, the FCC’s Robocall Response Team said in a statement on Thursday. The …

Politico reports: For the last five years or more, Matt Tunstall has used the name and likeness of Donald Trump and other politicians to ostensibly raise money for a network of political action committees. But he’s been accused of pocketing most of the money himself and on Wednesday, his so-called scam PAC operation finally caught up to him. In an …

The Idaho Statesman reports: A Nazi sympathizer and former Idaho resident faces a $9.9 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission after he plagued various parts of the country with racist, anti-Semitic and threatening robocalls. Scott D. Rhodes, 51, who moved to Libby, Montana, from Sandpoint, in North Idaho, in late 2018, spent much of that year recording vitriolic messages …

Law & Crime reports: Nearly a month has passed since a federal judge found that civil rights groups would prove that hard-right pranksters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman engaged in “electoral terror” in robocalls that he found reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, lawyers for the duo want the same judge to sanction a civil rights group for filing …

The Washington Post reports: An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to “stay safe and stay home,” spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day. The barrage of calls all feature the same short, recorded message: A …

Roll Call reports Lawmakers and their constituents are fed up with the bombardment of nuisance and scam calls plaguing their cell phones and on Wednesday the House passed a bipartisan measure to combat robocalls. The House voted 429-3 to pass a bill that would require phone companies to offer screening technology to customers at no cost that would identify and …

Broadcasting & Cable reports: The House Energy & Commerce Committee has voted unanimously to dramatically raise the per-violation fines for illegal robocalls. That was part of an omnibus bill, the “Stopping Bad Robocalls Act,” which also passed unanimously (48-0)* as part of a markup for a couple dozen bills. The bill, actually a combination of five bills, had passed unanimously …

CNN reports: Former President Barack Obama is adding his voice to the Alabama Senate race, imploring voters to go to the polls Tuesday to reject the candidacy of Roy Moore as part of an aggressive effort by Democrats to try and counter President Donald Trump’s full-throated endorsement of the controversial Republican candidate. “This one’s serious,” Obama says in the call. …

“Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars. “We will not be fully investigating these claims however …

The Guardian reports: A robocall asking Australians their opinion about the same-sex marriage postal survey has suggested that marriage equality may lead to “radical gay sex education” and threats to freedom of speech and religion. The poll, which was first reported by social media users on Tuesday night, stated that it was conducted by the Republican-linked American pollster WPA Intelligence. …