The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed a record-breaking fine of $299,997,000 on a robocall operation involved in an auto warranty scam. The scam operation, described as "the largest illegal robocall operation" ever investigated by the FCC, involved an international network of companies, including Sumco Panama, Virtual Telecom, and others, making over five billion robocalls over three months in 2021. The operation breached federal laws by using over a million different caller IDs to obscure the origin of the calls. Despite proposing the fine in 2022 and offering the parties involved a chance to respond, the FCC received no such communication.
