The proposals would expand text blocking from service providers and extend protections from the National Do Not Call Registry to text messages, among other items.
11/27/2023 12:50 P.M.
4 minute read
The Federal Communications Commission will consider multiple avenues to expand its text message blocking rules at its Dec. 13 meeting.
The commission has drafted a Second Report and Order, Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Waiver Order to create do-not-call rules for texting, and closing the “lead generator loophole,” which currently allows repeat illegal text messages that originate from comparison shopping websites.
According to a fact sheet from the FCC (PDF), the proposed report and order would:
- “Require terminating mobile wireless providers to block all texts from a particular number when notified by the commission of illegal texts from that number.
- Codify that the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry’s protections extend to text messages.
- Encourage providers to make email-to-text, a major source of illegal texts, a service that consumers proactively opt into.
- Close the lead generator loophole by making unequivocally clear that comparison shopping websites must get consumer consent one seller at a time, and thus prohibit abuse of consumer consent by such websites.
The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would:
- Propose and seek comment on additional text blocking options, including requiring originating mobile wireless providers to block texts from a particular number when notified by the commission of illegal texts from that number or risk all of their texts being blocked.
- Seek comment on the current state of text authentication.
- Seek comment on the traceback process for texting and whether to adopt a requirement for mobile wireless providers to respond to traceback requests from the commission and law enforcement.
- Propose and seek comment on requiring mobile wireless providers to make email-to-text an opt-in service.”
Additionally, the Waiver Order would “allow mobile wireless providers to use the Reassigned Numbers Database to determine whether a number has been disconnected after the date of illegal texts in the commission’s notification to avoid blocking of texts from reassigned numbers,” according to the FCC.
Public comments will be accepted on the proposals if they are approved by the FCC.
Text Blocking and ACA International Advocacy To Date
The FCC adopted new regulations to target “scam text messages” through mitigation by wireless carriers last March, ACA International previously reported.
The mitigation requires wireless carriers to block text messages that appear to be from invalid, unallocated or unused numbers that are unlikely to send text messages.
ACA, the American Financial Services Association, Credit Union National Association, and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions submitted a letter (PDF) before the March 16, 2022, meeting with proposed additions to FCC’s report and order on text message blocking, including the point of contact for blocked text messages that is addressed in this new rule.
The joint industry trade groups appreciate the FCC’s quick actions to help curb illegal robotexts and “support [the] regulation of texts sent from invalid, unallocated or unused numbers and those on Do Not Originate lists and are pleased to see the commission take action to block such texts,” according to the letter.
Last June, ACA and its joint trade association partners also filed comments (PDF) with the FCC on earlier proposed regulations to block text messages. Those proposals included measures to apply the National Do Not Call Registry’s restrictions to text messages and those related to consent for marketing text messages.
ACA and its trade association partners overall support the FCC’s efforts to combat illegal text messages.
“Banks, credit unions, and other financial services providers—and their customers—are negatively impacted by bad actors that increasingly send text messages that impersonate legitimate companies, with intent to defraud. Illegal text messages used to commit fraud or scams cost consumers nearly $10.1 billion in 2021,” the June 2022 comments state.
At the same time, “illegal texts also lead customers to question the legitimacy of the important messages that legitimate companies send, degrading our members’ ability to communicate with their customers and eroding their customers’ trust.”
The associations have also outlined why legitimate texts should not be impacted.
They argued the FCC should require mobile wireless providers to notify the sender immediately when the provider has blocked the sender’s text message and to resolve disputes no longer than six hours after receiving the dispute. The group made a number of other technical arguments for changes that could ensure better redress options for callers.
Overall, while the associations support the FCC’s efforts to stop bad actors from sending fraudulent texts, they have noted in the comments that equal efforts must be in place to ensure legitimate businesses’ texts are getting through.
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