The American Bankers Association last week urged the Federal Communications Commission to issue new rules that would help stem the flow of illegal texts and calls to consumers. In a letter to the agency, ABA was joined by multiple stakeholders, including the National Consumer Law Center and financial and electric utility trade associations, in pushing the FCC to act. The letter follows a meeting the organizations held with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s office last week.
“Texts that impersonate legitimate businesses harm consumers and undermine those businesses’ ability to communicate with their customers,” the groups said. “Bank impersonation texts — i.e., text messages sent by a criminal impersonating a bank — were the most common form of text message scam reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2022.”
The rules under consideration would require mobile wireless providers that originate text messages to block all texts from a particular source when notified by the FCC of illegal texts from that source, except under limited circumstances. Existing rules require terminating providers — but not originating providers — to block all texts from a particular number when notified by the FCC of illegal texts from that number. In prior comments, ABA urged the FCC to expand this requirement to cover originating providers.
The rules also would require mobile wireless providers to offer email-to-text as an opt-in service. In previous comments, ABA warned the FCC that bad actors are increasingly using email-to-text as a primary means to place a large volume of illegal texts quickly.
