[USATODAY] The Federal Communications Commission has levied its largest fine ever, targeting a Florida-based robocall network it says was responsible for nearly 100 million calls over the last three months of 2016.The agency on Thursday proposed a $120 million fine against Adrian Abramovich of Miami, Fla., alleging his operation, doing business as Marketing Strategy Leaders, made 96 million spoofed robocalls during the period in which the FCC investigated. Of those calls, about 90% were made to wireless phones, with 10% to landline phones.
The calls used "neighborhood spoofing" technology to include local area codes and the first three numbers of the recipient's own phone number to encourage people to answer the calls.
Upon answering, recipients would hear a recorded message asking them to press 1 to hear about vacation deals from travel companies such as Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Callers were then transferred to call centers in Mexico, where live operators would try to sell them vacation packages at Mexican timeshare facilities not affiliated with the companies in the recorded messages.