A leading telecom company, Lingo Telecom, has reached a settlement of $1 million with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over fake AI-generated robocalls that were placed earlier this year.
Lingo Telecom is a global cloud and managed services provider that offers voice, data, and communication solutions to residential and business clients.
The saga began when a series of AI-generated robocalls were placed on January 21—two days before New Hampshire’s State Democratic Presidential Primary election. The calls featured a deepfake voice of US President Joe Biden telling voters not to vote in the election. They were spoofed to appear as if they came from the New Hampshire Political Operative (NHPO).
The calls were made at the behest of Steve Kramer. In an interview with CBS News, the political consultant revealed that he spent $500 on orchestrating the calls. He also claimed that his motive was to draw the attention of the government and regulatory bodies to the use of AI in political campaigns.
In the chain of events, Kramer hired Voice Broadcasting Corp. to manage the robocall campaign. Voice Broadcasting Corp. then hired Life Corp. to transmit the calls. Life Corp., in turn, used Lingo’s network to send the calls to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Finally, the PSTN dispersed the calls to the public. Lingo Telecom bore the brunt because of its misstep in authentication and verification as the service provider.
Lingo was accused of failing to utilize appropriate “Know Your Customer” (KYC) protocols and therefore applied incorrect attestation to at least 2,000 of the robocalls. This violated Section 64.6301(a) of the FCC’s rules, which states that “not later than June 30, 2021, a voice service provider shall fully implement the STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework in its internet protocol networks.”
The FCC adopted the STIR/SHAKEN framework to combat illegal robocalls and caller ID spoofing. It uses public key cryptography to enable voice service providers to authenticate caller ID information, ensuring that consumers can trust the details displayed when they receive a call. The framework also helps providers identify and block suspicious calls.
There are three attestation levels within the framework: A-level attestation (full attestation), B-level attestation (partial attestation), and C-level attestation (gateway attestation). Of the three, an A-level attestation is the highest. It indicates that the provider has a direct relationship with the customer, can identify the customer, and has verified the association with the telephone number used.
Lingo did not properly verify whether Life Corp. was authorized to use the phone number associated with the New Hampshire Political Operative (NHPO), which was displayed as the caller ID. This resulted in the misassignment of the “A-level” attestation, falsely authenticating the calls. The incorrect attestation allowed the spoofed calls to evade detection and reduced the likelihood that terminating voice service providers would block or flag them as suspicious.
To this effect, Lingo Telecom was fined $2 million. The mastermind behind the scam calls was also held responsible. In addition to the $6 million fine imposed on him by the FCC, Steve Kramer is also facing 26 counts of criminal charges from New Hampshire’s Attorney General.
Following negotiations, Lingo announced on August 22 that they had settled for $1 million, half of the initially imposed $2 million. This reduction was due to its cooperation with the FCC. The company also voluntarily agreed to implement additional measures to further strengthen its existing robocall mitigation procedures.
The FCC is serious about cracking down on illegal robocalls. Earlier this month, they proposed a new bill to combat these practices. The impact of AI-generated calls on elections cannot be underestimated, and proactive steps like those taken by the FCC will continue to ensure the responsible use of AI.
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