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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
By the Commission.
Rachel Dickon, Secretary.

the Government Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801a1A.

FR Doc. 202100323 Filed 11221; 8:45 am
Final Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
Analysis The Report and Order does not contain any new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 10413. It, therefore, does not contain any new or modified information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107198, see 44 U.S.C.
3506c4.

BILLING CODE 673002P

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS
COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 64
CG Docket No. 2093; FCC 20171; FRS
17291

Protecting Consumers From One-Ring Scams Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission FCC or Commission implements section 12 of the TRACED Act in order to enable voice service providers to block calls from numbers associated with a type of illegal robocall known as a one-ring scam. The Commission also, pursuant to the TRACED Act, expands collaborative law enforcement and consumer education activities to stop one-ring scams and other fraudulent and abusive robocalling practices. The measures adopted by the Commission empower voice service providers to stop these illegal robocalls and will give consumers substantial additional protection from these scams.
DATES: Effective February 12, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mika Savir of the Consumer Policy Division, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, at mika.savir@fcc.gov or 202 4180384.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commissions Report and Order, FCC 20171, CG Docket No.
2093, adopted on November 24, 2020, and released on November 30, 2020.
The full text of this document is available online at https docs.fcc.gov/
public/attachments/FCC-20171A1.docx. To request this document in accessible formats for people with disabilities e.g., Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format or to request reasonable accommodations e.g., accessible format documents, sign language interpreters, CART, send an email to fcc504@fcc.gov or call the FCCs Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202 4180530
voice, 202 4180432 TTY.
SUMMARY:

Congressional Review Act The Commission sent a copy of document FCC 20171 to Congress and
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Synopsis 1. In the Report and Order, the Commission implements section 12 of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement Act TRACED Act, Public Law 116105, 12, December 30, 2019, 133 Stat. 3286
codified at 47 U.S.C. 227 note. Section 12 of the TRACED Act directs the Commission to consider taking additional steps to protect called parties from a type of illegal call known as the one-ring scam. In the Report and Order, the Commission adopts the proposal in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking NPRM, published at 85 FR 30672, May 20, 2020, with some minor modifications. The Commission adds a new paragraph k2iv to 47 CFR
64.2400 to allow voice service providers to block all calls from a telephone number that the provider identifies, based on reasonable analytics, as highly likely to be associated with a one-ring scam. The Commission also adopts a definition of one-ring scam in paragraph f8 that is consistent with the definition set forth in the proposed rule:
The term one-ring scam means a scam in which a caller makes a call and allows the call to ring the called party for a short duration, in order to prompt the called party to return the call, thereby subjecting the called party to charges.
2. Based on the record, the Commission concludes that these rule changes will help protect consumers from the scam and, consistent with section 12b4 of the TRACED Act, will incentivize voice service providers to stop calls made to perpetrate one-ring scams from being received by called parties. This rule amendment is also consistent with the congressional directive in the same section of the statute regarding the addition of identified one-ring scam type numbers to the Commissions existing list of permissible categories for carrier-

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initiated blocking. In addition, pursuant to section 12b5 of the TRACED Act, this rule takes into account and relies, in part, on the work of entities that provide call-blocking services to address one-ring scams.
3. One-ring scam calls serve no beneficial purpose, and thus no reasonable consumer would want to receive them. Accordingly, the Commission does not require terminating providers to give their customers an opportunity to opt out of the blocking of such calls. The Commission encourages voice service providers to implement call-blocking measures that will help eliminate or reduce the number of one-ring scam calls that reach consumers.
4. The Commission also extends to one-ring scam blocking the safe harbor for inadvertent blocking of wanted robocalls using reasonable analytics.
This safe harbor gives voice service providers assurance that blocking of one-ring scam calls based on reasonable analytics will not result in liability if they inadvertently block wanted calls, and it thus strengthens their ability and incentive to protect consumers from such scams. For this reason, the Commission is adding a reference to reasonable analyticsa term that was not included in the rule text proposed in the NPRMto paragraph k2iv of the final rule.
5. While voice service providers already have authority to block illegal one-ring scam calls, the rule adopted herein will remove any doubt that voice service providers may lawfully use reasonable analytics to identify and block calls that appear to be one-ring scam calls, even if such identification proves to be erroneous in any particular instance; that they may do so without fear of liability for inadvertently blocking wanted calls; and that they may do so on a network-wide basis. The Commission believes this will strongly encourage voice service providers to take a more aggressive approach to blocking one-ring scam calls and thus will further protect consumers from such scams.
6. Some commenters recommended that the Commission focus on combatting one-ring scam calls that fraudulently induce consumers to place calls to premium-rate numbers under a foreign governments national numbering plan, subject to analytics that suggest reasonable cause to treat such inbound calls as scam calls. The Commission agrees that voice service providers could block such inbound calls if they satisfy the applicable criteria in the rules.

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