Injunction shuts down telecom carriers that allegedly facilitated scam calls

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has prohibited a couple and two businesses from sending scam calls into the American phone system, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The ruling is a permanent injunction.

The two individuals and their businesses allegedly facilitated the direction of millions of scam robocalls each day to individuals in the United States, officials charged.

Millions of the scam phone calls sought to defraud people by falsely claiming to be from the Social Security Administration and warning of arrest or the seizure of assets unless the call recipients supplied money, according to the Justice Department.

The suspects also allegedly sold American phone numbers that foreign robocall scammers used as call-back numbers to make it seem as if the calls came from the United States.

“The Department is committed to protecting vulnerable Americans, particularly America’s seniors, from those who seek to steal their hard-earned savings,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Ethan Davis of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division said in a statement. “The Department will pursue not only those who place fraudulent robocalls, but also those who knowingly facilitate such calls."