Recently, the Chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, responded via letter to members of Congress on the FCC’s efforts to curtail scam text messages. These scam texts had often masqueraded as having been sent by financial institutions and exploited consumers through misleading text messages. The FCC labeled these messages as abusive and unlawful under Section 222 of the Communications Act, which requires telecommunications carriers to ensure consumer network information is secured.

In the letters, Rosenworcel noted the FCC’s authority under the TCPA and TRACED Act (two amendments to the Communications Act) to protect consumers from “unlawful text messages and the scams that they can often spread.” Rosenworcel listed some rulemaking the FCC has taken to protect against these scams: In March 2023, the FCC adopted an order to block texts from invalid numbers; and in December 2023, the FCC adopted an order requiring all carriers to block texts from numbers that the agency deemed as a source of illegal texts.

The chairwoman responded to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) with four copies of the same letter.