The Federal Communications Commission is fining a Florida man for making millions of robocalls.
The FCC announced Thursday it's levying a $120 million fine against Adrian Abramovich for creating a program that made nearly 100 million robocalls between 2015 and 2016
Abramovich's robocall involved dialing unsuspecting customers with a prerecorded message instructing them to “Press 1” to hear more about an “exclusive” vacation deal offered by a well-known travel or hospitality company, like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Marriott, or Hilton, the FCC said.
Unknowing callers would then be transferred to a call center, where live operators would attempt to sell them one or more “discounted” vacation packages, like timeshares.
But neither the call center nor Abramovich were affiliated with the well-known brands, and TripAdvisor was the first to begin to investigate.
The investigation traced calls to a single business that had agreements with call centers in Mexico, who were paying Abramovich for traffic.
TripAdvisor also contacted the FCC, which used law enforcement techniques to track the man down.