FCC chair visits Fremont, talks protection from robocalls

The FCC hosted a Consumer Education Forum in Fremont on Wednesday.

The topic was robocalls, those pesky interruptions in your daily life.  Many of them are spoof calls, making it look like the numbers they're calling from are local.

The FCC says they're the top consumer complaint they receive.

“Robocalls are an annoyance at best and they’re a scam at worst and unfortunately, many Americans are scammed out of their hard-earned dollars each and every year thanks to some of these robocalls, which are essentially asking for personal information,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai said.

He visited Fremont because he said robocalls are particularly a problem in the Midwest.

"Nebraskans have been bombarded with these robocalls — 17 million in the last month alone — and so we want to make sure that folks here in the Midwest know that there’s a cop on the beat in Washington that cares about their issues and is committed to taking action,” Pai said.

Among the most recent actions he said the FCC has taken is pushing major phone companies to implement caller ID authentication, which he said is like a digital footprint for every phone call.  He said they're on track to implement that by the end of the year.

But he said it's still important for people to know how how to protect themselves and that people in rural communities are more likely to cooperate with scam callers claiming to be from government agencies.

“As someone who comes from a rural community myself, I understand that trust and unfortunately, that trust is being abused by some of these robocallers,” he said.

Pai said he wants to make sure communities like Fremont know that the government will never ask for your personal information over the phone.

If you don't recognize a number, don't answer it.  But if you're already on the phone with a caller you're not sure about, don't answer any questions about your personal information.