Robocaller to pay $82 million for illegally-spoofed health insurance marketing calls

The Federal Communications Commission fined telemarketer Philip Roesel and his companies Wednesday more than $82 million for illegal caller ID spoofing. Roesel made more than 21 million robocalls to market health insurance. Federal law prohibits callers from falsifying caller ID information to disguise their identity to d

The FCC proposed this fine in the summer of 2017. In response, Roesel said that the commission failed to prove its charges. The commission determined that the evidence didn’t support his claims and is imposing the original fine, one of the largest imposed by the agency.

Roesel, doing business as Wilmington Insurance Quotes, or through his company, Best Insurance Contracts Inc., made millions of spoofed robocalls. He sold health insurance and wanted to get leads for more sales. By spoofing his caller ID information, Roesel made it difficult for consumers to make complaints and for law enforcement to track and stop the illegal calls.