FTC changes its telemarketing rules to cover growing ‘tech support scam’ calls

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), making it easier to protect consumers who are tricked into paying scam tech support companies. The FTC could already go after these fraudster companies if they initiated calls to people — now, they can do the same thing if people call the scammers too.

Fake tech support fraud has been on the rise for many years. The “company” tricks people into thinking they have a virus or other problem by sending scam emails, popups, and other messages. This encourages them to call to a help desk, which then convinces them to pay up.

The FTC has long attempted to wrangle money back from these scammers. But as it explains in a published proposal, a 2021 Supreme Court ruling called AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC limited its authority to do so. Without a rewrite of the rules, that meant the FTC could only pursue companies when they’d made an outbound call, leaving many consumers who were tricked by the messages out of luck.

Now, the TSR has been changed to remove “technical support services” from a list of services that are exempt from its rules. The FTC has also been cracking down on scammy “tech support” pop-ups on sites.

The FTC says older consumers over the age of 60 were five times more likely to be victims of these scams, and they have collectively reported more than $175 million in losses. Earlier this year, the FTC reported fake “Geek Squad” calls topped the list of fraud, adding up to $15 million in losses.