Consumer banking

FTC Seeks to Attract Illegal Robocallers

Published June 17, 2014, 9:41 a.m. EDT

|

Updated June 17, 2014, 8:41 a.m. EDT

1 Min Read

The Federal Trade Commission is looking to expand the technological arsenal that can be used in the battle against illegal phone spammers by challenging DEF CON 22 attendees to build the ultimate "honeypot" to lure in and identify perpetrators of illegal robocalls.

Processing Content

A robocall honeypot is an information system designed to attract robocallers, which can help experts and law enforcement authorities understand and combat illegal calls.

The new FTC challenge, called " Zapping Rachel", will include three stand-alone contests hosted Aug 7-10 at one of the worlds oldest and largest hacker conferences. The challenge is another step in the FTCs ongoing campaign against illegal, prerecorded telemarketing calls.

The agency hosted its first public robocall challenge in 2012, which garnered nearly 800 submissions, and stimulated the market to produce new robocall blocking technologies for consumers.The Commission isnt the first federal agency to tap the hacking community for technical solutions. Just last month, the White House supported the second annual National Day of Civic Hacking.

Complete rules will be posted to Challenge.gov in advance of the contest.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.

Consumer banking

Debt collection

MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER

Regulation and compliance

FCC hits telecom firm that enabled bank impersonation calls

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $4.5 million fine against Voxbeam Telecommunications, which it accused of facilitating fraud scams. Many of the calls spoofed phone numbers belonging to American banks.

By Catherine Leffert
Reporter

April 3
Economy

Jobs rebound in March, unemployment at 4.3%

New jobs in health care largely drove the gains, while the federal workforce and finance continued to shrink.

By Ebrima Santos Sanneh
Reporter

April 3
Fifth Third

How Fifth Third grew embedded banking fee revenue 53% in 2025

The Cincinnati bank's Newline business is now its fastest growing commercial payments segment.

By Joey Pizzolato
Reporter

April 3
Originations

Rocket leads UWM in 2025 HMDA loan count, trails in volume

United Wholesale Mortgage lost ground to RKT in one category but held onto a healthy lead in another, an analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data shows.

By Bonnie Sinnock
Capital Markets Editor

April 3
Commercial banking

US banks with Paris offices on alert due to terror threats

After French authorities stopped a bomb plot against a Bank of America office in Paris, security experts warned banks to step up their preparations for terror attacks.

By Catherine Leffert
Reporter

April 2
Stablecoin

$71.4M in regulated stablecoins stolen in crypto heist

The largest crypto theft of 2026 hit Drift Protocol after attackers exploited a small security council, putting a spotlight on DeFi vulnerabilities.

By Carter Pape
Technology Reporter

April 2

Load More