The FCC has proposed a $4,492,500 fine against VoIP service provider Telnyx for allegedly allowing customers to make robocalls posing as fictitious FCC “Fraud Prevention Team,” by failing to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) rules. However, Telnyx says the FCC is mistaken and denies the accusations.

The individuals behind these calls registered Telnyx accounts using the “Christian Mitchell” and “Henry Walker” names with the same address in Toronto, Canada, but IP addresses from Scotland and England. They are known as the “MarioCop” accounts because they both used email addresses on the same mariocop123.com domain.

Between February 6 and February 7, 2024, they made 1,797 imposter calls before Telnyx terminated their accounts. Ironically, their calls also reached over a dozen FCC staff and family members on their personal and work phone numbers one year ago.