Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr says he is looking to crack down on overseas call centers that have become a hassle for American consumers and may be contributing to a broader number of financial scams against vulnerable Americans.
During a policy discussion with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, streamed live on YouTube and social media, Carr noted he hopes the FCC will vote to approve a plan to help reshore foreign call centers back to the U.S.
“I think this has been another real significant pain point and frustration in most Americans’ lives. You call up a company, try to resolve an issue, [and] you end up with a call center outside of the U.S., there’s language, there’s communication barriers, it’s just difficult to resolve your problem,” Carr said.
“And so we have started a proceeding to look at onshoring call centers, call centers that remain abroad, we’re looking at imposing standard English proficiency to make that communication easier,” Carr continued. ”
Carr said that oftentimes, scammers are linked to these offshore call centers.
“And we’re also looking at how foreign-originated robocalls can also take advantage of some of those call centers. And there’s a couple of relationships there,” Carr said. “One, a lot of people that make these illegal robocalls get trained at these ‘legitimate’ call centers. We often have instances where workers at these foreign call centers, because they get paid so little, they get flipped by bad actors to access your account, to change your account, so we think there’s a security issue with having so many call centers overseas.”
“So we think it makes sense to tell people, it’s time to bring these jobs back home,” Carr said.
The initiative, detailed in a March 4 press release, will see the FCC vote on reforms to get American businesses to reshore their call centers to the U.S. by requiring overseas call centers to have employees who are proficient in English.
Carr said the initiative has already scored positive results.
“Charter Cable Company bought Cox Cable Company and as part of that deal, Charter agreed to take all of the Cox call centers that were abroad and onshore them back here,” Carr said. “I think it’s a good win for customers, and I think it’s a good win for the country. I want to continue to push in that direction.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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