ITG Update: Expanded information on Basis for Traceback

Dear Service Provider:

You're receiving this email as a participant in the Industry Traceback Group’s (ITG’s) traceback effort. As part of the ITG’s ongoing effort to work with the industry and law enforcement community to stop illegal robocalls and other abuses of the telephone network, the ITG has made improvements to the portal regarding how we identify potential illegality of the calls we traceback and how you can dispute tracebacks, should you have evidence that conflicts with the ITG team’s information. We will be rolling this out over the next month and not all campaigns will be included initially.

BASIS FOR TRACEBACK

As an initial matter, for every call traced back by the ITG, the ITG team has a reasonable basis to suspect that such call is fraudulent, abusive, and/or unlawful. To more clearly indicate that basis, going forward traceback requests will include a list of each basis for suspected illegality that the ITG team has identified in addition to the description of the campaign that is being traced back. This information will be presented in the initial traceback request email sent to parties identified in the call path and will also be available in the portal. Please note that the list of bases for traceback apply on a campaign level; they may not apply to each individual call, but generally mean that the ITG team has evidence that the same or similar calls in the campaign meet the provided information.

DISPUTE MECHANISM

Providers that identify themselves as the originating voice service provider will also have a more formalized mechanism to dispute the traceback, specifically by disputing one or more of the identified bases and providing evidence to support the dispute including proof of consent. The ITG will review and respond as appropriate. If after review of the data supplied, the ITG team no longer has a reasonable basis to suspect that the call subject to the traceback was fraudulent, abusive, and/or unlawful, the traceback will be marked strike exempt. A record of the successful dispute, and all other related communications, will be included as part of the traceback records.

To the extent that the dispute is rejected, the dispute request, the rejection, and all other related communications will be included as part of the traceback record.

PLEASE NOTE THAT REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE DISPUTE IS ACCEPTED OR REJECTED, ALL INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRACEBACK WILL BE SHARED WITH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES SHOULD THEY MAKE A DEMAND FOR INFORMATION THAT INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRACEBACK.