Eight billion robocalls from one operation, cut off in a week
On 7 July 2022 the FCC ordered every US voice provider to stop carrying auto warranty robocall traffic from a single operation it believed had generated upwards of eight billion calls since 2018. The volume of such calls fell 99% within weeks — the clearest demonstration on this site that network-level intervention works when it is aimed at the carriers.
- Year
- 2022
- Where
- United States, PA, HU
- Outcome
- Sanctioned
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Auto warranty robocalls
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- The FCC's Robocall Response Team announced the actions on 7 July 2022.
- The FCC and its partners believed upwards of eight billion robocalls had been generated by Roy Cox, Jr., Aaron Michael Jones, their Sumco Panama companies, and international associates.
- The operation appeared responsible for more than eight billion unlawful prerecorded message calls to American consumers since at least 2018.
- The Enforcement Bureau told certain carriers to cease and desist carrying the traffic, and ordered all networks to be on the lookout for it.
- The recorded message encouraged recipients to follow prompts to speak with a "warranty specialist" about extending or reinstating their car warranty, opening: "We've been trying to reach you concerning your car's extended warranty."
- The operation ran from Panama and Hungary as well as the United States.
- The Ohio Attorney General announced a lawsuit against the operation the same day.
- According to RoboKiller, the volume of such calls dropped 99% between June and December 2022.
Why this case matters
It is the only intervention documented on this entire site that stopped a scam almost immediately, and it worked because it was aimed at the wrong end of the problem on purpose.
Not the callers. Not the victims. The carriers.
The FCC issued its first-ever “K4 Notice” and “N2 Order” — directing US voice service providers to stop carrying specified traffic — and the volume of these calls fell 99%.
The scale it was aimed at
Upwards of eight billion robocalls since at least 2018, from a single operation run by two named individuals through their Sumco Panama companies, with international associates in Panama and Hungary.
Eight billion. From one calling campaign, marketing vehicle service contracts.
The message everyone in America can recite
We’ve been trying to reach you concerning your car’s extended warranty.
That sentence is quoted in the FCC’s own release, and it is probably the most widely recognised sentence in the history of telephone fraud. Recipients were encouraged to follow prompts to speak with a “warranty specialist” about extending or reinstating their car’s warranty.
Its recognisability is worth noticing, because it cuts against the assumption that scams succeed by being convincing. This one became a national joke and still generated eight billion calls, because a response rate near zero is fine when the calls cost almost nothing.
Why attacking the carriers worked
Every other defence in this category had failed. Blocking numbers failed, because the operation used over a million caller IDs. Prosecuting the operators was slow and jurisdictionally hard — Panama and Hungary. Telling consumers not to answer had no effect on volume at all.
What the traffic could not do without was transit across US networks. There are a manageable number of voice service providers, they are licensed, they are domestic, and they can be ordered to stop.
That is the same structural insight as the prosecution of the printer in mass-mailing fraud: the operator is offshore and hard to reach, but the infrastructure they depend on is not.
The caveat
A 99% drop in one campaign’s traffic is not the end of auto warranty robocalls, and it is not a conviction. Cease-and-desist orders and forfeitures are administrative actions, and the operators remained outside the United States.
Sources
- FCC Authorizes Phone Companies to Cut Off Likely Auto Warranty Scam Robocall Campaign. US Federal Communications Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 7 July 2022 actions, the eight billion call estimate, the named individuals and Sumco Panama, the cease-and-desist and network-wide order, the recorded message wording, and the Ohio Attorney General's lawsuit.
- FCC Proposes Largest Fine Ever Against Auto Warranty Scam Robocaller. US Federal Communications Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 99% drop in call volume reported by RoboKiller, and the Panama and Hungary locations of the international cohorts.