On Monday, May 13th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially named its first robocall threat actor group,’ Royal Tiger’. This move goes along with the FCC’s new robocall bad actor classification system, Consumer Communications Information Services Threat (C-CIST). This system aims to assist law enforcement and industry partners with tracking threat actors behind robocall campaigns.
Royal Tiger is comprised of members operating from India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. The gang’s leader is allegedly Prince Jashvantal Anand (aka Frank Murphy) and his associate Kaushal Bhavsar. They’re operating multiple U.S.-based entities linked to these illegal calls, including VoIP companies Illum Telecommunication Limited (Illum), PZ Telecommunication LLC (PZ Telecom), and One Eye LLC (One Eye). The commission stated that after PZ Telecom and Illum were instructed to stop their allegedly illegal robocall operations in 2021, Prince Jashvantlal Anand established One Eye, which also acted as a gateway provider for these illegal robocalls. The commission also stated that Royal Tiger directed calls from its U.S.-based entities to Great Choice Telecom, a Texas company controlled by John Spiller, which is notorious for making illegal spoofed robocalls.
The threat actor group uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning to impersonate employees from companies and organizations, including the government, banks, and utilities. Some of these robocall operations claim to offer credit card interest rate reductions or fake purchase authorizations. The group also uses spoofing techniques to obtain consumers’ financial and other sensitive data, enabling them to target individuals.
These new designations with the C-CIST will enable it to use its full authority to prevent these threat groups from accessing the U.S. telecommunications network and targeting consumers.