WASHINGTON—U.S. phone companies that connect robocalls from overseas would have to block calls when ordered to do so under new rules adopted Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission, in the latest government effort to end a deluge of illegal calls.
For years, government and industry officials have known that a small group of relatively obscure telecom providers act as a conduit for millions of scam calls that annoy—and sometimes defraud—Americans. These companies, known as gateway providers, transfer calls that originate overseas onto the U.S. telephone network.