一男子因拨打骚扰电话被罚款1.2亿美元

A man has been fined a record-breaking $120m for making more than 90 million automated marketing telephone calls in the US.

一男子因通过自动拨打电话对9千万余人进行骚扰商业推销被罚款1.2亿美元，该罚款数额之庞大空前绝后。

Miami salesman Adrian Abramovich was accused of trying to sell holidays and timeshare properties with the unsolicited robocalls.

迈阿密的推销员Adrian Abramovich被指控违规使用自动语音通话推销假期一类打发时间的产品。

The fine is the largest the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ever issued.

这是联邦通信委员会(FCC)有史以来最大的一笔罚款。

Mr Abramovich said he had not intended to "defraud or cause harm".

Abramovich表示他没有预料到（骚扰电话的行为）是欺骗或对客户造成伤害。

But FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement that the defence "isn’t very convincing".

但是美国联通通讯委员会的主席Ajit Pai却在陈述中提出被告人的抗辩并不具有可信度。

Mr Abramovich doesn’t dispute that he was responsible for placing 96,758,223 robocalls during a three-month period in 2016, he said.

他说：Abramovich不否认他在2016的一个季度内他拨打的96758223个电话负有责任。

The FCC said Mr Abramovich had spoofed his caller ID to make people believe they were receiving a call from a local number. That was in violation of US law.

联邦通信委员会说Abramovich先生伪造了他的来电显示让人们相信他们收到了一个本地电话号码，这违反了美国法律。

A pre-recorded message would offer an "exclusive" holiday or travel deal, posing as an offer from a well-known brand such as TripAdvisor or Hilton hotels.

预先录制的信息将会提供有关豪华酒店或旅行套餐的信息，就像如猫途鹰或希尔顿酒店此类知名品牌一样。

The call would then be transferred to a human operator in an overseas call centre, who would try to sell the consumer a holiday or timeshare arrangement.

接着电话会转接到海外电话中心的人工客服，客服会推销给客户有关度假和分时度假行程安排的产品。

The FCC originally issued the fine in 2017, but Mr Abramovich had appealed against the decision and sought to have the fine reduced.

联邦通信委员会最初在2017年发布了罚款，但Aramovich对这一决定提出了上诉，并试图降低罚款。

But Mr Pai said it was the "largest illegal robocalling scheme" the FCC had investigated and therefore the fine was "appropriate".

但Pai表示，这是联邦通信委员会调查过的“最大规模的非法通话计划”，因此1.2亿美元的罚款是“合理的”。

I haven’t met a single American who likes getting these kinds of robocalls, Mr Pai said in a statement.

Pai先生在声明中提到：任何一个美国人都不愿意接这种骚扰电话。

Our decision sends a loud and clear message: this FCC is an active cop on the beat and will throw the book at anyone who violates our spoofing and robocall rules.

我们的裁决传达了清楚有力的信息：联邦通信委员会作为此类事件的执法部门，会给那些违反诈骗骚扰电话管理办法的人以严厉的惩罚。