Introduction: Restoring Trust is an Ecommerce Imperative

For the modern ecommerce brand, the telephone is not an obsolete relic but a critical channel for customer engagement, logistical coordination, and essential support services. From automated text messages confirming a shipment to a live agent call resolving a complex order issue, voice and SMS communications form a vital artery connecting businesses with their customers. The integrity of this channel is paramount. Yet, this artery is under constant assault from a persistent and damaging threat: a deluge of illegal, foreign-originated robocalls systematically eroding consumer trust in the very act of answering the phone.

This erosion is not a trivial annoyance; it is a direct threat to the ecommerce ecosystem. The data paints a stark picture of this trust deficit: a 2025 study revealed that 72% of Americans do not answer phone calls from numbers they do not recognize.  This climate of suspicion creates significant collateral damage, harming legitimate businesses that rely on these channels for essential, consent-based communications. When a customer ignores a call, it could be a missed marketing message, but it could also be a critical fraud alert or an urgent update about a delivery exception, leading to operational failures and a degraded customer experience.

Congress has taken notice. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is poised to consider a piece of bipartisan legislation: S. 2666, the Foreign Robocall Elimination Act, introduced by Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT). This bill represents a potentially positive development, aiming to target the problem at its source by focusing resources on unlawful robocalls originating outside the United States.

The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance (EIA) supports and applauds the Committee’s focus on combating the illegal foreign actors who perpetrate fraud and harm American consumers and businesses. The EIA’s support of this legislation is guided by its core mission: to advocate for “common sense policies” that strengthen the ecommerce ecosystem while protecting consumers. This analysis will explore the profound impact of foreign robocall scams on EIA members, provide a detailed breakdown of SB 2666, and articulate the EIA’s position—one that champions the bill’s intent while advocating for the necessary clarity and precision to ensure that any resulting solutions protect and preserve the legitimate, innovative, and essential communication practices of the ecommerce industry.

A central challenge in this legislative debate is the public and, at times, policymaker tendency to view all “robocalls” as a single, monolithic problem. This conflation is dangerous.  Previous legislative efforts at the state level, for example, have often failed to make this crucial distinction, resulting in “mini-TCPA” laws that impose severe compliance burdens and litigation risks on legitimate businesses.  SB 2666 presents a critical opportunity to shape the national narrative correctly from the outset. The bill’s targeted focus on developing a deeper understanding of how to stop foreign criminals presents a promising framework for addressing a problem that impacts both consumers and legitimate ecommerce businesses.

The High Cost of Inaction: How Foreign Scams Damage Your Brand and Bottom Line

The relentless barrage of foreign-originated scam calls is more than a nuisance; it is a direct operational and financial threat to ecommerce businesses. The damage manifests in a deep and pervasive trust deficit, the hijacking of brand identities, and a quagmire of hidden operational costs that drain resources and degrade the customer experience.

The Trust Deficit and Its Operational Impact

The climate of suspicion created by robocalls directly impedes core ecommerce operations. While studies show that consumers still prefer voice calls for high-value interactions, such as with financial service providers, the pervasive fear of scams makes them hesitant to engage. This paradox puts businesses in a difficult position. A missed call is no longer just a lost sales opportunity; it can trigger a cascade of operational failures.

Consider the practical implications: a customer misses a call from a delivery service about an incorrect address, leading to a returned package, increased shipping costs, and a frustrated customer. A fraud alert from a payment processor goes unanswered, delaying a legitimate transaction or, worse, allowing a fraudulent one to proceed. A customer support agent’s callback to resolve a technical issue is ignored, leading to a negative review and a lost customer. Each of these instances, born from a rational fear of answering an unknown number, increases operational friction, drives up costs, and chips away at customer satisfaction.³ The voice channel, which should be a tool for efficiency and relationship-building, becomes a liability.

Brand Hijacking – When Your Good Name Becomes a Weapon

For ecommerce companies, brand reputation is a priceless asset built over years of investment and customer trust. Foreign scammers exploit this asset through sophisticated brand impersonation and spoofing tactics, turning a company’s good name into a weapon against its own customers. Ecommerce sites are particularly attractive targets for these attacks because they are hubs of financial transactions and sensitive customer data, such as credit card numbers and personal information.

The mechanics of these attacks are deceptive, multi-channeled, and highly effective. These are not random acts but often organized campaigns run by sophisticated, foreign-based criminal networks.

• Digital Impersonation: Scammers create fraudulent websites and advertisements that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The FBI has issued specific warnings about criminals using search engine ads to impersonate brands, directing users to malicious sites that steal login credentials and financial data. In one large-scale campaign, a Chinese threat actor dubbed “SilkSpecter” targeted U.S. and European shoppers with convincing phishing websites themed around Black Friday discounts, using Google Translate to appear more credible to an international audience. In another case, a network of over 140 fraudulent “ghost stores” was uncovered impersonating well-known retailers with fake “closing down sales” to lure and defraud customers.
  
• Voice and Text Impersonation (Vishing and Smishing): Criminals use robocalls and text messages to directly target consumers, often spoofing the phone numbers of trusted brands.¹⁶ A 2023 survey found that 78% of U.S. consumers had been targeted by brand impersonation calls and texts, with 45% of those messages impersonating “ecommerce sites and online stores”. Common examples include:

• Amazon: The FTC has highlighted robocalls where scammers pretend to be from Amazon, alerting a victim to a fake suspicious charge and prompting them to connect with a fraudulent agent to steal their information.
• Apple and Microsoft: Scammers use robocalls to impersonate tech support, claiming a security breach exists with a user’s account to trick them into providing credentials or remote access to their computer.
• Best Buy (Geek Squad): Fraudsters send fake email and text notices about phony subscription renewals, directing victims to call a number where a scammer attempts to gain remote computer access under the guise of processing a “refund”.
• Package Delivery Scams: A widespread text message (smishing) campaign involves impersonating carriers like FedEx or UPS, claiming a problem with a delivery and providing a malicious “tracking link” designed to harvest personal data^.

The consequences are severe and multifaceted. The immediate victim is the consumer, who may suffer direct financial loss. However, the impersonated brand suffers profound and lasting damage. Customers who are defrauded often blame the legitimate brand, leading to a loss of credibility and reputation. This is followed by a costly and time-consuming cleanup process, as customer service channels are flooded with calls and emails from confused and angry victims, diverting resources from legitimate service needs. The scale of this threat is staggering, with the FTC reporting that scams impersonating businesses and government are consistently among the top frauds reported to it, resulting in $2.95 billion in consumer losses in 2024.

The Operational Quagmire and Hidden Costs

Beyond the direct costs of fraud and reputational harm, foreign robocalls impose a significant and often overlooked operational burden on ecommerce businesses. One of the most disruptive tactics is the Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) attack. In these campaigns, scammers use automated systems to flood a business’s toll-free customer service lines with thousands of calls in rapid succession. The goal is not to defraud the company directly, but to tie up its communication infrastructure, preventing legitimate customers from getting through.²⁵

Case studies have documented businesses, from travel companies to auto dealers, being targeted by thousands of calls per day in sustained TDoS attacks. These campaigns render customer service lines useless, leading to abandoned carts, lost sales, and extreme customer frustration. The resource drain on customer service teams is immense. Instead of generating revenue or solving legitimate problems, agents are forced to contend with nuisance calls or the aftermath of brand impersonation scams, eroding both employee morale and company profit margins.

This environment creates a vicious cycle that directly impacts a key metric of ecommerce success: customer acquisition cost (CAC). The process begins with foreign robocalls and spoofing, which cultivate a general distrust of unknown numbers among consumers. This distrust leads to lower answer rates for all outbound calls, including the legitimate, consent-based marketing and customer service communications that are a priority for EIA members. Lower answer rates translate directly into lower conversion rates and a diminished return on investment for telemarketing campaigns. To compensate for this loss of efficiency, businesses are faced with a difficult choice: either increase their call volume, which carries its own risks under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), or shift their marketing budgets to other, often more expensive channels like paid digital advertising. Either path leads to an increase in the overall CAC, squeezing profitability and making it harder for businesses to compete. Therefore, advocating for a targeted solution like SB 2666 is not merely a matter of combating crime; it is an economic imperative to protect the efficiency and viability of a vital communication channel for the entire ecommerce industry.

Inside SB 2666: A Measured Approach to a Complex Problem

The Foreign Robocall Elimination Act (SB 2666) proposes a structured and collaborative approach to tackling the complex issue of illegal calls originating from abroad. Rather than imposing immediate and potentially overbroad regulations, the bill’s primary mechanism is the establishment of a specialized taskforce designed to study the problem in depth and recommend targeted, effective solutions. This deliberative, evidence-based strategy is a welcome departure from the kind of hasty, one-size-fits-all regulation that the EIA consistently cautions against.

The Interagency Taskforce – Study Before You Regulate

The centerpiece of SB 2666 is the creation of an Interagency Taskforce on Unlawful Robocalls. This body is charged with a clear mission: to conduct a comprehensive study of the foreign-originated robocall problem and, within 270 days of the bill’s enactment, deliver a detailed report to Congress and relevant federal agencies. This report is intended to serve as a roadmap for future action, containing “recommendations and advice…on the most effective ways to combat unlawful robocalls made into the United States from outside the United States”.

This approach ensures that policy is driven by data and expert analysis, not by reactionary impulses. By mandating a thorough investigation before any new rules are written, the bill seeks to avoid the unintended consequences that often arise from poorly understood or overly broad legislation—a principle that lies at the heart of the EIA’s advocacy mission.¹

A Seat at the Table – Analyzing the Taskforce Composition

A key strength of SB 2666 is its embrace of a public-private partnership model for the taskforce. The bill mandates a balanced composition, ensuring that regulatory and law enforcement agencies are joined by private sector experts who possess the on-the-ground technical and operational knowledge necessary to craft workable solutions. This structure guarantees that the voices of legitimate industry stakeholders, including those from the ecommerce community, will be heard.

The proposed composition of the taskforce is broken down as follows:

Table: Composition of the Proposed Interagency Taskforce on Unlawful Robocalls (SB 2666)

This structure is a significant positive. The inclusion of dedicated seats for both marketing and non-marketing businesses ensures that the full spectrum of legitimate ecommerce communications is represented. This is the forum where the critical distinction between wanted, consent-based messages and illegal scams can be clearly articulated and embedded into policy recommendations, preventing the kind of regulatory overreach that harms lawful businesses.

The Mandate for Action – Key Areas of Investigation

The bill provides the taskforce with a comprehensive and specific mandate, directing it to investigate the core facets of the foreign robocall problem. The legislative text is translated here into its key objectives:

• Quantify the Threat: Compare the volume of suspected unlawful robocalls originating from within the U.S. versus those coming from abroad.
• Identify the Sources: Determine which foreign countries serve as the primary points of departure for the highest volume of illegal calls into the U.S..
• Assess the Damage: Calculate the magnitude of financial loss and the number of identity theft instances in the U.S. resulting from these calls.
• Evaluate Technical Solutions: Examine the efficacy of the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework for international calls and explore ways to encourage its adoption in foreign countries.
• Foster International Cooperation: Study options for how countries can collaborate on call authentication and provide incentives for foreign governments to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement efforts.
• Strengthen Enforcement: Consider whether federal agencies need additional resources, whether a dedicated robocall enforcement office within the Department of Justice is warranted, and if increased criminal penalties could serve as a more effective deterrent.

This broad mandate ensures that the taskforce will produce a thorough and actionable report, addressing the problem from technological, diplomatic, and law enforcement angles.

EIA’s Perspective: Applauding the Focus, Advocating for Clarity

The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance views SB 2666 as a constructive and well-conceived piece of legislation that aligns with several of our core advocacy principles. We commend its targeted approach and collaborative framework, and we are committed to engaging in the process to ensure that any resulting policies are both effective against bad actors and safe for legitimate commerce.

Targeting the True Culprits, Not Lawful Businesses

The EIA commends the bill’s sponsors, Senators Ted Budd (R-NC) and Peter Welch (D-VT), along with the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee, Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), for correctly identifying illegal foreign-originated robocalls as the primary vector of consumer harm. This precise focus is a critical and welcome distinction. Too often, telemarketing regulations are drafted with such a broad brush that they inadvertently sweep in legitimate domestic businesses that are communicating with their customers lawfully and with consent. This bill, by contrast, aims its fire at the true culprits: international criminal enterprises engaged in fraud. This targeted approach is consistent with the EIA’s mission to help policymakers correct the unintended consequences of overbroad regulation and create a more predictable legal environment for ecommerce.

The Power of a Balanced Taskforce – A Forum for Nuanced Solutions

The bill’s greatest strength lies in its reliance on a public-private taskforce. This structure institutionalizes the very process of education and collaboration that the EIA was founded to promote. It creates a formal channel for industry experts to inform policymakers about the “real world impact” of potential regulations before they are implemented. This is far superior to a top-down regulatory mandate issued by agencies that may not fully grasp the operational complexities of modern ecommerce communications. The taskforce model allows for the development of nuanced, practical, and technologically sound solutions that can effectively combat illegal calls without stifling innovation or disrupting the essential, consent-based communications that underpin the digital economy.

A well-functioning federal framework, as could emerge from the work of this taskforce, offers a further strategic benefit. It has the potential to create a more uniform and predictable national regulatory landscape. This is of paramount importance to EIA members, who currently face a growing and unworkable patchwork of disparate state-level telemarketing laws, often referred to as “mini-TCPAs”. These conflicting state regulations create enormous compliance burdens for businesses that operate nationwide. A strong, clear, and effective federal standard for addressing illegal calls, informed by the expert recommendations of the SB 2666 taskforce, could serve as a valuable counterweight to this trend, discouraging states from creating their own duplicative or conflicting rules and advancing the EIA’s goal of a more rational, uniform policy environment.

The Path Forward – A Call for Common Sense Guardrails

As the legislative process moves forward, the EIA will advocate for a set of common-sense principles to guide the work of the taskforce and any subsequent policymaking. These guardrails are essential to ensure that the fight against foreign scammers does not inadvertently harm the legitimate ecommerce businesses that are also victims of this activity.

• Principle 1: Preserve Consent-Based Communication. The foundation of legitimate ecommerce communication is consumer consent. Any new rules or technological standards must include an unambiguous safe harbor for communications made with the consumer’s prior express consent. This principle is not theoretical; it is a proven and effective standard. The EIA’s successful advocacy in Texas, for example, resulted in the state’s Attorney General affirming that the new state telemarketing law, SB 140, does not regulate text messages sent by EIA members with a consumer’s prior consent. This same clarity must be a cornerstone of any federal framework, even when the calls or texts originate overseas.
  
• Principle 2: Avoid Creating New Litigation Traps. New regulations, however well-intentioned, can become weaponized by predatory plaintiffs’ attorneys if they are vague, complex, or lack clear compliance standards. A core mission of the EIA is to combat abusive litigation targeting the ecommerce industry. Therefore, any policy recommendations emerging from the taskforce must provide clear, actionable guidance for businesses acting in good faith. The goal should be to make it easier for legitimate companies to comply and harder for bad actors to operate, not to create a new minefield of statutory damages for technical or inadvertent violations.
  
• Principle 3: Promote Technological Solutions over Punitive Mandates. The most effective long-term solutions will be those that leverage technology to empower consumers and providers. Rather than relying solely on punitive measures, which can be misapplied to legitimate businesses, policy should encourage the widespread adoption of technologies like enhanced call authentication, traceback systems, and branded calling solutions.  These tools can help restore trust by giving consumers more information about who is calling them, allowing them to confidently answer legitimate calls while ignoring scams. This approach aligns with the EIA’s support for innovation and responsible business practices.

Next Steps: Monitoring the Committee and Championing Ecommerce

The Foreign Robocall Elimination Act is at a key juncture in the legislative process. The bill, S. 2666, was introduced on August 1, 2025, and was promptly referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for consideration. The committee scheduled a markup of the bill as part of a full committee executive session for October 8, 2025, which was subsequently postponed for Tuesday, October 21, 2025. The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance is actively monitoring the committee’s proceedings and will provide members with timely updates.

The EIA’s commitment to this issue is proactive and unwavering. We are not waiting for the taskforce to be formed to make the ecommerce industry’s voice heard. Our policy team is already engaging key policymakers to provide context, share the impact of foreign robocalls on our members, and articulate the principles outlined in this analysis. Our goal is to ensure that from day one, the conversation around this bill is grounded in a clear understanding of the distinction between illegal fraud and legitimate, consent-based commerce.

This legislative effort underscores the importance of a unified industry voice. The challenges facing the ecommerce ecosystem, from abusive litigation to misguided regulations, are too complex for any single company to tackle alone. The EIA provides the platform for the industry to come together, share insights, and advocate for common-sense policies that foster innovation and growth. We urge our members and the broader ecommerce community to stay informed on the progress of SB 2666 through our updates. Your experiences and your support for our advocacy are crucial. Together, we can help Congress craft a solution that effectively targets foreign criminals while safeguarding the communication channels that are essential to our industry, ultimately fulfilling our mission to create a “predictable and fair legal environment” where ecommerce can thrive.

Join the EIA today to help strengthen and shape policies that affect all ecommerce businesses. Together, we can continue to create the future of ecommerce. Subscribe to EIA email updates to stay informed on key developments and their impact on your business.