It never fails -- when Federal Licensing, Inc.’s “Modification Division,” which resides within a rather modest ranch house down the street from the Federal Communications Commission office in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, unleashes its monthly batch of letters intended to create fear in the hearts of unknowing Business/Industrial Land Transportation (B/ILT) and Public Safety recipients, we inevitably receive numerous “Have You Seen This” inquiries. Actually, we wish we received more inquiries from understandably annoyed licensees who are advised that if they do not keep their license current the “licensee is in direct violation of the FCC Rules and susceptible to newly imposed fines,” suggesting that the licensee might save itself from the wrath of the FCC by writing a $124 check to Federal Licensing.
Of course, all of this is bogus. While the Enforcement Bureau sometimes issues eye-popping fines for major infractions, we have yet to see them issue the maximum “$8000.00 (fine) per day for “unlicensed/improperly licensed use of a radio system” for “Malicious interference” or “Unauthorized discontinuance of service.” If people were paying more attention, they would ask themselves why would I respond to a “recently adopted FCC Policy Statement #91-217”? We’re not sure that there ever was such a policy statement, and if there was, it certainly is not current as the “91” indicates 1991! Unfortunately, these aggressive solicitations are not classified as spam since the Unites States Postal Service is the delivery method. But the results of the scam are the same. Licensees who don’t know any better respond to the “RETURN WITH CHECK” (we didn’t add the caps) and take comfort that Federal Licensing just saved them a pile of money in FCC fines.
Yes, we have seen it, and we hope more licensees would pause for just a moment and ask themselves “does this solicitation make any sense whatsoever?” If Federal Licensing really wanted to do good, maybe they should send their solicitations to those that are using non-FCC compliant radios from Asia on an unlicensed basis. How do these folks sleep at night?
