FTC Awards $25,000 Top Cash Prize for Contest-Winning Mobile App That Blocks Illegal Robocalls

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Commission Also Announces Winners of National Day of Civic Hacking Analytic Challenge

The Federal Trade Commission announced that judges for its Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back contest selected a first place winner for the $25,000 cash prize for building a mobile app that blocks and forwards robocalls to a crowd-sourced honeypot.

Ethan Garr and Bryan Moyles created a solution called RoboKiller(link is external), which relies on universally available call forwarding that works on both landline and mobile phones, and uses audio-fingerprint technology to identify robocalls. Runner-up Hemant Sengar applied similar audio analytics in his solution and will receive a $10,500 prize.

“We hope the winners bring their dynamic solutions to the marketplace soon,” said Jessica Rich, Director, FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Their products may block billions of unwanted robocalls, and help people report illegal robocallers to law enforcement.”

RoboKiller gives consumers greater control over how and when they receive calls by sending robocalls to a SpamBox that consumers can access at any time, utilizes consumer-controlled white and black list filtering, and provides personalized setting options.

See the FTC’s press release here.

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