A man has been fined a record-breaking $120m for making more than 90 million automated¹ marketing² telephone calls in the US.

美国一名男子因打出了超过9000万通自动拨打的营销电话，而创纪录地被罚款1.2亿美元。

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

这位来自迈阿密、名叫阿德里安·阿布拉莫维奇的推销员，被指控使用骚扰电话来销售一些度假类和分时度假类的产品。

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

这是美国联邦通信委员会有史以来发布的最大的一笔罚款。

Mr Abramovich said he had not intended to "defraud³ or cause harm".

阿布拉莫维奇表示，他无意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".

但是美国联邦通信委员会的主席潘基特却在一则声明中称，这一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.

他表示：“阿布拉莫维奇先生对自己应对在2016年的一个季度内拨打的96758223通骚扰电话负有责任这一事实没有异议。”

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 violation⁴ of US law.

联邦通信委员会称，阿布拉莫维奇先生伪造了他的来电显示，让人们相信他们收到的是一个本地电话号码。而这一行为违反了美国法律。

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.

预先录制的通话将会提供有关“高级”度假游或旅行套餐的信息，佯装得就像如猫途鹰或希尔顿酒店等知名品牌一样。

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.

接着这通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是在2017年发布的该罚款，但阿布拉莫维奇先生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".

但潘基特主席表示，这是联邦通信委员会调查过的“最大规模的非法骚扰电话策划”，因此1.2亿美元的罚款是“合理的”。