Attorney general calls on FCC to strengthen vetting process to block robocallers

Attorney General Anne Lopez and a bipartisan coalition of 46 attorneys general is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to improve its Robocall Mitigation Database and close what they say has effectively been an unmonitored loophole that bad actors exploit to access the US telephone network.

“While we work to identify and reduce the amount of illegal robocalls that plague everyone, scammers continue to find new ways to bombard people with these illegal calls and texts,” said Lopez. “I fully support this effort to strengthen the Robocall Mitigation Database and prevent more harmful call traffic from even entering the telephone network in the first place.” 

Providers must register on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database to operate as a voice service provider in the United States. However, the bipartisan group argues that since the database went live in 2021, it has done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining legitimate registrations to send illegal robocalls through the US telephone network. They claim that companies have submitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced no real consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading, or otherwise incomplete information.

The coalition of attorneys general is calling on the FCC to strengthen the database, so providers understand what information they need to submit and have deadlines to submit this information, validate the data providers submit to flag inaccurate or misleading data, penalize providers for submitting false or inadequate information by preventing them from getting authorization to operate, and blocking non-compliant providers. The proposed changes aim to make it harder for bad actors to gain access to the entire US telephone network and to stop more illegal robocalls from reaching people in the United States.

Lopez is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which is committed to actively investigating and pursuing enforcement actions against entities in the robocall ecosystem that are identified as being responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the country.

Her department shared tips to consider when determining whether calls and texts are scams:

• Be wary of callers posing as law enforcement or government agencies, who specifically ask you to pay by gift card, money sharing app, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. The Department of the Attorney General, law enforcement and other government agencies will not call to solicit money or threaten arrest.
• Never give out personal identifying information such as account numbers, social security numbers or birthdates in response to unexpected calls.
• If you suspect fraudulent activity, immediately hang up and call the phone number on your account statement or government agency website to verify the authenticity.

If you believe you received an illegal call or text, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.donotcall.gov, and register your phone number with the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry. You can also report a consumer complaint with the Hawaiʻi Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The Federal Communications Commission has tips, FAQs and other resources for identifying unwanted calls and texts.

Lopez was joined in sending this letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.

A copy of the letter is available here.