Attorneys general from Connecticut and New York have joined nearly every state’s AGs in calling for a federal crackdown on spam calls.
Forty-nine attorneys general want the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen its rules. They say it would cut off scammers' access to legitimate telephone numbers.
“Spam filters are blocking billions of robocalls, but billions more are getting through and exposing Americans to billions of dollars in losses to fraud,” Tong said. “We need strong federal action to stop scammers from accessing new phone numbers, and to hold companies accountable who are profiting from the sale of numbers to illegal robocall rings,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said.
Last year, Americans lost nearly $2 billion to $30 billion to spam calls.
The coalition of AG’s is proposing a set of new FCC rules. They include stronger certification requirements for companies that buy and sell phone numbers and regular reports from those companies to help law enforcement trace the numbers.
They also want to ban number cycling — that’s where scammers buy a bunch of numbers and use them on rotation to avoid detection from anti-spam tools.
“New Yorkers are getting flooded with predatory robocalls day after day, putting their finances and personal information at risk,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “My office is committed to tackling the epidemic of robocalls to prevent scammers from taking advantage of working families.”
Montana and Florida did not join the coalition.
