State Attorneys Form Task Force Targeting Robocalls

All 50 state attorneys general have come together through the newly formed Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force to go after U.S. telecommunications companies that allow robocalls originating overseas to reach their customers, reports Pew Stateline.

The AGs have put telecom companies on notice that they must stop the scam calls before they go through to customers, or face prosecution. By potentially coordinating lawsuits, the attorneys general make it more expensive for the robocaller companies, which earlier had calculated the cost of individual court cases into their cost of doing business.

As its first act, the task force this month issued 20 investigative requests to 20 companies that are allegedly responsible for a majority of foreign robocall traffic.

The National Consumer Law Center and the Electronic Privacy Information Center found that in 2021, about 60 million Americans were bilked out of $29 billion by scam robocalls and texts.

The task force will be led by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Attorney General Stein filed a lawsuit earlier this year against gateway service provider Articul8 for routing 65 million alleged scam calls to North Carolina phone numbers. The court entered default judgment against Articul8 in late February.