CHARLESTON –West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey recently announced Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, expanding the crackdown on illegal robocalls to include four of the largest voice providers in the country.
As part of an ongoing investigation, the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force has directed Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless to stop transmitting suspected illegal robocalls across their networks.
McCuskey
“Phase 1 of this operation has already helped stem the flow of robocalls throughout the country and Phase 2 is a big next step in addressing the problem,” McCuskey said. “Robocalls are not only a nuisance, they put people at risk of falling for scams, that is why this taskforce is doing everything within its power to investigate and crack down on these providers.”
In August, McCuskey sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. This next phase targets companies with far larger footprints in the U.S. telecom ecosystem. The four companies are continuing to transmit hundreds of thousands – and in some cases, millions – of suspected illegal robocalls.
As larger providers, the AG’s office says these companies have a heightened responsibility to decline call traffic from known and repeat bad actors. Despite extensive industry traceback notices and years of documented warnings, these four providers continue to route suspected illegal robocalls onto the network and into American homes.
After sending warning letters to 37 companies during Phase 1, the AGs say the Task Force saw rapid, measurable changes:
· 13 companies were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, meaning no provider in the United States may accept their call traffic.
· 19 companies stopped appearing in any traceback results, indicating they ceased routing suspected illegal robocalls.
· At least four providers terminated high-risk customer accounts identified as transmitting illegal traffic.
In 2022, 51 attorneys general joined forces to create the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which is led by North Carolina AG Jeff Jackson, Indiana AG Todd Rokita and Ohio AG Dave Yost. The Task Force investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.
