Attorney General Raoul Begins Second Phase Of Robocall Roundup; Announces Investigation Of Four Service Providers
Illinois AG Raoul targets major telecom companies in new robocall crackdown.
CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul with a bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general, today launched the second phase of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the multi-state Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force to crack down on robocalls across the country. As part of an ongoing investigation, Raoul and the task force sent letters to Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen and Peerless directing each company to stop transmitting suspected illegal robocalls across their networks.
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“Today’s letters are the latest step in our task force’s efforts to address intrusive and illegal robocalls that plague Illinoisans. As larger providers, these companies have a heightened responsibility to decline call traffic from known and repeat bad actors,” Raoul said. “Despite extensive notices and years of documented warnings, they continue to route suspected illegal robocalls onto their networks. This is why I will continue to work closely with my fellow attorneys general and the FCC to protect Illinois consumers and ensure all telecom companies play by the rules.”
In August, Attorney General Raoul sent the first phase of 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.
Raoul and the task force’s letters to Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen and Peerless include data from each of the companies that depict the scale of suspected illegal robocall activity linked to each company. Since 2019, each company received thousands of traceback notices, which are official alerts from industry investigators indicating that a company transmitted a call tied to a suspected illegal robocall campaign. Data also includes millions of scam robocalls, such as fake Amazon, Apple, Social Security, or IRS calls – that are estimated to have moved through each company’s network.
Raoul explained the task force has seen measurable changes after sending the first phase of warning letters:
- 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. 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.
Attorney General Raoul has been a consistent advocate for protections against illegal robocalls. His office actively investigates and pursues 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. In 2022, Raoul joined a coalition of 33 attorneys general in filing a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending the anti-robocall provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. In August 2019, Raoul joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from all 50 states and Washington D.C. in partnering with 12 phone companies to create a set of principles for telecom companies to fight robocalls. In June 2019, Raoul, in cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, announced a major crackdown on robocalls that included 94 actions targeting operations around the country that were responsible for more than 1 billion calls. Raoul has also submitted comments to the FCC urging the adoption of various proposed rules aimed at cracking down on unwanted telemarketing calls.
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