U.S. attorneys general work to silence robocalls

On Tuesday, attorneys general across the United States jointly sued Avid Telecom, a telecommunications company accused of billions of robocalls to people on the national Do Not Call Registry. The lawsuit is led by Ohio, Arizona, Indiana, and North Carolina and joined by all the other states, except for Alaska and North Dakota, as part of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force. Avid Telecom denies any wrongdoing. 

What’s illegal about robocalls? Avid Telecom allegedly used spoofed caller ID numbers to help scammers transmit calls about Social Security, Medicare, and Amazon purchases, the lawsuit says. Seniors and vulnerable consumers have been scammed out of millions because of illegal robocalls, said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about whether Congress can outlaw robocalls.