Attorney General Lynn Fitch and a bipartisan coalition of 46 attorneys general called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve their Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) and close what has effectively been an unmonitored loophole that bad actors exploit to access the U.S. telephone network. "Unsolicited robocalls and robotexts are too often a gateway to scams," said Attorney General Lynn Fitch.
"In just a single month, October 2024, myoffice received 361 complaints about robocalls, and we need every toolavailable to address them. Today, we are asking the FCC to update its rules toprotect consumers from these unnecessary, annoying, and sometimes dangerous calls and texts."In the last 12 months, the Mississippi Attorney General's Office hasinvestigated 6,846 telemarketing complaints from consumers, with more than360 in October 2024 alone.Providers must register on the FCC’s database to operate as a voice serviceprovider in the United States. However, since it went live in 2021, the databasehas done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining legitimate registrations tosend illegal robocalls through the U.S. telephone network. Companies havesubmitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced noreal consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading, or otherwiseincomplete information.
The coalition of attorneys general is calling on the FCC to strengthen thedatabase so providers understand what information they need to submit andhave deadlines to submit this information, validate the data providers submitto flag inaccurate or misleading data, penalize providers for submitting false orinadequate information by preventing them from getting authorization tooperate, and blocking non-compliant providers. If adopted, the proposedchanges would make it harder for bad actors to gain access to the entire U.S. telephone network and would stop more illegal robocalls from reaching peoplein the United States.Attorneys general are at the forefront of fighting to reduce the illegal robocallsthat plague Americans, but scammers continue to find new ways to bombardpeople with illegal robocalls and robotexts. AG Fitch is a member of the Executive Committee for the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force and has beencommitted to actively investigating and pursuing enforcement actions againstentities in the robocall ecosystem that are identified as being responsible forsignificant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into andacross the country.AG Fitch is joined in sending this letter by the attorneys general of Alabama,Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, SouthCarolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia,Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.
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