Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti Pushes Federal Government to Crack Down on Illegal Robocalls

Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti Pushes Federal Government to Crack Down on Illegal Robocalls

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti today joined a bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt stronger safeguards that would make it harder for scammers to obtain legitimate telephone numbers and use them to target consumers.

The coalition filed comments supporting proposed FCC rules that would help prevent criminals from exploiting legitimate phone numbers to carry out robocall and text message scams. The request builds on recommendations first made by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force in 2021.

"Scammers are constantly changing tactics to stay one step ahead, and we have to be just as relentless in protecting consumers," said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. "Cracking down on illegal spoofing made a real difference, but now bad actors are exploiting legitimate phone numbers to gain consumers' trust. These commonsense reforms will make it harder for scammers to operate and easier for law enforcement to track them down and hold them accountable."

Americans received an estimated 29.6 billion scam robocalls and text messages last year and lost nearly $2 billion to these schemes.

To better protect consumers, the bipartisan coalition is urging the FCC to:

• Require companies that purchase and resell North American phone numbers to meet stronger certification standards and disclose how and to whom numbers are assigned.
• Require regular reporting on the sale and use of phone numbers so law enforcement can trace illegal robocalls to their source and hold companies throughout the call chain accountable.
• Require applicants seeking access to phone numbers to certify they will not use them to facilitate illegal robocalls.
• Prevent the sale of phone numbers to entities that are not connected to a legitimate calling or texting service.
• Prohibit "number cycling," the practice of rapidly rotating through large blocks of phone numbers to evade spam detection tools.
• Restrict the availability of trial phone numbers that scammers can exploit to carry out fraudulent schemes.

Attorney General Skrmetti joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming in submitting the comments to the FCC.