California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced the launch of Operation Robocall Roundup, a coordinated national effort to address illegal robocalls. The initiative is led by the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general. As part of this operation, warning letters have been sent to 37 voice service providers, urging them to take immediate steps to stop illegal robocalls from being routed through their networks.
“Robocalls are annoying, can facilitate scams that result in real financial losses for Californians, and can unintentionally cut people off from communication from their loved ones for fear of robocalls. This is a nationwide problem, and we need nationwide solutions,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I am proud to steadfastly continue in this national, bipartisan effort to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls by launching Operation Robocall Roundup. My office is committed to protecting Californians from the risk of financial harm by going after companies who enable illegal robocalls on their telecom networks.”
The targeted providers have not complied with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules requiring cooperation with government traceback requests or registration in the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database. Some also failed to file plans describing how they will reduce illegal robocalls on their systems. These lapses allow robocalls onto phone networks and then on to downstream providers until they reach consumers.
The Task Force is also notifying over 99 downstream providers that receive call traffic from these 37 companies so they are aware of the risks associated with doing business with non-compliant firms.
The FCC has recently taken action against several companies involved in these practices and removed seven providers from its Robocall Mitigation Database. This means other telecommunications companies may no longer accept or route calls originating from those networks.
Among the voice service providers receiving warning letters are Advantage Investors LLC, Alpha Stream, DigitalOcean LLC, EON Telecom Inc., Infinity SIP LLC, Voip Torque, Whisl Telecom LLC/Telconus/Telcon US/Telcon Voice, and others.
The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force continues its investigation into entities responsible for significant volumes of unlawful robocall traffic across the United States.
Attorney General Bonta’s recent actions include putting nine companies on notice for submitting illegal robocall traffic and supporting an FCC rule intended to close loopholes exploited by lead generators seeking broad consumer consent for calls.
Other efforts by Bonta’s office involve sending warning letters regarding suspected scam calls impersonating government officials or targeting elections, submitting comments supporting stronger federal rules against unwanted calls and texts, and addressing concerns about artificial intelligence being used in new forms of scam communications.
Additionally, the California Department of Justice remains involved in ongoing litigation against Avid Telecom over allegations it facilitated billions of unlawful robocalls involving Social Security Administration scams as well as Medicare and employment fraud schemes.
