South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined attorneys general from 48 other states and territories in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen regulations aimed at reducing illegal robocalls.
The coalition is asking the FCC to adopt rules that would make it more difficult for scammers to obtain and use legitimate telephone numbers to place fraudulent robocalls and text messages. The request builds on recommendations first made by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force in 2021 and comes in response to the FCC’s proposed rule changes.
According to the coalition, Americans received an estimated 29.6 billion scam robocalls and text messages last year, resulting in nearly $2 billion in financial losses.
Officials say previous efforts by federal and state authorities have significantly reduced illegal caller ID spoofing, a tactic that disguises a scammer’s phone number as a legitimate business or government agency. In response, many scammers have shifted to purchasing legitimate phone numbers, frequently rotating through newly acquired numbers to avoid detection by spam filters.
The coalition cited a North Carolina investigation in which scammers placed more than 17.3 million calls in a single day through one phone provider while rarely using the same number more than twice.
Wilson was joined in signing the letter by attorneys general representing 48 other states and U.S. jurisdictions, calling for stronger safeguards to help protect consumers from increasingly sophisticated robocall scams.
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