Attorney General Josh Stein signs letter to FCC to help fight illegal robocalls

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Attorney General Josh Stein has joined a bipartisan coalition to call on the FCC to improve their Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD).

“I share North Carolina residents’ frustrations about receiving robocalls and robot texts,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “I am proud to lead this bipartisan group of attorneys general so that providers with bad intentions can be stopped before they try to bombard people with illegal robocalls.”

The 47 attorneys general are fighting to reduce illegal robocalls affecting Americans. A news release from Stein’s office said the Consumer Protection Division received 3,281 complaints about robocalls, which was the top complaint.

“Providers must register with the FCC’s database to operate as a voice provider in the United States. However, since it went live in 2021, the database has done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining legitimate registrations to send illegal robocalls over the US telephone network. Companies submitted unvetted information and voice service providers faced no real consequences for submitting inaccurate, false, misleading or otherwise incomplete information,” the press release said.

Stein joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi , Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

A copy of the letter is available here.