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Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined a bipartisan coalition of 51 Attorneys General in a comment letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supporting proposals to stop illegal robocalls that originate outside the country but use U.S. phone numbers in caller ID fields.
“Illegal robocalls cost consumers, law enforcement, and the telecommunications industry about $13.5 billion a year,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “Despite the many positive steps we’ve taken to stem the flow of illegal robocalls in recent years, calls continue to come into the country and evade our protective measures. The proposals we support today will stop those calls at their entry point to the U.S. and keep scammers from reaching consumers with unauthenticated and false American phone numbers listed on our caller ID.”
The Attorneys General are supporting a proposed rule by the FCC that would require gateway providers in the U.S. to implement STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication and a series of robocall mitigation providers on foreign-originated calls that seek to use U.S.-based phone numbers. The rule includes requirements that these gateway providers:
Authenticate foreign-originated calls when the call carries a U.S.-based phone number in the caller ID field,
Respond to traceback requests for enforcement within 24 hours,
Engage in mandatory call blocking when a provider receives notification of illegal traffic by the FCC,
Empower other providers downstream to block calls when a gateway provider is determined to be a bad actor,
Block calls originating from a “do-not-originate” list,
Comply with certain “know your customer” obligations, and
Submit certification to the Robocall Mitigation database describing their mitigation practices.
This comment letter was signed by the Attorneys General from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Attorney General Fitch joined a coalition of 51 Attorneys General on a similar comment letter in August 2021 supporting an earlier deadline for small telephone service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN robocall mitigation technology. And last month, the FCC announced that small providers would have to be compliant by June 30, 2022.
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