Maine joins other states in crackdown on robocalls

PHOTO PIXABAY Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey has joined peers nationwide in an effort to crack down on illegal robocalls.

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By Tina Fischer

Maine is joining a multi-state effort to crack down on robocalls. Attorney General Aaron Frey and 50 bipartisan attorneys general are sending letters to 37 voice providers demanding they stop illegal robocalls from being routed through their networks.

Frey said in a statement, “Robocalls are not just a nuisance, they are a primary method for scammers to reach unwitting victims.

“While the scammers are often out of reach of the American legal system, the companies passing these calls through are not. This is our first step in alerting these businesses that we will be holding them accountable for their complicity in these robocalls unless they take action to prevent would-be scammers from using their networks.”

Frey’s office said the 37 providers being contacted have not complied with Federal Communications Commission rules about responding to government traceback requests, have not registered in the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Databases and have not filed a plan detailing their approach to reducing robocalls on their network.

Maine’s Operation Robocall Roundup joins the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force working to curtail robocalls across the country.

The nationwide task force is also sending letters to 99 downstream providers that accept traffic from the 37 companies.

The FCC announced late last week that it will be removing seven of these downstream providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database, which will stop other providers from being allowed to accept and route any calls from their networks.

In 2022, 51 attorneys general joined forces to create the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which is led by attorney generals Jeff Jackson from North Carolina, Todd Rokita from Indiana, and Dave Yost from Ohio. The Task Force investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.