State attorney general Anne Lopez joined a bipartisan coalition of 46 attorneys general in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to close a loophole in its Robocall Mitigation Database that has been exploited to access the national telephone network.

What You Need To Know

  • Voice service providers are required to register on the FCC’s database to operate 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 through the U.S. telephone network, the AGs allege
  • According to the coalition, companies have submitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced no real consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading or otherwise incomplete information
  • AGs called on the commission to ensure providers understand what information they need to submit; establish deadlines for submission; validate the data providers submit to flag inaccurate or misleading data; penalize providers for submitting false or inadequate information by preventing them from getting authorization to operate; and block non-compliant providers
  • State attorney general Anne Lopez is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which investigates and pursues enforcement actions against robocallers that are identified as being responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the country

 

“While we work to identify and reduce the amount of illegal robocalls that plague everyone, scammers continue to find new ways to bombard people with these illegal calls and texts,” Lopez said in a statement released on Friday. “I fully support this effort to strengthen the Robocall Mitigation Database and prevent more harmful call traffic from even entering the telephone network in the first place.” 

Voice service providers are required to register on the FCC’s database to operate 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 through the U.S. telephone network, the AGs allege.

According to the coalition, companies have submitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced no real consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading or otherwise incomplete information.

In a letter to the FCC, Lopez and the other AGs called on the commission to ensure providers understand what information they need to submit; establish deadlines for submission; validate the data providers submit to flag inaccurate or misleading data; penalize providers for submitting false or inadequate information by preventing them from getting authorization to operate; and block non-compliant providers.

Lopez is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which investigates and pursues enforcement actions against robocallers that are identified as being responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the country. 

The public is encouraged to consider the following tips when determining whether calls and texts that may be scams:

  • Be wary of callers posing as law enforcement or government agencies, who specifically ask you to pay by gift card, money sharing app, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. The Department of the Attorney General, law enforcement and other government agencies will not call to solicit money or threaten arrest.

  • Never give out personal identifying information such as account numbers, social security numbers or birthdates in response to unexpected calls. 

  • If you suspect fraudulent activity, immediately hang up and call the phone number on your account statement or government agency website to verify the authenticity.

If you believe you received an illegal call or text, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission at donotcall.gov and register your phone number with the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry. You can also report a consumer complaint with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The Federal Communications Commission has tips, FAQs and other resources for identifying unwanted calls and texts. 

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.