South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley joined attorneys general from 48 other states and territories in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt stronger rules aimed at stopping robocall and text-message scams.
Jackley said scammers rely on access to legitimate phone numbers to deceive consumers. With spoofing harder to accomplish due to previous enforcement efforts, scammers are increasingly buying real phone numbers to conduct fraud.
The attorneys general are asking the FCC to tighten oversight of companies that sell and assign phone numbers, require regular reporting to help law enforcement trace illegal calls, block sales to suspicious entities, prohibit number-cycling tactics, and restrict the use of trial phone numbers often exploited by scammers.
According to the coalition, Americans received nearly 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts last year and lost almost $2 billion to the schemes. The attorneys general say stronger regulations would help protect consumers and make it easier to identify and stop illegal robocall operations.
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