Print
Category: California News

Sacramento, California - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today, as part of a nationwide coalition of 51 attorneys general, announced an agreement with 12 telecommunications (telecom) providers on a set of principles intended to limit and prevent robocalls. The providers have agreed to incorporate these principles into their business practices. This agreement comes from the work of the coalition of attorneys general who in 2018 formed the Robocall Technologies Working Group. The group collaborated with telecom providers to make it more difficult for scammers to use robocall technologies to intrude upon and defraud consumers.

All 50 states, and the District of Columbia have joined this agreement with the following telecom companies: AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream.

“We applaud the efforts of these telecommunications companies to stop unwanted robocalls,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Robocalls initiated from fake numbers are more than just a nuisance – they’re illegal. Today’s announcement is a useful step toward eliminating these types of calls, which far too often lead to identify theft and financial loss. Consumers must continue to be vigilant. However, today’s commitment by our industry partners is a step in the right direction to provide every landline and wireless customer with access to free and effective call-blocking tools.”

Illegal and unwanted robocalls harm consumers and interrupt our daily lives. Consumer fraud often originates with a robocall. Robocalls and telemarketing calls are currently the number one source of consumer complaints to both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Comission (FTC). During 2018, according to the FTC, consumers reported a total loss of $429 million as a result of these phone-based frauds.

The efforts of the Robocall Technologies Working Group represent a positive step towards combatting scams perpetrated through robocalls. The adopted principles commit the providers to:

The Attorney General has also repeatedly called on the FCC to take action to stop robocalls, and he continues to urge the FCC to take actions consistent with today's agreement between state attorneys general and telecommunications carriers. That includes support for the FCC's orders authorizing carriers to implement call blocking systems, as well as support for the FCC's stated intention to mandate the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN by the end of 2019 if it is not voluntarily implemented.