Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and a bipartisan coalition of 46 other attorneys general are calling upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) and close an unmonitored loophole that bad actors exploit to access the U.S. telephone network.
Currently, voice service providers must 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 robocallers from obtaining illegitimate registrations to send illegal robocalls through the U.S. telephone network.
The attorneys general want the FCC to strengthen the database, including with penalties for providers who submit false or inadequate information by preventing them from operating. If adopted, the proposed changes would make it harder for robocallers to gain access to the entire U.S. telephone network, effectively lessening the number of illegal robocalls here.
“Bad actors who prey on the vulnerable with illegal robocalls have no place in Kentucky,” Coleman stated. “The FCC has the tools to prevent robocallers from taking advantage of our families, and it’s time for the Commission to use them.”
While General Coleman and other attorneys general are at the forefront of fighting to reduce the illegal robocalls, scammers continue to find new ways to bombard people with illegal calls and text. In October alone, a monthly report estimated Kentucky received 53.6 million robocalls and that nearly five billion robocalls were placed nationwide.
Attorney General Coleman is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force and is committed to investigating and pursuing enforcement actions against those responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the country.
Coleman was joined in sending this letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.
A copy of the letter is available here.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
