SC joins 51 attorneys general, 12 phone companies in coalition against illegal robocalls
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) – SC Attorney General Alan Wilson announced he is joining 51 attorney general and 12 phone companies in a coalition against illegal robocalls.
The coalition has agreed to adopt the eight principles that it says will protect phone users from illegal robocalls, and make it easier for attorneys general to investigate and prosecute offenders.
Officials say the phone companies will work to prevent illegal robocalls through the efforts below:
- Implementing call-blocking technology at the network level at no cost to customers.
- Making available to customers additional, free, easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools.
- Implementing technology to authenticate that callers are coming from a valid source.
- Monitoring their networks for robocall traffic
Officials say phone companies will also help attorneys general with anti-robocall enforcement through the following efforts:
- Knowing who their customers are so bad actors can be identified and investigated.
- Investigating and taking action against suspicious callers – including notifying law enforcement and state attorneys general.
- Working with law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to trace the origins of illegal robocalls.
- Requiring telephone companies with which they contract to cooperate in traceback identification.
“Robocalls are frustrating for all of us because we all get them, and to make that frustration worse it’s very difficult for us to do anything about them at the state level,” Attorney General Wilson said. “This agreement should make a difference that will help us all because it all involves all 50 states and DC and the major cell phone companies.”
Companies involved with the coalition include AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream.
