MADISON — Attorney General Josh Kaul and a bipartisan coalition of 46 Attorneys General called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve their Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) and close what has effectively been an unmonitored loophole that bad actors can exploit to access the U.S. telephone network.

“People shouldn’t have to be annoyed by robocall after robocall,” said Attorney General Kaul. “We must strengthen protections against illegal robocalls.”

Attorneys General are at the forefront of fighting to reduce the illegal robocalls that plague Americans, but scammers continue to find new ways to bombard people with illegal robocalls and robotexts. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received over 17,000 complaints from Wisconsin residents for unwanted robocalls made to telephone numbers listed in the National Do Not Call Registry. Additionally, during that timeframe, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection received 1,276 telemarketing complaints, which concerned robocalls, phishing and spoofing, imposter scams, and Wisconsin Do Not Call Registry issues.

Providers must register on the FCC’s database to operate as a voice service provider in the United States. However, since it went live in 2021, the database has done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining registrations and then sending illegal robocalls through the U.S. telephone network. Companies have submitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced no real consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading, or otherwise incomplete information.

The coalition of Attorneys General is calling on the FCC to strengthen the database so providers understand what information they need to submit and have deadlines to submit this information, 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 blocking non-compliant providers. If adopted, the proposed changes would make it harder for bad actors to gain access to the entire U.S. telephone network and would stop more illegal robocalls from reaching people in the United States.

Attorney General Kaul is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force and has been committed to actively investigating and pursuing enforcement actions against entities in the robocall ecosystem that are identified as being responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the country.

Attorney General Kaul is 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, Kentucky, 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, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.