Press Release  AG Healey Announces Bipartisan Working Group to Combat Illegal Robocalls

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today announced her office is part of a bipartisan group of 39 state attorneys general partnering to stop annoying and harmful robocalls by working with major telecommunications companies to implement new technology to combat illegal robocalls.

“Telecommunication companies have the tools to stop billions and billions of unwanted calls, but they haven’t done nearly enough,” said AG Healey. “This initiative is designed to bring companies to the table and get the solutions the public deserves.”

Robocalls have been a persistent problem for consumers for years and remain the most frequently complained about issue to AG Healey’s consumer assistance hotline. The multistate group was formed earlier this year to reverse this trend and pursue solutions to this growing problem across the telecommunications industry. Since then, the multistate group has held meetings with several major telecom companies that have led to greater transparency about the technological capabilities that currently exist or are in development to fight these calls. The multistate group’s work involves: 

• Identifying the technologically feasible measures to minimize unwanted robocalls and illegal telemarking.
• Working with the major telecom companies to expedite the best possible solutions for consumers and educate consumers about these solutions.
• Making any further appropriate recommendations to the FCC.

In October, AG Healey announced her office had joined a group of 34 state attorneys general in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and telephone service providers to implement new technologies and policies that would block more illegal robocalls. The multistate comments call on all domestic and international carriers to implement a technology standard that allows carriers to authenticate the source of a call, block certain high-risk calls from reaching their subscribers, and send a warning to their customer about calls that are unverified or a likely scam. These warnings would allow the customer to choose whether to block the call or let it go to voicemail. 

The AG’s Consumer Advocacy & Response Division (CARD) is equipped with specialists that can answer questions, refer consumers to a wide network of assistance services, or directly assist consumers in resolving their problems. The AG’s consumer hotline can be reached at 617-727-8400 and is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit www.mass.gov/get-consumer-support for more information.

This group is led by the attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont, and also includes attorneys general from Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

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