DES MOINES – Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced that he has joined a bipartisan group of attorneys general in 38 states and the District of Columbia to stop or reduce annoying and harmful robocalls. This coalition is reviewing the technology major telecom companies are pursuing to fight illegal robocalls.
“The robocall problem is getting worse,” Miller said. “These calls are not simply annoying; in some cases, they are employed by scammers to prey upon consumers.”
Since it was formed, the multistate group has had in-depth meetings with several major telecom companies. These productive meetings have led to greater information sharing about the technological capabilities in existence or in development to fight these calls.
Miller and his colleagues are working to:
- Develop a detailed understanding of what is technologically feasible to minimize unwanted robocalls and illegal telemarking;
- Engage the major telecom companies to encourage them to expedite the best possible solutions for consumers;
- Determine whether states should make further recommendations to the FCC;
- Evaluate and coordinate future enforcement efforts against bad actors; and
- Educate consumers about current call-blocking options.
While there’s no single way to stop all unwanted calls, consumers do have a few tools to fight back, including using call-blocking apps and other services. The multistate group will explore other possible solutions.
This group includes attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
It’s about damn time they did something to stop this. We use Verizon call blocker but it tends to block all calls that are not in contacts. That causes some missed calls that were important.
How long has this crap been going on, and how long has the government been saying they were going to do something about it. In my opinion, this is just lip service from our government to make us think that they are doing something about it. I have been on the do not call list for 11 years. I have reported telephone numbers that keep calling even after I asked them to take my number off their list. And still, I get at least 10 calls a day on my land line, and 3-4 on my cell phone. With the technology we have today, we can surly put an end to this crap.
I guess that even with technology like Nomorobo and other apps, the Robocallers can get around it. All a lot of these apps can do is alert the consumer to suspected incoming spam calls.
But technology is advancing fast, and robocallers can get around it by spoofing numbers that appear to be from your neighborhood or even your exchange. In fact, they could very well display your number to place their calls to others, and you would not know it until someone calls or texts you to stop it.
Not only do we need technology, but the legal means with severe enough consequences to alter this behavior. And this has been lacking from the FCC or Congress for decades.
This is a case where industry lobbyists get a lot more attention from the powers that be, than the desires of the citizens they are supposed to serve.