Cracking down on the relentless wave of robocalls, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued a stern warning to several phone companies identified as conduits for these calls. As reported by the Illinois Attorney General's office, Raoul's office, as part of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, outlined a pattern of negligence by these providers in allowing suspected illegal robocall traffic to cross their networks.
The letters were sent to four companies: KWK Communications, Inbound Inc., AKA Management, Inc., and CallVox LLC. Between 2020 and 2022, these companies collectively received hundreds of traceback notices, which were served by an industry trade group whenever the call traffic they managed was marked suspicious or potentially illegal. With over 20,000 calls found to have illegally spoofed numbers in one month alone in 2022, KWK Communications had been warned as part of the attorney general's efforts to reduce illegal and intrusive robocalls that plague Illinoisans.
"These letters should serve as a warning to others who attempt to profit off robocalls that cost consumers time and money and violate their privacy," Attorney General Raoul stated in the press release. Continuing the battle against this nuisance, Raoul has been working alongside the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), aiming to enact stringent measures against entities facilitating these calls. Warning that further legal action may be pursued against these companies, the task force calls for compliance with state and federal laws.
The task force, encompassing 51 bipartisan attorneys general, seeks to address the issue not just by warnings but also by investigating and taking legal action against significant perpetrators. According to the press release, in one month in 2022, Inbound Inc. was estimated to have routed over 28.4 million robocalls related to DirecTV and cable discount scams. The FTC had previously demanded that Inbound cease these scam calls. Similarly, AKA Management and CallVox LLC had numerous alerts for their part in transmitting robocalls involving scams ranging from government impersonations to invalid Caller ID numbers.
Raoul's track record against robocalls has been consistent. Joining a coalition of attorneys general, he has been active in filing briefs and pushing for legislation, as highlighted by the 2022 brief defending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's anti-robocall provisions. Also, as early as June 2019, Raoul, in cooperation with the FTC, announced a crackdown that included 94 actions against operations responsible for over a billion calls.
