Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota leaders taking new steps to stop robocalls from getting through to you

UNDATED (KTIV) - Attorneys General from across the country, including from Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota, are joining a national push for stricter rules so scammers cannot get your phone number.

The National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, July 7, calling to strengthen rules that would make it difficult for scammers to get legitimate phone numbers.

According to the press release, Americans received approximately 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams.

“Without that access, scammers can’t use real numbers to deceive and defraud citizens,” South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a press release. “The nation’s Attorneys General have been leading the effort to strengthen the rules against robocalls, and we will continue to do so.”

In addition to the steps the FCC is already taking, including action to cut down on “spoofing,” the act of scammers using other people’s phone numbers to make it look like a legitimate call, the bipartisan attorneys general are asking the federal government to do more, including:

• Require every company that is authorized to purchase and then resell phone numbers in North America to meet stronger certification rules and share how and to whom they are assigning numbers.  
• Require these companies to submit regular reports about the sale and use of numbers, so law enforcement can trace illegal robocalls back to the source. These reports will also help law enforcement hold all the companies in the call path accountable for selling or transmitting numbers used to conduct illegal robocalls.  
• Require people and entities that are applying to access phone numbers to confirm that they won’t use them to make illegal robocalls. 
• Block the sale of phone numbers to entities that aren’t tied to a calling or texting service. Law enforcement officials say robocallers often buy these numbers without linking them to a legitimate phone service, since they don’t plan on using the numbers for legitimate calling and texting purposes.  
• Prohibit number cycling, which is when an entity buys lots of numbers and then uses them on a rotating, sometimes single-use basis to avoid being detected by tools that flag numbers used to make illegal robocalls. 
• Restrict the offering of trial numbers to discourage scammers from taking advantage of them to harm consumers. 

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