Attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia yesterday reiterated the importance of traceback investigations in identifying and prosecuting illegal robocallers to the Federal Communications Commission, with one AG calling an effective collaboration between AGs and telecom companies the “tip of the spear.”
A copy of the letter can be accessed by clicking here.
Getting AGs from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., is no easy feat, so the fact that they all signed on to the letter underscores the importance to which their offices assign illegal robocalls as an enforcement priority.
Traceback investigations identify the source of a phone call and are important in robocall investigations because calls can be routed through many networks of telecom companies before reaching their destinations.
Last month, the AGs indicated their willingness to issue more subpoenas and civil investigative demand letters to telecom carriers to help expedite traceback investigations. By creating a platform to collect live data in real-time, law enforcement agencies would be able to act faster and possibly even obtain temporary restraining orders to stop illegal robocalling campaigns as they are happening.
Under the Pallone–Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, the FCC is charged with selecting a single source that will manage traceback investigations. The AGs letter to the FCC yesterday was filed as a comment on the agency’s proposal to identify and select the provider of that service.
“Without traceback efforts, bad actors can, and will, continue to operate in secrecy by hiding behind a misleading or inaccurate caller ID name and number, and by routing calls through numerous providers’ networks prior to reaching consumers across this country,” the Attorneys General wrote in their letter.
