A bipartisan coalition of 50 state attorneys general is urging the Federal Communications Commission to adopt stricter “Know Your Customer” requirements for originating voice service providers, a move with direct implications for the accounts receivable management industry and the calling platforms it relies on.
In reply comments filed July 27 in the FCC’s KYC rulemaking, the coalition, co-led by the attorneys general of Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio, backed the Commission’s proposals to require providers to collect, verify, retain, and periodically re-verify identifying information from new and renewing customers before granting network access. The filing united Republican and Democratic AGs from every corner of the country, a signal that robocall enforcement remains one of the few genuinely bipartisan priorities in consumer protection.
The AGs argue the current framework is not working. Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts last year and lost nearly $2 billion to the schemes, according to the coalition. Since 2020, the FCC has required originating providers to exercise due diligence on their customers, but the AGs say providers “as a whole, failed to meet that directive.”
The coalition wants the FCC to go further than its current proposals in three areas. Providers should be required to understand a customer’s business practices, reputation, and intended use of services, not just verify its identity. Small providers should face the same standards as large ones, since illegal traffic often flows through smaller carriers. And high-risk customers should face enhanced long-term monitoring, though initial KYC collection should be universal.
Notably for this industry, the filing points to Numeracle’s KYC Model Standards as a starting framework. Those standards explicitly flag third-party debt collections, along with debt relief and credit repair services, as higher-risk categories warranting elevated scrutiny. The AGs also called out “dialer” rate decks billed for high-volume, short-duration traffic as a signal that should trigger more careful vetting from the outset.
The letter is part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force’s escalating campaign that began with warning letters to 37 smaller providers in August 2025 and expanded in December to four of the nation’s largest intermediate carriers.
The AGs endorsed implementation within six months of OMB approval, per-call forfeiture penalties, and downstream blocking of noncompliant providers’ traffic. For collection agencies, the practical takeaway is clear: expect carriers to ask harder questions, demand more documentation, and watch traffic patterns more closely.
