From staff reports OKLAHOMA CITY– In the past year, Oklahomans have filed 26,262 Do Not Call complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. While all of those calls may not be illegal, more than half of them were robocalls.
Attorneys general from 47 states, including Oklahoma, are trying to close a loophole in a database that allows “bad actors” to have access to the U.S. telephone network.
Registration on the Federal Communications Commission’s Robocall Mitigation Database is required to operate as a voice service provider.
Since it went live in 2021, however, the database “has done little to prevent scammers from obtaining legitimate registrations to make illegal robocalls,” the attorneys general have complained. Companies have submitted non-vetted information, and voice service providers have faced no consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading or incomplete information.
“The RMD can and should be more than a mere formality that bad actors glibly disregard,” the attorneys general asserted in a letter they sent recently to the FCC, asking for measures to be taken to strengthen the Robocall Mitigation Database.
The letter suggests these actions: making clear what information needs to be submitted by providers and a deadline for those submissions, validating the data providers submit to flag inaccurate or misleading data, penalizing providers for submitting false or inadequate information by denying authorization to operate, and blocking noncompliant providers.
The letter was signed by attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.
Complaints about robocalls can be filed with the FTC at (877) 382-4357.