At best, robocalls are a growing and persistent nuisance. At worst, they’re the source of scams that steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims. Today, Attorney General Dan Rayfield and attorneys general from 49 other states are pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen its rules cracking down on these illegal operations.
AG Rayfield and the coalition are urging the FCC to strengthen its “Know Your Customer” (KYC) rules to help prevent scammers from using the U.S. communications network to make illegal robocalls. KYC rules require phone companies to verify who their customers are and what kind of business they’re conducting – giving providers the information they need to cut off unlawful callers or refuse to do business with them in the first place.
“These aren’t just annoying interruptions – these calls are a direct pipeline to fraud that drain people’s savings, retirement funds and trust,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “We need federal regulators to step up and demand that phone companies do a better job of preventing these calls in the first place.”
Attorney General Rayfield has previously asked the FCC to strengthen its KYC rules.
Even though providers are already required to know who their customers are, the current requirements aren’t strong enough—as evidenced by the prevalence of robocall scams. Last year, Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams.
In addition to what the FCC is already doing, attorneys general urge the FCC to:
- Require providers to understand their customers’ business. In addition to verifying a customer’s identity and existence, originating providers should also be required to examine and understand the customer’s business practices, reputation, history, intended use of services, and their compliance with state and federal laws.
- Hold all phone companies to KYC standards. Even small originating service providers should be required to meet enhanced KYC standards. Scammers use originating providers, regardless of size, to access the communications network. In fact, illegal calls are often facilitated by smaller voice service providers. Not holding small providers to the same standards could cause them to be even more attractive to bad actors looking to use them to make illegal robocalls.
- Require originating providers to collect additional information on high-risk customers. While KYC requirements should be universal, the attorneys general support additional, long-term monitoring of customers who are more likely to make illegal robocalls, such as those subscribing to high volume services.
This letter comes after a coalition of 49 attorneys general sent reply comments to the FCC earlier in July, encouraging it to crackdown on illegal robocalls by strengthening rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate phone numbers.
The two letters are part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force to crack down on robocalls across the country. Phase 1 launched in August 2025 with warning letters sent to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. Phase 2 launched in December and expanded the crackdown to four of the largest intermediate voice service providers in the country.
Alongside Attorney General Rayfield in signing this letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia , Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
