State Attorneys General Refer Four Voice Providers to the FCC Over Suspected Robocall Traffic

The bottom line: the states are not waiting to sue every provider. They are also building records and handing them to the FCC, which can order network-wide blocking.

The four companies

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Task Force member, summarized the findings:

1. KWK Communications: at least 129 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022, including calls tied to IRS and Social Security Administration scams, auto warranty scams and utilities scams.
2. Inbound Inc.: at least 63 traceback notices between 2021 and 2022, many involving imposter scams. The Task Force estimated it routed more than 28.4 million DirecTV and cable discount scam robocalls in a single month in 2022. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had previously issued a cease-and-desist demand to Inbound.
3. AKA Management: at least 129 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022, including government imposter and tech support scams. The Task Force estimated about 12.1 million Amazon and Apple imposter robocalls in a single month in 2022.
4. CallVox: more than 47 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022, including thousands of calls to people on the Do Not Call list and calls with illegally spoofed numbers.

A closer look at the KWK letter

The letter to KWK is dated December 10, 2024, and is styled as a notice of a request for FCC review. It describes the Task Force as led by the attorneys general of Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio.

According to the letter, the Task Force analyzed just over 51.2 million call detail records from KWK's nationwide traffic for May 2022. It found:

1. Traffic that was largely high volume and short duration, indicative of robocalls.
2. More than 8.74 million calls with invalid caller ID numbers.
3. More than 20,700 calls with illegally spoofed numbers attempting to impersonate government agencies and other organizations.
4. More than 1,880 calls in a reviewed subset of voicemail recordings with unlawful or fraudulent content.

The letter cites the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Truth in Caller ID Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule as the laws apparently violated.

What the letters warned

The Task Force said that if the providers continue to transmit illegal robocalls, it may pursue further legal action against the companies and their owners. The referral to the FCC adds a second front, because the FCC can require other carriers to stop accepting a provider's traffic.

What this means for you

1. Traceback notices are used as evidence. Each of these companies had dozens or more.
2. State investigators review your call detail records. Invalid and spoofed caller IDs are easy to spot in bulk data.
3. Prior warnings from other agencies count. The Task Force noted the FTC's earlier demand to Inbound.
4. Owners are named as potential targets, not only the companies.

The Task Force's approach pairs state litigation authority with FCC blocking authority. Providers that carry high-risk traffic should expect both.