Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has joined nearly every US state in suing a company and its officials for making billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people.
An Arizona company called Avid Telecom reportedly facilitated more than 24.5 billion calls between December 2018 and January 2023, including more than 7.5 billion calls to phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, according to a press release from Labrador’s office .
More than 90% of the calls lasted less than 15 seconds, “suggesting that they were likely robocalls,” the press release said.
“Additionally, Avid helped make hundreds of millions of calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appear to have originated from government agencies, law enforcement agencies, and private businesses,” the release said .
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Avid Telecom, its legal business unit Michael D. Lansky LLC, CEO Michael Lansky and Vice President Stacey S. Reeves.
They are charged with violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws, the press release said.
“Avid Telecom is responsible for millions of illegal spam calls. Often these calls result in harassment and intimidation of unsuspecting recipients,” Labrador said in the release. “At the request of our citizens, both Congress and the state legislatures have passed several laws to stop this behavior, but laws are only good if they are enforced.” My office intends to hold Avid Telecom accountable.”
Avid Telecom sold data, phone numbers, dialing software and/or expertise to assist customers with bulk robocalls, and Avid allegedly facilitated or helped route illegal robocalls, the press release said.
The lawsuit states that Avid Telecom’s alleged robocalls covered the full spectrum of fraud and panic issues, such as:
Social Security Agency scams Medicare scam Auto warranty scam Amazon scam DirecTV scam Credit card rate cut scam Employment scam.
A group that informs telecom carriers of illegal robocall activity on their networks has sent Avid at least 329 notices of the transmission of such calls, but Avid has not stopped the practice, the press release said.
The Idaho Attorney General’s office is part of the nonpartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which includes 51 attorneys general.
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