'We have to stop this:' Mississippi cracking down on robocalls
Despite widespread efforts, unwanted calls still getting through
Despite widespread efforts, unwanted calls still getting through
Despite widespread efforts, unwanted calls still getting through
If you have a phone, you've probably gotten a lot of robocalls. Despite all the advances in telemarketing phone blocks, IDs and do-not-call lists, millions of unsolicited phone calls find their way in.
"We do have to take some action," said Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.
The state AG joined a group of others across the nation asking the FCC to crack down on the calls and limit the ability for out-of-country scammers to call here.
"We have to stop this. This has been going on incessantly," Fitch said. "We have to take a hard stance. We want to gather data and prosecute. I am also working with other attorneys general across the country to file numerous different complaints."
Admittedly, despite widespread efforts on a federal and state level to stop those robocalls, they still get in. It's estimated to have cost consumers and law enforcement $13.5 billion.
In Mississippi, there are about 175 businesses that are registered telemarketers. The state's crackdown has basically been cases filed against those businesses that register, the ones that don't are still slipping through.
"Those are the ones we generally get, about 25% of the ones you get on a daily basis is a scam or robocall," said Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey.
Bailey is the Central District commissioner for the PSC, which tries to reign in an ever-present dilemma of scammers who use spoofing to mask their phone numbers. Bailey said they have a team trying to track down those robocalls.
"It is a multistep process, and most times they are going to shut down, go dark for a small time, pop back up under a new name, new address, new set of spoof numbers and get right back to work. And then we have to go through the process to identify them again," Bailey said.
The PSC estimates that last year, Mississippians received 40 million robocalls in the month of October alone.