Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has joined a bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general urging the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen rules aimed at preventing scammers from obtaining legitimate phone numbers used to make robocalls and scam texts.
The coalition says scammers increasingly purchase legitimate phone numbers to avoid spam filters after federal and state efforts made it more difficult to spoof existing numbers. Americans received an estimated 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts last year and lost nearly $2 billion to the schemes, according to the attorneys general.
The coalition is asking the FCC to require stricter verification for companies that buy and resell phone numbers, improve reporting so law enforcement can trace illegal calls, prohibit practices such as number cycling, and block the sale of phone numbers to entities that are not connected to legitimate calling or texting services.
