IL Attorney General takes new action against companies allowing robocalls

CHICAGO (WCIA) — The Attorney General of Illinois and his counterparts across the nation are taking new action to combat robocalls.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced on Thursday the launch of Operation Robocall Roundup. As part of this initiative, Raoul and 50 other attorneys general are sending letters to 37 voice providers demanding immediate action to stop illegal robocalls being routed through their networks.

“Today’s announcement is the latest step taken in our task force’s efforts to address intrusive and illegal robocalls that plague Illinoisans,” Raoul said in a news release. “I will continue to work closely with my fellow attorneys general and the FCC to protect Illinois consumers and ensure all telecom companies play by the rules.”

The recipients of these letters, Raoul said, have failed to comply with FCC rules on responding to government traceback requests. They also failed to register in the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database or to file a plan describing how they will reduce illegal robocalls on their network.

“By disregarding these simple rules, the companies are allowing robocallers into their phone networks and then passing those calls on to other downstream providers until they reach the phones of Illinois residents,” Raoul said.

In addition to the 37 companies, Raoul and the task force are sending letters to 100 “downstream providers” that accept call traffic from those companies. The 37 primary companies are:

• Advantage Investors LLC
• Alpha Stream
• Ananya Traders LLC
• Ariyan Khan
• BBT Voice Private Limited
• Belthrough
• BPO VoIP
  Collection 3 LLC
• Communications and Telephone Systems Co.
• Dial Vista Corp.
• DigitalOcean LLC
• Dtel Network LLC
• End Zone Financial Services
• EON Telecom Inc.
• Family Communication Inc.
• Fiber Flux VOIP
• First Tele Communications Inc.
• Flow VOIP LLC
• Globe Tech Solutions
• Higher Response Marketing Inc.
• HK KwaiFong Group Limited
• Infinity SIP LLC
• Lexico Telecom LTD / Lextel LTD
• Mexico IP Phones LLC
• Nexusphere VOIP LLC
• Pleedex LLC
• Quantum Link VOIP LLC
• Ringnition
• SK Teleco LLC
• SkyPulse VOIP
• Stacy Newsome LNCC LCC
• Telnextrix LLC
• Terra Voip
• TheVisionConnect
• Tiera Enterprises LLC
• Voip Torque
• Whisl Telecom LLC / Telconus / Telcon US / Telcon Voice

The FCC also announced on Wednesday that seven of these companies will be removed from the Robocall Mitigation Database, meaning that other providers will no longer be allowed to accept and route any calls from their networks.

Raoul and his counterparts participating in Operation Robocall Roundup are part of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which was formed in 2022. The task force investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for “significant volumes” of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the U.S.