CHARLESTON — Another step in fighting illegal robocalls has been taken in a joint effort by 51 attorneys general and 12 phone companies.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey joined the bipartisan, public-private agreement that will result in the phone companies adopting eight principles to fight robocalls.
“What’s really good about this announcement is this allows us to go after fraud even more aggressively,” Morrisey said in a released video. “We are going to be able to help power consumers to get access to the technology that the phone companies have had.”
The 12 phone companies include AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon and Windstream. The principles include offer free call blocking and labeling, implement STIR/SHAKEN, analyze and monitor network traffic, investigate suspicious calls and calling patterns, confirm the identity of commercial customers, require traceback cooperation in contracts, cooperate in traceback investigations, and communicate with state attorneys general.
“This is another step forward in the effort to get rid of these terrible robocalls,” Morrisey said. “Our team has been working on this for a long time, and we continue to work with other smaller providers to bring every telecommunications provider into the fold.”
Morrisey and West Virginia joined the North Carolina, New Hampshire and Indiana-led principles with attorneys general from every state and D.C.
