GREENSBORO, N.C. — “I wish we could flip a switch and Robocalls would just go away, but it doesn’t work that way, it’s too profitable for criminals,” said NC Attorney General Josh Stein.
There’s no switch, so the work to fight Robocalls is daily. The latest lawsuit from the NC AG’s office is against Texas company, Articul8, which Stein said allowed 65-million illegal Robocalls to be made to North Carolina numbers in a span of a couple of months.
“Most of the Robocalls we get come from other countries, so it's very hard to find them, but the only way their call can come to your telephone is if there is some gateway company here in the United States that facilitates their traffic,” said Stein.
The lawsuit claims the company allowed calls to be made to folks on the Do Not Call registry and spoofed numbers associated with Social Security, the FBI, local police departments and allowed other calls like the auto warranty scams and even a telephone attack on a hospital emergency room.
So, how did the NC AG find this gateway company?
“The way they came to our attention was through a trade association called US Telecom. They do what's called traceback investigations where they work with big companies, your Verizon’s and AT&T and TMobile, and they go back and see where the link happened until they can identify which telephone provider is the one that is the gateway to all these illegal international calls,” said Stein.
We'll keep you updated on where the lawsuit goes from here. The hope is if the court shuts down the operation and fines the company, it will send a message to other companies doing the same thing.