Global Courant 2023-05-24 02:30:26
Thomas Trutschel | Photo library | Getty Images
A company allegedly facilitating billions of spam calls is being sued by nearly every state attorney general in the country for allegedly violating consumer protection and telemarketing laws, according to a complaint submitted on Tuesday.
Avid Telecom, a provider of Voice over Internet Protocol, has facilitated more than 7.5 billion calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, according to a complaint filed by AGs from 48 states plus the District of Columbia. The complaint alleged that Avid facilitated more than 24.5 billion calls between December 2018 and January 2023, and more than 90% of those calls lasted less than 15 seconds, indicating that they were likely robocalls.
The AGs also name two Avid executives as defendants: CEO Michael Lansky and Vice President of Operations and Sales Stacey Reeves.
According to the complaint, Avid allegedly sells phone numbers, data and calling software that customers can use to make mass robocalls. Using Avid’s services, customers were reportedly able to spoof the area codes of their calls to match those of their recipients, increasing the likelihood that they would answer.
Calls allegedly facilitated by Avid include scams involving the Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranties, Amazon, credit card rate cuts, and more.
A group designated by the Federal Communications Commission to notify providers of suspected illegal robocalls has sent at least 329 reports to Avid about the suspected spam, according to the AGs. But Avid reportedly ignored the warnings.
The lawsuit is the result of the work of a bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which pursues large-scale robocall cases.
Avid Telecom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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