Attorney General Yost, Others Sue First VoIP Provider Since Forming Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force!
FEATURED PHOTO: OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL DAVE YOST
Ohio Attorney General, Posted June 30th 2023
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suing a key player accused of bombarding millions of Americans with billions of illegal robocalls.
The lawsuit – led by Ohio, Arizona, Indiana and North Carolina, and joined by 44 other states and the District of Columbia – marks the first legal action of the bipartisan Anti‑Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which was formed last year. By combining resources and expertise, the task force member states are working to end the heavy volume of illegal robocalls making their way into and throughout the United States.
“Working collaboratively, our goal is to disconnect these bad actors for good,” Yost said. “This task force can wield enough muscle to overpower the formidable enemy that illegal robocalls represent.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona alleges that Avid Telcom, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider based in Arizona; its owner, Michael Lansky; and its vice president, Stacy Reeves, violated two federal laws, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Avid Telecom provided customized robocalling services to its customers – including tools to place extremely high volumes of calls quickly, access to phone numbers and dialing software – while also sending or helping to route illegal robocalls across the country.
Between December 2018 and January 2023, the lawsuit says, Avid sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls. More than 90 percent of those calls lasted less than 15 seconds, indicating that they likely were robocalls.
Further, Avid Telecom helped make hundreds of millions of calls, using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies.
Avid Telecom allegedly sent or transmitted scam calls purportedly from the Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranty companies, Amazon, DirecTV, credit card companies, and various employers. (Two of the scam calls can be heard here and here.)
Attorney General Yost filed two previous lawsuits that involved illegal robocalls allegedly facilitated by Avid.
In June 2020, the attorney general sued an Avid Telecom customer in a Texas federal court after Avid helped that customer send more than 4 billion robocalls between May 2019 and March 2021. Yost’s office in March of this year reached a $244 million settlement with the Texas-based customer.
Similarly, in July 2022, Yost sued 22 defendants, including Aaron Michael Jones, for a massive “car warranty” robocall scheme that also was supported by Avid Telecom. That case is pending.
Joining Yost in the lawsuit filed today are the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Consumers who receive unwanted calls can complete an Unwanted Call Notification Form at www.OhioProtects.org. That information will be shared with the Robocall Enforcement Unit, which uses the reports to identify trends and protect other Ohioans.