Maine joins multistate lawsuit alleging billions of illegal robocalls

Photo / Courtesy Brian Jackson, Adobe Stock Maine has joined a multistate lawsuit against Avid Telecom, based in Arizona, for allegedly initiating and facilitation billions of illegal robocalls.

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By Renee Cordes

Maine has joined a multistate lawsuit against an Arizona telecommunications company accused of facilitation billions of illegal robocalls to telephone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.

The complaint alleges that the company allegedly initiated and facilitated billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people and violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws.

In terms of numbers, Avid Telecom allegedly sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry,

“Robocalls are not only a nuisance, but they are used to obtain personal and financial information from unassuming victims,” said Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey, who joined counterparts in 48 other jurisdictions as complainants. “Our office receives complaints about these calls every day, so I am pleased to join an effort to stop these illegal robocalls and enforcing the law against the originators of the calls.”

Avid Telecom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Further details

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. The plaintiffs allege that between December 2018 and January 2023, Avid sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls, more than 90% of which were under 15 seconds, indicating they were likely robocalls.

Avid also allegedly 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. The company is also accused of sending or transmitting scam calls about Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams and employment scams.

Traceback Group, a telecom-led industry organization that notifies providers about known and suspected illegal robocalls sent across their network, sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting these calls, but Avid Telecom continued to do so, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit arises from the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general investigating and taking legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General provided investigative assistance in the matter.