New Jersey sues to stop millions of illegal robocalls

📱 NJ says company made billions of illegal robocalls

📱 AG says calls promoted a variety of scams and preyed on NJ residents

📱 Despite state and federal efforts, robocalls continue to increase

Despite state and federal efforts to combat them, the number of robocalls we get on our phones seems to keep increasing.

New Jersey is targeting a company they say is one of the biggest offenders.

"Everyone has experienced robocalls and nobody likes them," said New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin.

Platkin has joined a multi-state lawsuit against Avid Telecom, accusing the company of more than 7.5 billion illegal robocalls over a span of five years, beginning in December 2018.

That includes more than 237 million calls to New Jersey.

The calls, according to Platkin, targeted New Jersey residents with a variety of scams connected to everything from Social Security and medicare to interest reduction on credit cards.

"Through this complaint," Platkin says, "we are cracking down on billions of scam calls and stopping them from continuing to bother our residents."

More than 45 states have joined the lawsuit against Avid Telecom and owner Michael Lansky.

Among the illegal actions alleged in the suit, using bogus caller ID numbers that made it appear as if the calls were "coming from government and law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies."

So-called 'spoofing' calls have been growing in recent years.

Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed a new law that requires greater transparency from telemarketers.

Under the law, telemarketing callers have to identify themselves and who they represent within 30 seconds of the call. They also have to provide a legitimate callback number.

The Federal Trade Commission is also targeting illegal robocalls, primarily from foreign bad actors.

In April, the FTC announced "Project Point of No Entry," targeting “point of entry” or “gateway” Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers.

Samuel Levine, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, vowed, "We will use all of our tools to stop companies that knowingly permit illegal calls to flood into the country."