CLEVELAND — A new step in Ohio could help end the madness of robocalls.
On Thursday, the state’s attorney general announced an agreement with 12 phone service providers.
Through it, the companies will verify which calls are valid, which are suspicious, and report any illegal activity at no cost to consumers.
In turn, it will “make it easier for attorneys general to investigate and prosecute bad actors,” Dave Yost said in his statement.
Many of the illegal robocalls originate overseas. Spammers often engage in so-called “spoofing,” which is disguising their numbers to look local.
A Florida hospital was recently hit with 6,600 illegal robocalls in a 3-month period. The calls mimicked internal phone numbers and consumed about 65 hours of the hospital's response time.
Earlier this year the FCC cleared the way for phone carriers to automatically block such robocalls, but many still go through.
The latest measure may possibly pave the way for change.
Click here to read the full Yost statement.