COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has joined with 49 other state attorneys general to form a national task force with the stated intent of ending illegal robocall scams that are costing Americans nearly $30 billion per year, Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday.
Yost, a Republican, will be a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force to "investigate and take legal action against the telecommunications companies responsible for bringing most of the overseas-based robocalls into the United States," his office said in a news release.
"Robocalls are worse than mosquitoes, pesky and annoying," said Yost. "This task force will be a nationwide bug zapper, not letting robocallers hide or get away with their deceptive acts."
The bipartisan task force recently issued 20 civil investigative demands to phone service providers that it accuses of improperly vetting phone traffic from foreign providers and allowing foreign scam calls to infiltrate the U.S. phone network.
"In many cases, the bad actors appear to be intentionally turning a blind eye in return for steady revenue," Yost's office said of the gateway providers under investigation.
According to the National Consumer Law Center and Electronic Privacy Information Center, more than 33 million illegal robocalls are made by scam organizations every day. Illegal robocalls are automated phone calls that typically impersonate a legitimate business or government agency in order to defraud consumers, particularly against populations vulnerable to scams such as the elderly.
Yost's office said $29.8 billion was stolen from Americans through fraudulent robocall operations last year, and reminded consumers to be wary of scam calls purporting to represent official organizations.
The Social Security Administration, an oft-impersonated government agency, does not typically make phone calls to individual citizens, for example, nor does the Internal Revenue Service accept iTunes gift cards, Yost said.
Consumers are advised to exercise caution when callers ask to be paid by gift cards, wire transfer or cryptocurrency, and immediately hang up and decline to provide any personal information if a call seems suspicious or fraudulent.