Attorney General Tong Urges FCC to Create Anti-Robotext Protections

Hartford, CT - Attorney General William Tong today supported the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) proposal to help cut down on unwanted text messages by requiring mobile wireless providers to block texts from invalid, unassigned, or unused numbers, and from numbers on a Do Not Originate (DNO) list.

Connecticut has helped lead the fight to reduce the number of robocalls that

plague Americans. However, scammers are now shifting to using robotexts to run similar scams. Just like spam calls, spam texts can result in people losing millions of dollars through phishing texts, imposter scams, and links containing ransomware. In 2021, the FCC received more than 15,000 consumer complaints about unwanted texts and, in 2020, scammers stole more than $86 million through frauds perpetrated via scam text messages.

“Robotexts are emerging as yet another insidious avenue for scammers to steal millions of dollars from Americans. We have technology to identify and block robocallers, and we need those same protections applied to text messages. I fully support the FCC’s efforts,” said Attorney General Tong.

The coalition of 51 attorneys general support the FCC’s proposal to require mobile wireless providers to block unlawful text messages at the network level if they originate from fraudulent numbers. Further, the attorneys general are asking the FCC to continue pushing the wireless industry to develop call authentication technology for text messages so people can know if the texts they receive are from spoofed numbers and law enforcement can investigate where these texts are coming from.

Attorney General Tong is joined in sending this letter by the attorneys general of 49 other states and the District of Columbia.

A copy of the letter is available HERE.

Assistant Attorneys General Kim McGee and Lauren Bidra, and Deputy Associate Attorney General Michael Wertheimer, head of the Consumer Protection Section, assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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