Attorney General Jeff Jackson Leads Bipartisan AGs Pushing Federal Government to Strengthen Know Your Customer Rules to Combat Illegal Robocalls

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
919-538-2809

RALEIGH- Attorney General Jeff Jackson is leading a bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen its "Know Your Customer" (KYC) rules to help prevent scammers from using the U.S. communications network to make illegal robocalls.

KYC rules require the phone companies that put the calls onto the U.S. telephone network to know who is making calls using their networks and what kinds of business these customers are conducting. With this information, phone companies can make decisions to suspend or terminate callers who use their networks to make unlawful calls, or can decline to do business with customers that aren't legitimate companies or can't prove that they are engaged in lawful business.

"We're asking the FCC to make sure phone companies do their part to stop these scammers from reaching North Carolinians," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "If scammers can't reach our communications network to begin with, they can't make their illegal robocalls, and they can't trick people out of their money."

Illegal robocalls start with an originating voice service provider allowing bad actors to use their network. So, these originating voice service providers are key to stopping these calls from reaching people. The North Carolina Department of Justice has previously asked the FCC to strengthen its KYC rules.

Even though providers are already required to know who their customers are, the current requirements aren't strong enough-as evidenced by the prevalence of robocall scams. Last year, Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams.

In addition to what the FCC is already doing, attorneys general urge the FCC to:

• Require providers to understand their customers' business. In addition to verifying a customer's identity and existence, originating providers should also be required to examine and understand the customer's business practices, reputation, history, intended use of services, and their compliance with state and federal laws.

• Hold all originating providers to the same KYC standards. Even small originating service providers should be required to meet enhanced KYC standards. Scammers use originating providers, regardless of size, to access the communications network. In fact, illegal calls are often facilitated by smaller voice service providers. Not holding small providers to the same standards could cause them to be even more attractive to bad actors looking to use them to make illegal robocalls.

• Require originating providers to collect additional information on high-risk customers. While KYC requirements should be universal, the attorneys general support additional, long-term monitoring of customers who are more likely to make illegal robocalls, such as those subscribing to high volume services.

This letter comes after Attorney General Jackson led a coalition of 49 attorneys general in sending reply comments to the FCC earlier in July. The coalition encouraged the FCC to crackdown on illegal robocalls by strengthening rules that would cut off scammers' access to legitimate phone numbers.

The two letters are part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which is led by Attorney General Jackson, to crack down on illegal robocalls across the country. Phase 1 launched in August 2025 with warning letters sent to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. Phase 2 launched in December and expanded the crackdown to four of the largest intermediate voice service providers in the country.

Attorney General Jackson is joined in signing the letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia , Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

A copy of the letter is available here.

###