Ohio attorney general joins other across the country to answer the call to stop robocalls

CLEVELAND — Attorneys General across the country are answering the call to stop unwanted robocalls.

Consumers received an estimated 5.7 billion robocalls in October 2019 alone. There were nearly 48 billion robocalls last year, according to YouMail, a service that tracks robocall traffic.

"There is nothing more invasive and annoying than the bombardment of robocalls,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “We really need to find a national solution."

Consumers have apparently had enough and some are complaining to the Attorney General as well as the Better Business Bureau serving Greater Cleveland.

“Almost on a daily basis a consumer will contact us,” said BBB President & CEO Sue McConnell.

Since the nation’s attorneys general have joined forces, a dozen service providers have agreed to adopt anti-robocall practices.

Under the agreement, service providers will work to prevent illegal robocalls by:

• Implementing call-blocking technology at the network level at no cost to customers.

• Providing customers with free, easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools.

• Implementing technology to verify that calls are coming from a valid source.

• Monitoring their networks for robocall traffic.

For those companies that don’t join in the agreement, “The chairman has indicated the commission is willing to use it’s rule making power to force the issue,” added Yost.