A communications company that reportedly placed billions of robocalls is being sued by 49 state attorney generals.
A union made of 48 states plus the Washington D.C. attorney general is going after Avid Telecom in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday. They claim the company disregarded phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and continued making illegal spam calls. The complaint claims that 90% of the calls made between December 2018 and January 2023 impersonated law enforcement and government officials. The majority of them lasted just 15 seconds. Some calls pretended to be Amazon and DirecTV to lure unsuspecting victims into scams.
Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said the calls resulted in millions of people being scammed, though it’s unclear what exactly they were conned into doing or buying. Avid had been notified numerous times to stop sending the robocalls but refused.
“We are proud to stand with our state AG colleagues in sending a message that illegal robocalling and consumer scamming will not be tolerated,” Schwalb declared in his statement.
Avid fired back at the lawsuit, claiming they’ve acted within their legal rights and have not taken advantage of consumers. They shared that they plan to defend themselves “vigorously.”
The lawsuit targets Avid Telecom, its parent company Michael Lanskey LLC, and executives Michael Lanskey and Stacey S. Reeves. This is just the latest legal action being taken against companies who use excessive robocalls. The Federal Communications Commission has gone so far as to block another company, Global UC, from accessing the U.S. phone system.
