Connecticut Attorney General Sues Alleged Robocall Scam Company

CONNECTICUT — Attorney General William Tong today sued Michael D. Lansky, LLC, which does business under the name Avid Telecom, its owner Michael Lansky, and its vice president Stacey S. Reeves, for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people and violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws. Avid Telecom sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. More than 87.6 million of those calls were to numbers in Connecticut alone, according to a news release from the State Attorney General's Office.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and/or expertise to help its customers make mass robocalls. It also serves as an intermediate provider and allegedly facilitated or helped route illegal robocalls across the country. Between December 2018 and January 2023, Avid sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls, according to the State Attorney General's Office. More than 90 percent of those calls lasted less than just 15 seconds, which indicates they were likely robocalls. Further, Avid helped make hundreds of millions of calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies, Tong said.

Avid Telecom allegedly sent or transmitted scam calls about Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams, and employment scams.

The USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group, which notifies providers about known and suspected illegal robocalls sent across their networks, sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting these calls, but Avid Telecom continued to do so, according to Tong's Office.

The legal action arises from the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 attorneys general. Connecticut is among 16 states on the Executive Committee leading this task force. The task force is investigating and taking legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States.

In August 2022, the Task Force issued civil investigative demands to 20 gateway providers and entities responsible for a majority of foreign robocall traffic into the country, including Lansky LLC and Avid Telecom. When Lansky and Avid refused to respond, the Task Force filed an enforcement action to compel the company to cooperate with the investigation.

"Avid Telecom and its owners transmitted billions of illegal robocalls and enabled criminal spammers to prey on American families. In coordination with nearly every attorney general nationwide, we are suing today to shut down these fraud enablers and hold them accountable for the massive harm they have caused,” Tong said.