Robocalls Targeted By New Initiative In Ohio

COLUMBUS, OH — Twelve phone service providers have agreed to adopt anti-robocall practices in Ohio, the state attorney general announced Thursday. The agreement includes Verizon, Sprint and AT&T and every state in the U.S.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he hopes the agreement will curb robocalls in Ohio and make it easier to prosecute companies that engage in robocall practices. In January 2019, 5.2 billion robocalls were made...and 196.5 million were made in Ohio.

“This agreement brings phone service providers on board as critical allies in our fight against illegal robocalls,” Yost said. “By adopting these commonsense business practices, service providers will reinforce our ongoing efforts to crack down on this growing nuisance.”

A robocall attempting to sell anything is illegal, the FCC said. What is a robocall?

"If you answer the phone and hear a recorded message instead of a live person, it's a robocall. If you’re getting a lot of robocalls trying to sell you something, odds are the calls are illegal. Many are also probably scams," the agency said.

Under the new agreement, phone service providers will:

• Implement call-blocking technology to filter out robocalls (at no cost to customers)
• Provide customers with easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools
• Implement technology to determine if calls are coming from a valid source
• Study their network for robocall traffic

The companies will also work with law enforcement to prosecute robocallers and stay in contact with a group of attorneys general to give updates on deterring "bad actors."