HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has launched the next phase of a sweeping national crackdown on illegal robocalls, directing four of the country’s largest voice providers to immediately block unlawful traffic linked to billions of fraudulent calls reaching consumers nationwide.
The action marks phase two of “Operation Robocall Roundup,” a multistate initiative targeting companies that enable or ignore illegal robocall activity. Sunday, a member of the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, said the latest enforcement push focuses on larger providers with vast reach across the U.S. phone network, including Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless.
“Robocalls are more than just a nuisance — they can be dangerous lures to obtain Pennsylvanians’ personal information and access to their identity and finances,” Sunday said in the announcement. “I am pleased with the work we have done so far to cut down on robocalls from reaching Pennsylvanians’ phones, but there is much more work to be done and the profiting providers must step up and be part of the solution.”
According to data included in the announcement, the four targeted companies have collectively allowed staggering volumes of suspected illegal calls on their networks over the past several years. On page one of the document, a chart details traceback notices and estimated imposter scam calls linked to each provider. Inteliquent alone is associated with an estimated 450 million “Amazon” or “Apple” imposter calls and 1.425 billion Social Security or IRS scam calls in recent years. Bandwidth, Peerless, and Lumen are tied to hundreds of millions more.
The campaign follows a wave of warning letters sent in August to 37 smaller providers previously identified as allowing illegal robocall traffic. The release notes that those letters prompted measurable changes, including multiple companies halting suspected illegal calls and others being fully blocked from routing voice traffic in the United States.
The Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force — created in 2022 by 51 attorneys general and led by officials from North Carolina, Indiana, and Ohio — investigates companies responsible for large-scale illegal robocall activity routed across domestic networks.
Sunday said the new enforcement phase aims to force major carriers to adhere to anti-robocall protections and close gaps that have allowed predatory scams to thrive.
The initiative continues as regulators nationwide confront an evolving robocall ecosystem that has increasingly become a gateway for identity theft, financial fraud, and government impersonation schemes.
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