Missouri Attorney General Hanaway Pushes Federal Government to Further Crackdown on Illegal Robocalls

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Hanaway and 48 other attorneys general called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate telephone numbers. Without that access, scammers cannot use real numbers to deceive and scam Americans. The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force asked the FCC to work on this issue in 2021, and members of this coalition are now responding to the FCC’s proposed rules.

“I am proud to stand alongside 48 other states in an effort to protect Americans from scammers,” said Attorney General Hanaway. “Strengthening the FCC’s guidelines to make it harder for scammers to harass and deceive Americans through phone calls is a step in the right direction in protecting consumers.”

Last year, Americans received approximately 29.6 billion robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams. Scammers often purchase legitimate phone numbers and use them in robocall schemes. While most legitimate businesses use the same phone number for many years, scammers cycle through millions of brand new phone numbers, which helps them avoid detection by spam filters.

Since January 2026, approximately 513.8 million robocalls were made to Missourians, equaling roughly, 88.5 calls per person affected. Furthermore, the Attorney General’s Office received more than 33,600 no-call complaints in 2025, making it the top consumer complaint.

In addition to the steps the FCC is already taking, the bipartisan group of attorneys general are asking the federal government to do more, including:

• Require every company that is authorized to purchase and then resell phone numbers in North America to meet stronger certification rules and share how and to whom they are assigning numbers.
• Require these companies to submit regular reports about the sale and use of numbers, so law enforcement can trace illegal robocalls back to the source. These reports will also help law enforcement hold all the companies in the call path accountable for selling or transmitting numbers used to conduct illegal robocalls.
• Require people and entities that are applying to access phone numbers to confirm that they will not use them to make illegal robocalls.
• Block the sale of phone numbers to entities that are not tied to a calling or texting service. Robocallers often buy these numbers without linking them to a legitimate phone service, since they don’t plan on using the numbers for legitimate calling and texting purposes.
• Prohibit number cycling, which is when an entity buys lots of numbers and then uses them on a rotating, sometimes single-use basis to avoid being detected by tools that flag numbers used to make illegal robocalls.
• Restrict the offering of trial numbers to discourage scammers from taking advantage of them to harm consumers.

“Missourians who receive unwanted or fraudulent robocalls are encouraged to report them to our Consumer Protection Unit at 800-392-8222 or online at ago.mo.gov,” continued General Hanaway.

Missouri Attorney General Hanaway is joined in signing the letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, formed by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, focuses on identifying and prosecuting telecom providers that carry the highest volumes of illegal robocall traffic into the United States.