Kentucky Attorney General Cracks Down on Robocalls Targeting Kentuckians

To further crack down on the robocalls that pester Kentucky families

Kentucky  Attorney General Russell Coleman has announced an investigation into four of the country’s largest voice providers to further crack down on the robocalls that pester Kentucky families. As part of an ongoing investigation, the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force has directed Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless to stop transmitting suspected illegal robocalls across their networks.

“Kentuckians are fed up with the never-ending robocalls that steal their time and try to scam them out of money,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Working with AGs on both sides of the aisle, we’re taking on this growing threat to protect Kentucky families from this lawless conduct.”

In August, Attorney General Coleman sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. This next phase targets companies with far larger footprints in the U.S. telecom ecosystem. The four companies are continuing to transmit hundreds of thousands - and in some cases, millions - of suspected illegal robocalls.

Join Kentucky’s No Call List, maintained as part of the National Do Not Call Registry, here.

The following chart shows the scale of suspected illegal robocall activity linked to each company. The first column reflects how many traceback notices each company has received since 2019. A traceback notice is an official alert from industry investigators indicating that a company transmitted a call tied to a suspected illegal robocall campaign. The next two columns estimate the major scam categories – such as fake Amazon, Apple, Social Security, or IRS calls – that moved through each company’s network. Together, it's clear these companies helped transmit a staggering volume of robocalls across their systems.

Scope of Suspected Illegal Robocall Activity

As larger providers, these companies have a heightened responsibility to decline call traffic from known and repeat bad actors. Despite extensive industry traceback notices and years of documented warnings, these four providers continue to route suspected illegal robocalls onto the network and into American homes.

In 2022, 51 attorneys general joined forces to create the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which is led by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The Task Force investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.