Attorney General Brenna Bird Continues Fight to Combat Illegal Robocalls

DES MOINES— Attorney General Brenna Bird joined a bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general today urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen its “Know Your Customer” (KYC) rules to help prevent scammers from using the U.S. communications network to make illegal robocalls. KYC rules require phone companies to know who is making calls through their networks and what kinds of business these customers are conducting. With that information, phone companies can suspend or terminate callers who use their networks to make unlawful calls or decline to do business with customers that aren’t legitimate companies.   

“Scammers prey on the kindness of Iowans and they often use robocalls to do it,” said Attorney General Bird. “I’m going to keep fighting to cut scammers off from their ability to make these calls and trick Iowans out of their hard-earned money. Remember, it’s ok to hang up on scammers! If you or a loved one has been the victim of a scam robocall, please contact your local law enforcement or my office.”  

Illegal robocalls start with an originating voice service provider allowing bad actors to use their network. If scammers can’t get their calls onto the U.S. communications network, they can’t make illegal robocalls. So, these originating voice service providers are key to stopping these calls from reaching people. 

Current KYC requirements aren’t strong enough—as evidenced by the prevalence of robocall scams. Last year, Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams.  The coalition of attorneys general is urging the FCC to:   

• Require providers to understand their customers’ business. Originating providers should also be required to examine and understand the customer’s business practices, reputation, history, intended use of services, and their compliance with state and federal laws.  

• Require originating providers to collect additional information on high-risk customers. The attorneys general support additional, long-term monitoring of customers who are more likely to make illegal robocalls, such as those subscribing to high volume services.   

This letter comes after a coalition of 49 attorneys general sent reply comments to the FCC earlier in July, encouraging it to crackdown on illegal robocalls by strengthening rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate phone numbers. The two letters are part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force to crack down on robocalls across the country. Phase 1 launched in August 2025 with warning letters sent to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. Phase 2 launched in December and expanded the crackdown to four of the largest intermediate voice service providers in the country.  

Attorney General Bird 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, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, 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, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  

If you or a loved one has been the victim of a robocall scam, contact the Attorney General’s Office at 1-888-777-4590 or online here. 

See the full reply comments here.  

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For More Information:

Contact: Jen Green | jen.green@ag.iowa.gov