Iowa joins 49-state lawsuit accusing company of making billions of illegal robocalls
DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced the state of Iowa is joining 48 other states in a lawsuit against Avid Telecom, its owners, and chief officers for alleged illegal robocalls.
Avid Telecom describes itself as a telecommunication business and is based in Arizona. The lawsuit accuses them of facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of Americans in the past several years. Since 2019, about 9,000 of the calls have targeted Iowa alone.
Avid Telecom has been accused of making more than 8.4 million calls impersonating the government, law enforcement agencies, and private companies. They have also been accused of transmitting more than 7.5 billion calls on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Bird's office says Avid Telecom sent or attempted to send a total of over 24.5 billion calls between December 2018 and January 2023. The robocalls involved Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, and more.
Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio started the lawsuit.
“We’re taking action to shield Iowans from fraudulent and illegal robocalls,” Attorney General Bird said. “This company has helped connect scammers directly with thousands of Iowans over the phone, but we’re pushing back. Thanks to this bipartisan coalition of attorneys general, we are putting the full force of 49 states behind our lawsuit to hold illegal robocalling businesses accountable and protect Americans from scams.”
