DE AG Sues Avid Telecom over Billions of Illegal Robocalls
Delaware’s Attorney General has sued Avid Telecom for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls. AG Kathy Jennings says Avid Telecom sent or transmitted over 7.5-billion calls to phone numbers of the National Do Not Call Registry – 27-million of them to Delawareans – most lasting less than 15 seconds. Scam calls about Social Security, Medicare, auto warranty, Amazon, DirecTV, credit card interest rate reduction and employment as well as spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers that appeared to be from government or law enforcement agencies as well as private companies.
Additional information from the Attorney General:
The lawsuit names Michael D. Lansky, LLC — which does business as Avid Telecom — its owner Michael Lansky, and its vice president Stacey S. Reeves.
Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and/or expertise to help its customers make mass robocalls. It also serves as an intermediate provider and allegedly facilitated or helped route illegal robocalls across the country.
Between December 2018 and January 2023, Avid sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls; more than 90 percent of those calls lasted less than 15 seconds. Examples of some of these scam calls are available to listen to here and here.
Today’s legal action arises from the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general, including AG Jennings. The task force is investigating and taking legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States. The Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General provided investigative assistance in this matter.
