We are seeing notices from the FCC, FTC, and many states’ attorney generals almost every week, citing carriers for transmitting fraudulent or out-of-compliance calls, or for ignoring the industry’s TraceBack Group requests.

Here are several that have crossed our desk recently:

* The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is after one of the notorious U.S. spam and fraud transmitters, and sent a notice that it had wiretapped the company’s lines saying “During the period...calls made by you... were intercepted and are evidence of the crimes of (the) violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, violation of the Georgia Gang and Terrorism Prevention Act, and conspiracy to commit the same...” We asked the GBI to confirm this report as accurate, and it did. The target company was identified as Every1, and owner John Spiller.

See what Georgia's GBI has to say... and written.... https://www.prescott-martini.com/news-and-updates

* Task force says it is going after two companies it says are behind illegal robocalls by WSBTV.com News Staff November 15, 2022
… the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which was formed in August, is taking action against two voice service providers for their illegal involvement in illegal robocalls. Attorney General Chris Carr said the task force is acting against Michael Lansky LLC, which was doing business as Avid Telecom, and One Eye LLC. The Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force comprises 51 attorneys general who are working together to crack down on illegal phone calls. “The enforcement action against One Eye details how an individual named Prince Anand closed another voice service provider, PZ Telecommunication LLC, and became the apparent CEO of One Eye. This transition occurred after the Federal Communications Commission sent PZ Telecom a cease-and-desist letter,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a news release Tuesday. “One Eye has stopped responding to the task force, and Avid has refused to answer the CID. The State of Indiana has moved to enforce these CIDs in Marion County, Indiana.”

FCC Enforcement Bureau Notifies All U.S.-Based providers they may block robocalls originating from Urth Access, LLC. By the Chief, Enforcement Bureau: The Enforcement Bureau (Bureau) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) issues this Public Notice to notify all U.S.-based voice service providers about substantial amounts of apparently unlawful student loan-related robocalls originating from the Urth Access, LLC (Urth Access) We notify all U.S.-based voice service providers that they may block voice calls or cease to accept traffic from certain originating/intermediate providers listed in this Notice, without liability under the Communications Act or the Commission’s rules. Contemporaneous with this Public Notice, the Bureau is issuing a cease-and-desist letter to the following voice service provider (Originating Provider): Urth Access, LLC

The US Telecom’s Industry Traceback Group identified Urth Access as the originator for substantial volumes of apparently unlawful student loan-related robocalls. Pursuant to the cease-and-desist letter, Urth Access must (1) immediately investigate and effectively mitigate the traffic identified in the letter, (2) notify the Bureau and the Traceback Consortium, within 48 hours, of the steps taken to mitigate the identified traffic, and (3) inform the Bureau and the Traceback Consortium, within 14 days, of the steps that Urth Access has taken to prevent customers from using its network to transmit illegal robocalls. If Urth Access fails to comply with the requirements set forth in the letters, it may be removed from the Robocall Mitigation Database, obligating all other providers to cease carrying all of its traffic.

Indiana puts Startel out of business, targets Piratel and VoIP Essential -- The Indiana AG settled with Startel and Wanda Hall on October 20, 2022. The main provision is that Startel its CEO Hall agree to never again operate, own, invest in be an employee of, draw revenue from, or consult with a voice service provider or provide voice services to another person. The Indiana Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court in October 2021 against Startel, Hall, and other defendants for facilitating over 4.8 million illegal robocalls to people in Indiana. The lawsuit, says that Startel was the gateway provider that received these illegal robocalls from India companies Microtalk Comm IQ Telecom. Startel sent the illegal robocalls downstream to Piratel LLC and Rapid Eagle Inc DBA VoIP Essential Inc. who were named as defendants in the lawsuit but are not involved in the settlement.

We talked at some length to one of those parties described above, and it became obvious that for every official government story, there is an opposing story that may or may not be true.
We’ll explore that topic with several of the accused, in the future.