AG sues company over robocalls

Attorney General Raúl Labrador has joined attorneys general from throughout the U.S. in a lawsuit against Michael D. Lansky, LLC, for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people.

Michael D. Lansky, LLC, which does business as Avid Telecom, is accused of transmitting more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. 

In the suit, Labrador alleges the company's actions violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws. Also named in the suit were the company's owner, Michael Lansky, and its vice president, Stacey S. Reeves.

“Avid Telecom is responsible for millions of illegal spam calls. Often, these calls result in the harassment and intimidation of unsuspecting recipients. At the request of our citizens, both Congress and state legislatures have passed multiple laws to stop this behavior, but laws are only good if enforced. My office intends to hold Avid Telecom accountable,” Attorney General Labrador said.

Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software and/or expertise to help its customers make mass robocalls, Labrador said in the lawsuit. He also alleged that it 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% of those calls lasted less than 15 seconds, which indicates they were likely robocalls. Further, Avid helped make hundreds of millions of calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies. 

Avid Telecom allegedly sent or transmitted scam calls about Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams and employment scams.

The USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group, which notifies providers about known and suspected illegal robocalls sent across their networks, sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting these calls, but Avid Telecom continued to do so.

This legal action arises from the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general. 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.