California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined the attorney generals from the other 49 states and the District of Columbia expressing support for a federal proposal to crack down on illegal text messages.
The 51 attorney generals sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of the agency’s proposal to require mobile wireless carriers to block illegal text messages from invalid, unallocated or unused phone numbers.
The FCC has also proposed blocking messages from phone numbers that are on a do-not-originate list, which includes phone numbers that are confirmed to be used for illegal or fraudulent activity.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. consumers lost some $131 million in 2021 via fraudulent and illegal text messages that included, among other things, phishing links and downloads for unwanted software.
“Illegal and unwanted robotexts present the same problems as their counterpart robocalls — they invade consumer privacy and are vehicles for scams and identity theft,” Bonta said in a statement.
The attorney generals also called on the FCC to develop and require authentication technology for text messages that is similar to that of phone calls, allowing people to easily determine if a text message is from a known fraudulent number.
“With scammers increasing their focus on text messaging schemes, consumer losses will also increase, unless industry and law enforcement work together to protect consumers,” the attorney generals said in their letter.
4 comments
Unfortunately, scammers will always be one step ahead of those trying to shut them down. If the government gets involved, it’s sure to be a failure!!!
Its Attorneys General, not Attorney Generals……bump up your grammar
It was likely an honest mistake. The author was probably in shock Bonta was doing something in agreement with the other states. That’s rather unusual.
Do not give out your cell phone number to any business. I see people all the time giving out their number simply because a store clerk asked them for it. Well, that number will go into a database, and it will be sold to the scammers. Guard your phone number just like you guard your Social Security number.
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