BOISE, ID – Attorney General Raúl Labrador has launched Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, intensifying Idaho’s role in a nationwide effort to combat illegal robocalls by opening investigations into four of the largest voice providers in the United States. The escalation follows years of industry warnings indicating that Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen and Peerless transmitted staggering volumes of suspected scam calls, including schemes impersonating Amazon, Apple, the Social Security Administration and the IRS.
As part of the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, Labrador and other attorneys general have ordered the companies to stop allowing suspected illegal robocalls to move through their networks. Labrador said Idahoans continue to be targeted by scammers posing as legitimate agencies and emphasized that telecom providers must take greater responsibility in preventing fraudulent traffic.
“Idahoans are frustrated with scammers swindling families by pretending to be the IRS, Social Security, or any other legitimate entity,” Labrador said. “My Consumer Protection Division works hard to educate people on how to avoid scams, but we need to hold telecom providers accountable for allowing that illegal traffic.”
According to the task force, the four companies collectively received thousands of traceback notices—official alerts showing their networks were used to transmit suspected illegal robocalls. Investigators estimate that Inteliquent alone transmitted approximately 1.4 billion Social Security or IRS impersonation calls over a three- to four-year period, while Lumen is connected to more than 886 million similar calls. The data, investigators say, demonstrates not only the scale of activity but also the specific scam categories that moved through each company’s infrastructure.
Labrador noted that larger providers have a heightened responsibility to block traffic from known bad actors. Despite years of documented warnings, the companies under investigation reportedly continued routing suspected illegal robocalls into American homes.
Phase 1 of Operation Robocall Roundup, launched in August, focused on 37 smaller voice providers. After receiving warning letters, several companies rapidly changed their practices. Thirteen were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, preventing any U.S. provider from accepting their call traffic. Nineteen stopped appearing in traceback reports, indicating they had ceased routing suspected scam calls. At least four providers also ended service to customers identified as transmitting illegal traffic. Labrador said these changes show the project is working but stressed that the fight is far from over.
“The sheer volume of these scam calls and texts are staggering and shows that telecom fraud is big business. Our efforts are working, but I won’t stop fighting for the people – often seniors – who get exploited,” he said.
The Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, created in 2022 and joined by 51 attorneys general, is led by attorneys general from North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio. The task force continues investigating major sources of illegal robocall traffic and prepares legal action against companies found responsible for transmitting fraudulent calls across the country.
