Wisconsin Department of Justice Urges Federal Government to Strengthen Know Your Customer Rules in Effort to Combat Illegal Robocalls
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) has joined a coalition of 49 other attorneys general in signing a comment letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen its “Know Your Customer” (KYC) rules to help prevent scammers from using the U.S. communications network to make illegal robocalls. KYC rules require phone companies to know who is making calls through their networks and what kinds of business these customers are conducting. With that information, phone companies can suspend or terminate callers who use their networks to make unlawful calls, or decline to do business with customers that aren’t legitimate companies or can’t prove that they conduct lawful business.
“By significantly strengthening ‘Know Your Customer’ rules, the FCC can make it harder for scammers to access phone networks,” said AG Kaul. “The federal government needs to ramp up efforts to stop illegal robocalls.”
Current requirements aren’t strong enough to stop the volume of robocall scams reaching consumers. Last year, Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams.
The coalition urges the FCC to:
- Require voice service providers to understand their customers’ business. In addition to verifying a customer’s identity and existence, originating providers should also be required to examine and understand the customer’s business practices, reputation, history, intended use of services, and their compliance with state and federal laws.
- Hold all originating providers to KYC standards. Even small originating service providers should be required to meet enhanced KYC standards. Scammers use originating providers, regardless of size, to access the communications network. Illegal calls are frequently facilitated by smaller voice service providers. Not holding small providers to the same standards as larger providers could cause them to be even more attractive to bad actors looking to use them to make illegal robocalls.
- Require originating providers to collect additional information on high-risk customers. While KYC requirements should be universal, the coalition supports additional, long-term monitoring of customers who are more likely to make illegal robocalls, such as those subscribing to high volume services.
This letter comes after a coalition sent reply comments to the FCC in early July, encouraging the FCC to crackdown on illegal robocalls by strengthening rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate phone numbers.
The two letters are part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force to crack down on robocalls across the country. Phase 1 launched in August 2025 with warning letters sent to 37 smaller voice service providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. Phase 2 launched in December 2025 and expanded the crackdown to four of the largest intermediate voice service providers in the country.
Wisconsin DOJ is joined in signing the letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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