Top Wisconsin Prosecutor Sues Company Accused In Billions Of Robocalls

WISCONSIN — Wisconsin's top prosecutor on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against a company accused of sending out billions of illegal robo calls in violation of federal laws, with over 150 million of those calls circulating to numbers in Wisconsin.

Attorney General Josh Kaul's lawsuit is against Michael D. Lansky, LLC, which operates under the name Avid Telecom, a news release from the prosecutor's office said. The lawsuit accused the company of sending 7.5 billion telephone calls to numbers on the do not call registry between December 2018 and January 2023, the news release said.

As a Voice over Internet Protocol provider, the company sells data, phone numbers, and dialing software to help create mass robocalls and serve as an intermediate provider, the news release said. The company tried to send nearly 25 billion calls between 2018 and 2023, with hundreds of millions of those using spoofed numbers including over 8 million that appeared to be from the government, according to the attorney general's news release.

At times, the calls were scams based around the Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranty, Amazon, credit card interest, and even employment. In one phone call published online by suing attorneys general, a robocall that was nearly indistinguishable from a real person introduced itself as a "social security disability advisor" and asked about benefits.

“Robocalls have been a nuisance for folks across the country, and in many cases, those calls were part of scams,” said Kaul in a news release. “People shouldn’t have to put up with those nuisance calls, and we’re taking action to fight them.”

You can find a full copy of the complaint against Avid Telecom online.