Michigan suing Avid Telecom over reported illegal robocalls
(CBS DETROIT) - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced she is suing Avid Telecom, allegedly it facilitating millions of illegal robocalls in the state.
Nessel joins other state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit against the company's Micheal Lansky and vice president Stacey Reeves.
The lawsuit alleges that between December 2018 and January 2023, Avid Telecom sent or attempted to send more than 24.5 billion calls with more than 90% lasting 15 seconds.
More than 7.5 million calls were sent to numbers on the National Do Not Call registry. About 195,332,233 of those calls were sent to numbers in Michigan, according to a press release.
The complaint also alleges that Avid Telecom sells data, phone numbers and dialing software to make mass robocalls. Officials say the US Telecom-led Industry Tracebook Group sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was sending illegal robocalls; however, the company continued to do so.
"In 2021, Michigan residents received more than 1.2 billion robocalls, about 500 million of which were scam robocalls," Nessel said. "This lawsuit will hold accountable businesses and business owners who knowingly route illegal robocalls through their networks, as well as provide consumers with some relief from these intrusive calls."
It is not the first lawsuit from Neseel related to Avid Telecom. The attorney general sued a customer, who Avid Telecom helped send more than 4 million robocalls between 2019 and 2021.