Maryland sues Avid Telecom over alleged robocall scheme
BALTIMORE — Maryland has joined 48 other states in suing Michael Lansky LLC., which does business under the name Avid Telecom, over an alleged illegal robocall operation.
The lawsuit alleges that the company's owner, Michael Lansky, and vice president Stacey Reeves initiated and facilitated billions of illegal robocalls between 2018 and 2023.
"The Attorneys General allege that, between 2018 and 2023, Avid Telecom sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls nationwide, with millions ringing Maryland telephones. Over 7.5 billion of those calls went to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry," the Attorney General's Office said.
The Attorney General's Office alleges that Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and advice - helping its customers make mass robocalls.
According to the complaint, the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group, which notifies providers about known and suspected illegal robocalls sent across their networks, sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting fraudulent calls, but Avid continued to do so.
We cannot allow fraudulent robocallers to invade homes, disrupt lives, and violate the trust of Marylanders," Attorney General Brown said. "This lawsuit is a significant step towards stopping these illegal robocalls and preventing bad actors from defrauding Marylanders of their personal information and their hard-earned money by deceiving them into picking up their phones."
