AG Zoeller testifies before U.S. Senate Committee on stopping robocalls, protecting Hoosier privacy

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller today testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on protecting consumers from unwanted calls, scams and robocalls, and the impact of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Zoeller has been urging this committee for several months to pass the ‘‘Help Americans Never Get Unwanted Phone calls (HANGUP) Act of 2015,” which would repeal a recent amendment to the TCPA allowing debt collection robocalls to peoples’ cell phones if the debt is owned or guaranteed by the United States. Prior to the amendment, the TCPA prohibited all robocalls to cell phones.

In February, Zoeller and 24 other state attorneys general called on the Committee to defend the telephone privacy rights of citizens and keep the ban on robocalls to cell phones intact.

“By carving out this exception, Congress has legitimized robocalls and opened citizens up to a barrage of unwanted or misplaced calls,” Zoeller said in his testimony. “Debt collection robocalls are aggressive, relentless and often inaccurate. Of the nearly 700 debt collection complaints my office received last year, about 90 percent were because the caller was harassing the wrong person. Not to mention, the vast majority of robocallers are scam artists. Legitimizing some types of robocalls adds confusion and creates more opportunity for fraud.”

The Senate Committee convened to discuss the impact of the 25-year-old TCPA on business and consumers. Among other telephone privacy protections, the TCPA requires solicitors to maintain a “Do Not Call” list. Indiana operates its own Do Not Call list at the state level.

Unwanted calls and robocalls are by far the most common complaint received by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, with more than 14,000 complaints received last year at a rate of nearly 50 complaints per day. The YouMail National Robocall Index estimates that 2.5 billion robocalls were made in the U.S. in the month of March alone. The index reports that sixteen of the top twenty robocallers were debt collectors.

As Indiana’s top consumer protection advocate, Zoeller focused on the importance of ensuring federal changes and loopholes do not undermine tough state laws.

“My attorney general colleagues and I work aggressively in our states to stop unwanted, harassing calls to peoples’ landlines and cell phones,” Zoeller said in his testimony. “Our citizens continue to file complaints that they greatly object to these calls and I urge Congress to stop allowing loopholes that weaken state efforts to serve and protect consumers.”

Zoeller also urged the Senate Committee not to water down enforcement mechanisms that hold Do Not Call violators accountable for illegally harassing consumers and give individual citizens legal tools to take action against companies and individuals who violate their telephone privacy rights.

Zoeller reminded Indiana residents to sign up for Indiana’s Do Not Call list, which helps to deter unwanted sales calls and text messages, by visiting www.IndianaConsumer.com or calling 1.888.834.9969.

People who are registered on the Do Not Call list and receive an unwanted call can file a complaint by visiting www.IndianaConsumer.com or calling 1.888.834.9969.