Indiana, Missouri AGs host national No Call Law Enforcement Summit 

Focus on reducing unwanted calls, telephone scams

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller joined Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster in St. Louis today to open a two-day summit meeting for law enforcement officials and consumer protection investigators focused on the problem of harassing telemarketing and telephone scams.

Bringing together consumer protection experts from across the country, the goal of the summit is to share best practices, information on new technologies, and innovative law enforcement techniques to reduce unwanted calls.

This is the second summit meeting hosted by Attorneys General Zoeller and Koster. Last year, the two Attorneys General hosted a similar two-day summit meeting in Indianapolis. This year’s summit is expected to build upon the progress of last year’s inaugural event.

“The illegal telemarketing industry is global in scope,” Zoeller said. “Criminals from halfway across the world using autodialer technology can dial hundreds of thousands of numbers in a matter of seconds, endlessly harassing people in their homes and on their cell phones; and many of these calls are phishing scams. Finding real solutions to reduce unwanted calls and scam attempts will take collaboration at the state and national levels.”

In 2014, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office received more than 13,000 complaints from consumers who received an unwanted telemarketing call, scam call or robocall, making telephone privacy the most common area of complaint received by the Office.

Zoeller and Koster have spearheaded efforts to enhance telephone privacy in their respective states and nationally. In February, they led a group of attorneys general in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject the efforts by industry groups to weaken federal telephone privacy laws. They’ve also asked the FCC to clarify rules that some say prohibit phone companies from taking advantage of call-blocking technologies that can identify and block unwelcome sales calls at a customer’s request.

“Our constituents have made it clear they are fed up with the number of unwanted telemarketing calls they are receiving,” said Koster. “The telephone carriers have the capability to allow their customers to block these calls, and should take steps to do so.”

Participants in this year’s No Call Law Enforcement Summit include representatives from 27 different law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, as well as several state attorney general offices.

Zoeller reminded Indiana residents to sign up for Indiana’s Do Not Call list, which helps to deter unwanted and 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. In 2014, the AG’s Office took legal action against 11 Do Not Call or robocall violators, and obtained judgments and settlements totaling more than $6 million.

To download a video clip of Attorney General Zoeller speaking about the summit, visit ftp://ftp.atg.in.gov/ and enter in the username media and password public.