Attorney General Griffin Calls on FCC to Crack Down on Robocalls and Strengthen Federal Rules

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after he joined 49 other attorneys general in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to address illegal robocalls:

“I am urging the FCC to strengthen its ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) rules, which will help prevent criminals from utilizing the communications network within the United States to make illegal robocalls. These rules require phone companies to know who is making calls through their networks and what kinds of business these customers are conducting. When phone companies have insight into this, they can better monitor and ultimately suspend or terminate callers who use their networks for fraudulent purposes.

“Not a week goes by that I don’t hear from multiple Arkansans about the problem of robocalls and fraudulent texts. As difficult as it may be, for calls and texts that originate from overseas accounts, we are doing everything in our power to track the perpetrators down and hold them accountable. But of course we will continue to root out fraud right here at home.

“The FCC already requires telecommunications providers to know who their customers are, but the current KYC rules obviously aren’t doing enough as evidenced by the 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts that Americans received last year, leading to a loss of nearly $2 billion.

“I am committed to doing everything in my power to stem the tide of fraudulent calls and texts in Arkansas. We have previously sent letters to telecommunications companies warning them against facilitating illegal robocalls; we won a $146 million judgment against a Florida company for facilitating robocalls; and we won a judgment against a Texas-based robocaller, which banned him from operating in telecommunications. My office remains vigilant in combating this problem and educating the public about how to avoid robocall and text scams through consumer alerts, public presentations, and participation in the national Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force.”

Background

In addition to what the FCC is already doing, the coalition of attorneys general urge the FCC to:

• Require providers to understand their customers’ business. In addition to verifying a customer’s identity and existence, originating providers should also be required to examine and understand the customer’s business practices, reputation, history, intended use of services, and their compliance with state and federal laws.
• Hold all originating providers to KYC standards. Even small originating service providers should be required to meet enhanced KYC standards. Scammers use originating providers, regardless of size, to access the communications network. In fact, illegal calls are often facilitated by smaller voice service providers. Not holding small providers to the same standards could cause them to be even more attractive to bad actors looking to use them to make illegal robocalls.
• Require originating providers to collect additional information on high-risk customers. While KYC requirements should be universal, the attorneys general support additional, long-term monitoring of customers who are more likely to make illegal robocalls, such as those subscribing to high volume services.
  

This letter comes after a coalition of 49 attorneys general sent reply comments to the FCC earlier in July, encouraging it to crackdown on illegal robocalls by strengthening rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate phone numbers.

The two letters are part of Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, an effort by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force to crack down on robocalls across the country. Phase 1 launched in August 2025 with warning letters sent to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. Phase 2 launched in December and expanded the crackdown to four of the largest intermediate voice service providers in the country.

To read the attorneys general’s comments to the FCC, click here.

To download a PDF of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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