Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced the latest in his continuing effort to protect Kentuckians from illegal and bothersome robocalls.
Coleman has joined 49 other attorneys general who are pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to strengthen its requirements to help prevent scammers from using the U.S. phone network to make illegal robocalls.
“Robocalls aren’t just annoying; they disrupt our daily lives, invade our privacy, and can put our most vulnerable people at risk of scams and fraud,” Coleman said. “We’re taking additional steps to protect Kentuckians and make sure they can answer the phone without fear of being deceived.”
Last year, Americans received more than 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts and lost nearly $2 billion to these scams. According to Robocall Index, 380.6 million robocalls have been placed to Kentucky residents so far this year.
The FCC requires all voice service providers to take reasonable measures to vet the phone companies that originate and route calls. However, some voice service providers have failed to do so. The AGs are asking the agency to act to better protect consumers:
• They want the FCC to demand that voice service providers collect more detailed—and verified—information from their upstream provider customers and refuse or end service to upstream providers that aren’t following the law.
• The FCC should require upstream provider monitoring more regularly to help prevent bad actors from operating unchecked.
• Strengthen STIR/SHAKEN protections. That’s a framework to ensure a caller is placing calls from phone numbers that are not being spoofed. The attorneys general want these rules more strictly enforced.
• The attorneys general ask that any rules to help cut down on illegal robocalls should be implemented as soon as possible. They also support base penalties for providers that don’t meet upstream provider monitoring requirements or violate STIR/SHAKEN.
• Coleman is part of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which launched Operation Robocall Roundup in 2025. Following their action, the FCC recently issued an order to six companies, ordering them to fix their robocall protection issues or risk losing the ability to route any calls across the U.S. telephone network.
Office of the Attorney General