DES MOINES, IOWA (October 18, 2024) — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has sent a letter to iDentidad Advertising Development LLC, demanding that the company stop suspected illegal robocalls.
AG Bird, as part of the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation task force, is calling on iDentidad to quit fueling mass suspected scam robocalls. This follows actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in November, 2023, which similarly called on iDentidad to quit helping scammers make illegal robocalls. Many of these suspicious robocalls concern impersonations of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration, utilities scams, and financial scams.
“We are pulling the plug on scammers’ illegal robocall networks,” said AG Bird. “Scam robocalls are illegal and dangerous. I am calling on iDentidad to shut down the gateway we believe scammers are using to impersonate government agencies and steal people’s money.”
Data shows that there have been nearly 200 notices to iDentidad of suspected robocalls since 2021. Many of these calls were driven by foreign service-providers that are not listed in the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database. Over 470 calls have also been made to phone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Several reports have further been made in the last month about non-Illinois residents being contacted by someone spoofing the Illinois Attorney General’s office’s phone number. It is believed that these calls were part of the campaign of suspicious robocalls. The Iowa Attorney General’s office announced yesterday that an Oregon resident similarly reported a scam call from someone spoofing the Iowa Attorney General’s office’s phone number.
The States are demanding that iDentidad take action to follow the law and shutdown the gateway for mass, suspected illegal robocalls.
Iowa was joined by fifty other attorneys-general as part of the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation task force.
If you or someone you know has been targeted by a scam, contact the Iowa Attorney General’s office at 888-777-4590 or file a complaint online: iowaattorneygeneral.gov/for-consumers/file-a-consumer-complaint.
Read the full letter here.
