Billions Of Robocalls Prompt MD Attorney General To Sue Avid Telecom

BALTIMORE, MD — The Maryland attorney general says Avid Telecom transmitted billions of robocalls to residents in the state and nationwide in schemes ranging from Social Security to auto warranty scams.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown on Tuesday joined 48 other attorneys general offices and filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The lawsuit claims Michael D. Lansky, LLC, which does business under the name Avid Telecom, and the company’s owner, Michael Lansky, and Vice President Stacey S. Reeves, initiated and facilitated billions of illegal robocalls in violation of federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws.

The state officials allege that between 2018 and 2023 Avid Telecom sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls nationwide, with millions ringing Maryland telephones. Over 7.5 billion of those calls went to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, a news release from Brown's office said.

The lawsuit said Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and advice to help their customers make mass robocalls. Brown and his colleagues also aruge the company helped to route illegal robocalls across the country as an “intermediate provider.”

According to the legal complaint, Avid helped make hundreds of millions of calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies.

Calls tied to Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams, and employment scams were all sent via Avid.

“We cannot allow fraudulent robocallers to invade homes, disrupt lives, and violate the trust of Marylanders,” Brown said in a statement. “This lawsuit is a significant step toward stopping these illegal robocalls and preventing bad actors from defrauding Marylanders of their personal information and their hard-earned money by deceiving them into picking up their phones.”

According to the lawsuit, the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group, which notifies providers about illegal robocalls sent across their networks, sent at least 329 notifices to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting fraudulent calls, but the company took no action.

Joining Attorney General Brown in filing today’s complaint are the Attorneys General of the District of Columbia, Florida, Virginia, and other states.