COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Have you noticed an uptick in unsolicited calls lately? You’re not alone, and state officials confirm your suspicions.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has unveiled a major initiative targeting four prominent voice service providers, accusing them of facilitating the flood of illegal robocalls that plague consumers.

Wilson announced that Phase Two of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, a multi-state collaboration, is now putting pressure on Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless to halt the transmission of calls suspected to be illegal across their systems. This task force, established in 2022 and comprising attorneys general from 51 different regions, is focused on probing companies that are believed to channel large volumes of scam calls into the U.S.

“These robocalls are not just a nuisance; they’re unlawful,” Wilson stated. “People are fed up, and I’m collaborating with attorneys general nationwide to target the companies enabling this.”

Wilson’s office points to industry investigators’ traceback data to illustrate the magnitude of the issue. Since 2019:

• Inteliquent received 9,712 traceback notices and is linked to an estimated 450 million Amazon/Apple imposter calls and 1.425 billion Social Security/IRS scam calls.
• Bandwidth received 3,060 notices, tied to more than 160 million Amazon/Apple scams and 301 million government-impersonation calls.
• Peerless received 5,662 notices, associated with 210 million Amazon/Apple scams and 585 million Social Security/IRS calls.
• Lumen received 7,265 notices, tied to more than 261 million Amazon/Apple scams and 886 million Social Security/IRS calls.

Together, the companies are believed to have transmitted hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of scam calls in recent years. Officials said these providers have a responsibility to block illegal traffic from overseas scam operations and repeat offenders, but investigators report that much of the traffic continues to get through.

Dr. Garrett Pierman, a cyber policy and ethics professor at the University of South Carolina, said robocall enforcement has long been a challenge. “Scam phone calls have been around as long as phones have been around,” Pierman said. “With the advent of the internet, the volume exploded. Even with laws on the books, it’s extremely hard to enforce, and the rate of these calls is increasing.”

Pierman urges consumers to treat any suspicious call with skepticism. “Anything that might be a spam call, hang up,” he said. “If it’s actually legitimate, a human being will call you back. When in doubt, hang up.”

This new action follows what Wilson called a successful first phase of the initiative. In August, the task force sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers suspected of routing illegal robocall traffic. The results came quickly:

• 13 companies were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, meaning other providers can no longer accept their traffic.
• 19 companies stopped appearing in traceback results, indicating they halted suspected illegal activity.
• At least four providers terminated high-risk customer accounts linked to scam campaigns.

“We’re all sick and tired of these robocalls,” Wilson said. “But our efforts so far are reducing that volume, and we expect our continued work to bring it down even further.”

7NEWS reached out to all four major companies named: Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless. So far, none have responded to requests for comment.