Utah Attorney General Derek Brown and 48 other attorneys general have called on the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen rules that would cut off scammers' access to the legitimate telephone numbers they use to reach their victims.
Americans received approximately 29.6 billion scam robocalls and texts in 2025, a 16 percent increase over the previous year, and lost nearly $2 billion to phone scams. Utah phone numbers alone receive roughly 20 million robocalls every month, according to the YouMail Robocall Index.
Scammers once relied on illegally "spoofing" other people's phone numbers to make calls appear to come from a legitimate company or government agency. After the federal government and state attorneys general cracked down on spoofing, scammers shifted tactics: They now purchase legitimate phone numbers and use them to make robocalls. While most legitimate businesses use the same number for years, scammers cycle through millions of brand-new numbers to evade spam filters.
"Every Utahn deserves to know that when their phone rings, they can trust that the person on the other end is who they say they are," Brown said in a release from his office. "Scammers buy real phone numbers, use them until spam filters catch on, and then just buy new ones. We're calling on the FCC to make it harder for scammers to get their hands on real phone numbers in the first place."
The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force first asked the FCC to address the issue in 2021, and coalition members are now responding to the FCC's proposed rules. In addition to the steps the FCC is already taking, the attorneys general are asking the federal government to:
Require every company authorized to purchase and resell phone numbers in North America to meet stronger certification requirements and disclose how, and to whom, they assign numbers.
Require these companies to submit regular reports on the sale and use of numbers, so law enforcement can trace illegal robocalls to their source and hold every company in the call path accountable.
Require anyone applying for phone numbers to certify they will not use them to make illegal robocalls.
Block the sale of phone numbers to buyers not connected to a real calling or texting service.
Prohibit "number cycling," in which an entity buys numbers in bulk and rotates through them, sometimes using each only once, to evade tools that flag robocall numbers.
Restrict the offering of trial numbers that scammers exploit to harm consumers.
Utah is joined in signing the letter by 48 other attorneys general.
