Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, right, introduced an initiative Wednesday to fight robocallers. Ohio Sen. Dave Burke, left, of Marysville, has worked for several years to end robocalls. He said the calls are detrimental to consumers and to small business owners. (Photo submitted)
In the first 24 hours of an anti-robocall initiative, the Ohio Attorney General’s office has received more than 1,100 complaints about the nuisance calls.
Wednesday, Attorney General Dave Yost announced the formation of a Robocall Enforcement Unit and the development of a tool that allows consumers to report “malicious robocalls” to his office.
“Ohioans are tired of playing defense against annoying robocalls,” Yost said. “Now it’s Ohio’s turn to play offense – and we need your help.”
Robocalls are auto-dialed calls that deliver a prerecorded message. Some, like reminders from a doctor’s office or a school, are legal. Others are not. Yost said illegal calls are ones that consumers have not consented to and generally try to get them to pay for something or give away personal information.
Yost said that in 2019, Ohioans received an estimated 2.2 billion robocalls.
“Right now, there is a mental angst about answering anytime someone calls you. We have to change that,” said Sen. Dave Burke, who has helped lead the effort to fight robocalls.
Yost said the new unit, part of his Consumer Protection Section, is “dedicated to rooting out bad actors at every level of the robocall industry.”
Yost said the Robocall Enforcement Unit will “take a multipronged approach to the problem.”
He said the unit will partner with anti-robocall groups at the national level, investigate suspected violators and take aggressive enforcement action.
Yost is urging Ohioans to report calls to the unit by texting “ROBO” to 888111 and answering a set of questions. He said the questions, “take less than a minute to complete.” Consumers also can file complaints by visiting OhioProtects.org or calling 1-800-282-0515.
“Will those calls go away the next day? No. Will they start to diminish? Yes,” Burke said.
Even if a robocall does not cause a financial loss, reporting it to the Robocall Enforcement Unit can help investigators identify trends and protect other Ohioans from becoming victims.
The attorney general said he will also seek legislation to expand the state’s authority over robocalls.
“Currently, there’s not a lot on the books regarding this,” Burke said. “It’s kind of a new frontier in terms of prosecuting these crimes.”
He said the federal government recently passed legislation limiting robocalls. Burke said the proposed legislation will help empower Ohio to enforce that federal legislation.
He said that in Ohio, local law enforcement investigates crime and local prosecutors pursue criminal charges. But, he said, local prosecutors do not always have the resources to go after criminals using technology in other countries.
Burke said he would rather have local law enforcement and prosecutors, “pursuing rape, pursuing murder, pursuing child abuse.”
“Only the attorney general of the state has the ability to pool those resources together to effectively stop spoofing,” Burke said.
Burke said consumers pay for their phone and the service.
“That should come with some protection,” Burke said. “It shouldn’t be an open door to spam.”