Wilson Joins All 50 States in Push for Tighter Robocall Rules
July 29, 2026
If your phone rings ten times before lunch with numbers you don’t recognize, or your voicemail fills up with recordings about car warranties, unpaid tolls and Medicare benefits you never applied for, you are not alone. Scam robocalls have become a daily interruption for households across Laurens County and the Upstate, and the nation’s attorneys general are asking Washington to do something about it.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has signed on to a bipartisan effort by attorneys general in every state and U.S. territory calling on federal regulators to make it harder for scammers to get illegal robocalls onto the country’s phone network.
The National Association of Attorneys General filed the letter with the Federal Communications Commission on July 28 on the coalition’s behalf. The group wants the agency to toughen what are known as “Know Your Customer” rules, which govern how much a phone company must know about the businesses placing calls through its network. When carriers have that information, the attorneys general argue, they are in a position to cut off customers who break the law or to turn away applicants who cannot demonstrate they run a legitimate operation.
Wilson announced his participation in a post on his campaign Facebook page.
“Scam robocalls are ripping off Americans every day,” Wilson wrote. He said he was joining 49 other state attorneys general in pressing the FCC to strengthen its rules and stop scam calls before they ever reach a consumer’s phone, adding, “We’ll keep fighting to protect South Carolinians from fraud.”
Every illegal robocall has to enter the network somewhere, and that entry point is an originating voice service provider. The coalition’s position is that those companies are the most effective place to stop the calls, because a scammer who cannot get onto the network cannot dial anyone. Carriers already face some obligation to identify their customers, but the attorneys general say the existing standard has proven too thin to make a difference. They cite the scale of the problem: more than 29.6 billion scam calls and texts reached Americans last year, and losses approached $2 billion.
The letter lays out three changes. First, carriers should be required to look past a customer’s name and verify how the business actually operates, including its track record, reputation, what it plans to use the service for and whether it follows state and federal law. Second, the standard should apply to companies of every size. Smaller carriers frequently show up in traceback investigations, and the attorneys general warn that exempting them would simply steer bad actors in their direction. Third, customers who fit a higher risk profile, such as those buying high-volume calling packages, should face ongoing monitoring rather than a single check at signup.
The filing is the second this month connected to Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, a project of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force. Earlier in July, 49 attorneys general submitted reply comments asking the FCC to limit scammers’ ability to acquire legitimate telephone numbers.
The task force opened Phase 1 in August 2025 by warning 37 smaller voice providers about suspected illegal traffic crossing their networks. Phase 2 followed in December and widened the focus to four of the nation’s largest intermediate providers. South Carolina has taken part in the task force since it formed in 2022, and Wilson announced the state’s role in the December expansion.
Residents who receive suspicious calls can file a complaint with the attorney general’s office or with the Federal Trade Commission. Adding a number to the National Do Not Call Registry cuts down on unwanted marketing calls, though it offers little protection against operators who are already ignoring the law.
