New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging federal regulators to strengthen proposed rules aimed at stopping illegal robocalls and scams.
James joined a bipartisan coalition of 48 other attorneys general in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt additional safeguards after the agency released new robocall proposals in March.
The attorney general's office said illegal robocalls often use prerecorded or artificial voice messages to impersonate government agencies, financial companies or other trusted entities.
According to the release, scams cost consumers more than $12.5 billion in 2024, including losses tied to fraudulent calls and texts. YouMail reported that consumers in the United States received 4.2 billion robocalls in April 2026, or about 1,600 calls per second.
The FCC's proposal would increase transparency and reporting requirements for companies that sell phone numbers, with the goal of reducing the chance that scammers can obtain numbers used for illegal robocalls.
James and the coalition recommended additional steps, including expanding legal tools available to state attorneys general, prohibiting resale of certain phone numbers, expanding foreign ownership certification requirements and requiring companies that sell phone numbers to participate in mandatory education sessions.
"New Yorkers are getting flooded with predatory robocalls day after day, putting their finances and personal information at risk," James said in the release.
The coalition includes attorneys general from 49 jurisdictions, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
James' office said the effort follows other multistate actions against robocalls, including the creation of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force in 2022 and notices sent in 2025 to 37 phone providers accused of routing fraudulent calls.
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