Brnovich applauds new FCC rules to help block robocalls | Integrity Garage Doors of Phoenix

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The Federal Communications Commission approved new rules on Thursday that will protect consumers from receiving unwanted robocalls, according to a press release from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich, along with 29 other state attorneys general, urged the federal government back in July to endorse new rules that would block unwanted calls.

“These new rules will help us stop illegal phone scammers from preying on hardworking Arizona families,” Brnovich said in a prepared statement. “We need to use every tool available to protect consumers from scam calls and that includes allowing phone companies to block spoof robocalls.”

The bipartisan group of attorneys general wanted to ban “spoofed” calls, in which a call appears to be coming from one number, but is actually coming from a different number, the Attorney General’s Office press release said.

The FCC said in a separate press release that its most common consumer complaint is about illegal robocalls. The FCC receives nearly 200,000 robocall complaints yearly.

Many of these robocalls can lead to identity theft and scams, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The new rules would let phone companies block fraudulent calls if they come from specific numbers in hopes of stopping theft and scammers.

Previously, cellphone providers were not allowed to block calls. Now, they can stop calls coming in “from invalid numbers, unallocated numbers, and numbers whose owners have requested to be blocked,” the Attorney General’s Office said.