Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement stricter rules preventing scammers from exploiting legitimate telephone numbers.

The widespread effort aims to close regulatory loopholes that allow bad actors to buy, resell, and rapidly rotate phone numbers to bypass spam detection and target American consumers.

“Scammers are constantly changing tactics to stay one step ahead, and we have to be just as relentless in protecting consumers,” said AG Skrmetti. “These commonsense reforms will make it harder for scammers to operate and easier for law enforcement to track them down.”

The regulatory push comes in response to an escalating fraud crisis. Last year alone, Americans were bombarded with an estimated 29.6 billion scam robocalls and text messages, resulting in losses of nearly $2 billion.

The coalition’s recommendations build on efforts initiated by the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force in 2021. While previous crackdowns targeted illegal caller-ID “spoofing,” criminals have increasingly pivoted to purchasing and using legitimate phone numbers to build false trust with victims.

In its official submission to the FCC, the coalition urged the adoption of six major reform measures:

• Tighter Certification: Require phone number resellers to meet stricter certification standards and disclose assignment details.

• Traceability & Reporting: Mandate regular reporting on phone number sales and usage to help law enforcement track illegal calls back to their source across the entire provider chain.

• Compliance Certification: Require applicants to formally certify that phone numbers will not be used to facilitate illegal robocalls.

• Legitimate Service Requirements: Block the sale of phone numbers to entities not tied to an authentic calling or texting service.

• End “Number Cycling”: Ban the practice of rapidly rotating through massive blocks of numbers specifically to evade automated spam filters.

• Trial Number Restrictions: Limit access to temporary trial numbers often exploited for quick-strike fraudulent schemes.

The comment letter represents a unified front across state law enforcement, featuring signatures from attorneys general spanning 48 other states, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa.