Attorney General Ellison issues robocall warning to iDentidad

October 18, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) — Today, Attorney General Keith Ellison, as part of his work on the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, sent a letter to iDentidad Advertising Development LLC, also known as iDentidad Telecom, warning the company that it is transmitting suspected illegal robocall traffic and should stop immediately.

“Nobody likes robocalls,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Not only are they extremely annoying, but they are often a tool used by scammers to con honest, hardworking people. Today, I am taking action to halt abusive, deceitful, and unlawful robocalls. I hope this letter serves as a warning to bad actors that my Office is ready to move against anyone breaking our laws, rules, and regulations around robocalls. Anyone who does not get that should expect to hear from my Office, and they’ll get a lot more than a pre-recorded message when they do.”

Attorney General Ellison is part of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general, which investigates and takes legal action against those responsible for routing illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States.

The task force notes that iDentidad received nearly 200 traceback notices for calls the company routed to the U.S. telephone network that mostly came from outside the country. These were large numbers of calls that were illegal or part of suspicious robocall campaigns. Some of these traceback notices concerned illegal and/or suspicious calls about IRS/Social Security Administration government imposters, utilities scams, and financial scams. Recently, iDentidad routed spoofed calls to non-Illinois residents that impersonated the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

If iDentidad doesn’t stop routing suspicious or illegal robocall traffic, the attorneys general may take legal action including seeking damages, civil penalties, and injunctions. The Federal Communications Commission also sent a cease-and-desist to iDentidad today.

A copy of the letter is available here.

All of the task force’s warning letters to companies are available here.

This action is the latest in Attorney General Ellison’s ongoing work to hold people accountable for illegal use of robocalls. On May 23, 2023, Attorney General Ellison sued Avid Telecom for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people and violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and other federal telemarketing and consumer laws. Attorney General Ellison alleges in the lawsuit that Avid Telecom sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, including at least 14,395 calls into Minnesota.

Minnesotans with complaints about robocalls can submit them to the Attorney General’s Office using this online form. The Office can also be contacted by phone at (651) 296-3353 (Metro area) or (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota).