June 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. government on Tuesday announced a crackdown on operations responsible for making and facilitating illegal robocalls.
The Federal Trade Commission, Justice Department, 15 states and other local authorities said the joint crackdown known as "Operation Call it Quits" involves almost 100 cases including five criminal enforcement actions.
"We're all fed up with the tens of billions of illegal robocalls we get every year," said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Today's joint effort shows that combatting this scourge remains a top priority for law enforcement agencies around the nation."
The operation includes four new FTC cases against three companies -- First Choice Horizon LLC, 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle and Media Mix 365 LLC -- for making robocalls and a Florida man named Derek Jason Bartoli.
The FTC alleges that Bartoli is the developer, operator and provider of a platform used to automatically dial phone numbers which he used to send robocalls to phone numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry.
The FTC has brought 145 cases against robocallers and DNC list violators.
Earlier this month the Federal Communications Commission voted to allow mobile carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to automatically block robocalls for customers by using analytics to determine which calls are unwanted.
