The country's largest cell phone companies are teaming up to block illegal robocalls and scammers. AARP Ohio says this move will be especially helpful for the state's senior citizens.
Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T are among the 12 mobile companies coming up with ways to block automatic telemarketing calls, provide caller ID labeling tools, and implement ways to verify calls that come from valid sources.
Luke Russell, AARP Ohio manager of advocacy and communications, says this is especially good news for older Ohioans.
"They are usually home more, tend to answer their landline or mobile phone regardless of who's calling even if they have caller ID so they're much more susceptible than the general population," says Russell.
Attorneys general from around the country, including Ohio, say they will also play a role by carrying out investigations of scammers.
"This agreement brings phone service providers on board as critical allies in our fight against illegal robocalls," says Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. "By adopting these commonsense business practices, service providers will reinforce our ongoing efforts to crack down on this growing nuisance."
The phone service providers that joined the initiative are AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon and Windstream.
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