New York Drops the Call for Nuisance Call Enforcement

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says calls to investigate “Do Not Call” violators are going unanswered.

An audit shows nuisance calls to New Yorkers have more than doubled since 2014 but only two cases were referred for enforcement action by the Division of Consumer Protection in 2016 and 2017.

A big part of the lack of enforcement cited in the audit is limited staffing and no director of investigations in the Division of Consumer Protection for over a year.

DiNapoli’s office says New Yorkers are subjected to over 450,000 robocalls a year in spite of the enactment of the Do Not Call Law in 2001.

Another issue with the lack of enforcement, beside consumer satisfaction, is that the state has been losing out on money it could have been collecting in fines from violators.

The Comptroller is calling on the DCP to assess current and planned enforcement activities to determine what staff it needs, develop written procedures for staff to address accuracy and completion of Do Not Call information and look into using Federal Trade Commission resources.

While agreeing with the audit findings, the Department of State noted evolving technologies continue to make identifying companies making the offending calls difficult.