 Well, good afternoon, everybody. I'm TJ Donovan, Vermont Attorney General, and we are here to talk about progress that we have made in Vermont's fight against robo calls with me today from the Attorney General's office. Charity Clark, our chief of staff, Chris Curtis, who is the chief of our public protection division, Jamie Renner, who is an assistant attorney general who has worked on this issue not only in Vermont, but nationally. Ted Hobson, who is our consumer assistance director and Lisa Jensen, who is our consumer assistance coordinator. We're very pleased and thrilled to have two champions in the Vermont Senate, who have been introducing legislation and fighting for Vermonters, and further livelihood on these incessant robo calls and that is Senator Dick Sears from Bennington County and Senator Randy Brock from Franklin County. And finally, we have Greg Marshallton who's the executive director of AARP Vermont. I want to thank everybody for joining us today. So, robo calls are a major problem in this country and in Vermont. Today in Vermont, about 160,000 robo calls hit Vermont. And what's a robo call robo call is a computer generated phone call that delivers a prerecorded message. Many, if not most of these robo calls are scams, we've all gotten them. Oftentimes they impersonate government agencies or businesses. They threaten Vermonters with legal action or fines, and they intimidate call recipients into paying them money to resolve these made up threats. And why we're getting so many of these calls is unfortunately they're working. And so here at the Attorney General's office, we've heard Vermonters call for help, they're pleased for help to do something about it. And I think we have some progress to announce today. Here's the thing. In the past when we said, when Vermonters have asked us what can you do about robo calls, sometimes we've shrugged our shoulders and said well look not much they originate overseas. But here's the thing. Foreign scammers, where most these calls are coming from, they can't call into Vermont directly they can't call Vermonters directly. What they do is they have to rely on US based phone companies to accept their scam robo calls onto the US phone network, and then they route these scam robo calls to their US destination numbers. These US phone companies act as gateways for fraud and that is what we are focusing on today and going forward. There are eight-way carriers in the United States that act as the middlemen for these overseas fraud calls that come in. And we're here to hold one such company accountable today. In October of last year, a Florida based phone company called Strategic IT Partner routed thousands of fraudulent robo calls from overseas into Vermont. And it originated the Social Security Administration. That is the number one scam in Vermont right now, the Social Security Scam and I know Lisa Jensen will talk about that shortly. They threaten Vermonters with legal action. And despite the fact that the calls came from overseas, they appeared as being from US phone numbers. These calls were a classic robo call scam. This is not on complaints from Vermonters. This is key. We need your help in this. And with support from US telecom and association of US phone companies, we were the Vermont Attorney General's office were able to trace this scam robo call campaign from its landing place in Vermont back to an unidentifiable source in India. It's quite amazing. We're able to trace this call from Vermonter who called our CAP office that 1806492424. We then went to the US telecom association and we were able to trace that call back to somewhere in India. We determined that strategic IT partners based in Florida had acted as that gateway carrier and they brought the call from India to the US and into Vermont and to a specific Vermonter. So we reached out to the Social Security Administration and with some assistance from them, we determined that strategic IT partners knew or should have known that it was facilitating scam robo calls, a basic legal principle. And based on those allegations, we were able to reach a settlement with strategic IT partners. And that settlement blocks the company. The settlement blocks the company, which is this gateway carrier from bringing scam calls into the US specifically under the terms of the agreement. Strategic IT partner is required to take exhaustive steps to screen the legitimacy of all potential foreign customers. They now have the burden to make sure to vet these calls to make sure they're not scam calls as they come into Vermont. This is a big deal. They have to screen the legitimacy of all potential foreign customers. Strategic IT partners is barred from bringing all robo calls from foreign customers into the US, unless the company has first verified the legitimate legitimacy of the calls. I'll say that again, it's a big deal. They are barred from bringing all robo calls from foreign customers into the US, unless the company has first verified the legitimate legitimacy of the calls. In addition, strategic IT partners have assessed a $67,000 penalty to the state of Vermont. 7000 is to be paid. The remaining 60 is going to be suspended for inability to pay and for cooperation, frankly, with our office and the investigation. Because I think this framework is the critical piece that I'm going to talk a little bit more about where we can now hopefully go after other gateway carriers. And the $60,000 penalty is going to be a deterrent as it will be triggered by future illegal robo robo call activity in Vermont, and it would be a violation of our legal document called the assurance of discontinuance. Here's the other part. If the company violates the settlement. It's required to pay Vermont state of Vermont $2000 per robo call that hits us. Remember, we get 160,000 of these things a day. That's a big penalty. So this is the first settlement nationally that requires a US based telecommunications company to block all robo call traffic, unless and until it first verifies robo calls as being legitimate. Okay, I don't want to declare victory and I'm not spiking the ball. I do think this, this is progress strategic it partners is just one of many US based companies that are going to act as gateways for foreign scam calls. So this is not the end of robo calls I want to be clear with Vermonters about this. But for our office this settlement is the start of a long term commitment to addressing illegal robo calls and I want to thank Vermonters for continually calling our office and complaining about robo calls and demanding that we do something about it. We heard you we took action. So, in addition to our settlement with strategic it partner today we're also announcing the launch of the Attorney General's robo call team to be led by assistant attorney general Ted Hobson. Our robo call team will review complaints that come into our office from a legal robo calls, Vermonters, we need your help. If you're getting these calls. We have a new scam reporting tool that will unveil here shortly, we need to know about it, because in order to trace back these calls. We need the original call in order to reach out to the Social Security Administration and US telecom association to do the trace back investigation for monitors we need your help. So we'll review those complaints as they come in, and we'll work to identify which US based telecommunication company, or companies are responsible for bringing these calls from abroad into the US and Vermont. And we'll address our concerns to these companies on behalf of you, the Vermont public. So as I said, this unfortunately isn't the end of scam robo calls. It will, it will take commitment not just by our office but our federal law enforcement partners, like the Federal Trade Commission, like the Social Security Administration partnered with us in this case we're grateful for their help. We have fellow state attorney generals to hold us gateway carriers to account. But through this settlement, I believe Vermont has modeled a new national approach to choke off scam calls at the past. I'm incredibly proud of our team I want to thank Jamie renner for his leadership on this issue and Chris Curtis and hit with his team. Lisa Jensen and her team at cap to a tremendous job we get thousands of calls to cap every year from Vermonters. And it's mostly about scams and we will talk about this a bit. But this is real money that Vermonters are being are getting ripped off from Vermonters are losing money because of these scams. We heard you and we took action today against one such company to help stop Vermonters from being scammed and to stop the robo calls. I want to now turn it over to Senator Dick Sears, who has introduced legislation in the Vermont Senate with Senator Randy Brock to add more enforcement to stop these robo calls Senator Sears. Thank you Attorney General Donovan really appreciate your agencies steadfast support for the robo call bill s 11, which pass the Senate without much debate. Senator Brock and I this is our think our third robo call bill and we have not been able to get them through the house. Part of the problem is folks don't see it. Well, there's not much you can do in Vermont because they are not housed in Vermont. So how important isn't but I think it sends a message number one that Vermonters are fed up with robo calls. I mean, I think we're all annoyed by that constant robo call this is your final opportunity to take care of your warranty, and we will not call you again and say oh my gosh, I hope they don't, but they do. Hearing that, at least two thirds to three quarters of all robo calls or scans scans that take in vulnerable Vermonters, as well as well meaning Vermonters who are just worried about that package that was just intercepted at the border and if you don't contact us immediately, you're going to be arrested. That's a call I got the other day actually. And so I really think this bill is important but it's also if all states do pass such bills, or the majority do I think there's seven or eight others that already have. I think it'll be time for the federal government to take real action and prevent these robo calls to coming to any citizen in the United States. But at the very least, what you've done and what your agency has been able to do in this one case is stop some of those calls, and we do appreciate it, and we appreciate. Thank you, Senator Sears and we thank you for your leadership and support and protecting Vermonters. Senator Brock. Again, I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue. It goes without saying that this is a bipartisan bill this is an issue that really is not political this is just about common sense and protecting Vermonters. So Senator Brock, I want to turn it over for you and want to thank you for your continued leadership on this issue. Thank you, Attorney General Donovan for yours. This is a first step and you know robo calls are are sort of like an electronic mosquito. We constantly find them buzzing around our head and occasionally they bite and actually take blood. It's just an annoyance but they are a danger. And they're so ubiquitous that, just as an example when the chief of staff of the Attorney General's office was testified on one of these bills and one of our committees, she got a robo call. Here's on the committee got a robo call. That's how bad it is. And so many people in Vermont are concerned about this that if you ask them about what's the most annoying thing that you find happening to you in today's world robo calls come high on the list I'm very encouraged that we're making progress. One of the most popular action is I hope the first of many actions and it's not the only tool that will be in the box but I hope to see that toolbox full filled with a lot of things that deal with this issue going forward. Thank you Senator Brock and I agree we 100% this is one but tool but we hope to continue to fill that box up with other tools to help protect Vermonters and their livelihood. Let's turn it over to Lisa Jensen who is our CAP coordinator consumer assistance program which is housed at UVM, which is really in the front lines of this issue. It receives thousands of constituent calls from Vermonters every year I think it's between 11,000 13,000 a year. One thing at CAP you talk to a real live person, and we try to help you, and the number is 1-800-649-2424, but we also have a new scan reporting tool that hopefully Vermonters will use so Lisa let me turn it over to you. Thank you TJ. Yes, as TJ mentioned we are here to answer the phone to answer your questions. Last year we received over 5000 calls from Vermonters who are reporting scan robo calls. We are here to verify some Vermonters call us and they're not sure if it is a scam call. So take the time. We want Vermonters to take the time to verify and call our office if they have any questions about a call coming in that may be a scam. We also are very excited to share our new online reporting tool which allows Vermonters to provide us quick information about the details of the call. And so with that information we're able to collect this data, which again has led to this very exciting first step, and you can find that online scam form at the Attorney General's website. And if anyone has any trouble accessing the form and do want to talk to us to verify the call, then yes please call our number at 800-649-2424. The form itself is very easy to use it should only take someone about five minutes to fill out. And it's really important that we as TJ said that we get your help and get that information in our online scam reporting form. And as always, CAP is here to answer any questions from any Vermonter about a consumer issue question or to get some help resolving an unresolved complaint. Thank you, Lisa. I just want to reiterate the message to Vermonters, we need this information if we're able to do these trace back investigations and hold these companies accountable. It starts with a Vermonter calling our office or even better filling out that online reporting complaint that we then can use to conduct the investigation so Vermont we need your help. Finally, I want to ask Greg Marshallton who is the executive director of ARP Vermont to say a few words. Greg and I have worked closely over the years. The ARP does a tremendous amount of work to raise awareness about scams and robocalls and to prevent fraud for their members. We've had the privilege of being part of those conversations and, you know, I think a senator Sears said you hear these stories where Vermonters are getting ripped off, and they're getting scammed on really those calls, they pull on people's heartstrings, they threaten them, they scare them, and Vermonters are losing real money as a result of this. And one of the things we always say is there's no shame in these stories because it's happening to all of us and we need to raise awareness so people can be armed with this information. So Greg, thank you and ARP for your continued great work in lifting up Vermonters' voices and for your work in preventing fraud being perpetuated against Vermonters. With that, Greg. Thanks, Attorney General Donovan, and a big congratulations to Jamie and Chris. This is a very, I think a very significant step. It may seem small, but this is a breakthrough because as General Donovan is saying, the tens and hundreds of thousands of robocalls that come into this state are, Senator Brock happily said, some may just cause a little bit of blood, but some take a huge chunk out of you. I also want to congratulate the bipartisan leadership of Senator Brock and Senator Sears on introducing this robocall bill. We do a lot of work around the state with our members in the public educating them on frauds and scams. And what's really terrific about today is it shows that it requires a legislative law enforcement and a public education effort to really combat this insidious crime. General Donovan has been really all around the state with us, big events, small events. He's done telephone town halls with us. And I think, there's always someone who has a really, really painful story and that they're willing to tell. And that sort of gets us back to how valuable the consumer assistance program is and the stuff that Ted and Lisa lead. I strongly encourage our members to report to cap. This is how we can get on top of these, these robocalls scams as quickly as possible and get the message out to Vermonters across the state. I want to say one thing more is that the Social Security scams, General Donovan said is the most prolific scam not just here in Vermont, but I believe in all 50 states is the number one scam. It is a primary phone scam, and it is a fear based phone scam. So if you can imagine 3050 100,000 calls on the Social Security scam coming into Vermont. And let's just say that person ends up getting lucky on, you know, scams two or three people, right for very, very little investment upfront. And it's going to be eight 1015 $20,000 from two or three individuals. And for that crook, it is a good day's work so trying to put this into scale particularly with the scam is important because the Social Security scam is the single most prolific scam in the country, and it is predominantly arrives through people's landlines and mobile phones. And this is a really important step to begin protecting particularly older people who we all know here are more vulnerable than other parts of other generations in Vermont. And again I applaud General Donovan and his team, Senators Brock and Sears and our good friends over at the CAP program who just do incredible work, helping protect Vermonters and providing them real time information. Thanks for inviting me today. Thank you, Greg. Before I open it up for questions, I just want to ask Lauren to show two, two slides. One from our friends from the Michigan Attorney General's office about an anatomy of a robot call to really understand that this is a global network. And this is why this has been such a tough nut to crack for for so many, for so many of us in law enforcement. This is this is one but can you go to the next one, Lauren. So you have about five different players involved all over the globe as we said most of these scam calls are coming from overseas, hitting multiple carriers with some technology that I think some of my colleagues can explain better than I can before it hits the remonder. And I think this is why this has been so difficult as I said to bring an enforcement action and why it's so critical for Vermonters to report this to us because getting that scam number allows us to then reach out to our partners not only in the federal government, but also in the private sector of the US telecom association to to conduct these trace back investigations and in this particular case, we're able to trace that call back to to India. And so, this is complex. Obviously it's big money. And it is something that I know that everybody on this conference cares deeply about about combating, because at the end of the day what this means is about protecting Vermonters, and that is something that we all feel incredibly powerful about. So with that, I will open it up to questions and think I will turn it over to charity at this point. And so, a couple of you did reach out to us to say that you wanted to ask a question so I'll start with those folks if there are other members of the press who are on and would like to ask a question. You can email Lauren at Lauren dot yonder J and DL at Vermont dot gov and and let her know if you'd like to ask a question, but we can kick things off with Pat Bradley from W am see and Lauren will unmute Pat. I might just, I have to leave for the Senate floor in a few minutes. Thank you, Senator Sears. Thank you, or anybody but those short. Hi. Good to see you guys even if it is just virtually. It's been a while hope you're doing well. I actually have a couple of questions. TJ, you mentioned that you really need Vermonters to become involved in this, because you need the original call information and you showed a part of the reporting form. I think, you know, it might be important to know exactly what needs to be reported so that you can trace stuff back, you know, do they need to know the phone number that came in do they need to report. What was said, I mean, what needs to be reported to help you with this. Senator, thanks, let me ask Jamie writer who led this to jump in on that Jamie. Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, what we need to understand from the public in order to trace a call is to know the exact date, the time, sorry the date that all came in, and the exact time on that date, the call occurred, which people can access on their cell phones call histories or phone records. And the number, the number that called you, and what was said. Now, if a scammers left a message on your voice answering machine you can, you know, send us a message as well. But the bottom line of what we need is the date of the call time of the call, the number that called you in your number, and the new reporting form that we're publicizing today would prompt you to provide us all that information. And what are the elements in this that could be replicated that would allow you to catch other gateway carriers I mean, kind of technically how exactly does this work. Sure. So, there's an organization called us telecom, which is an association of us based telecommunications companies. And the way that an investigation like this begins is, we get a complaint from a consumer that says I got a scammable call on this day and time. We provide the relevant information to us telecom. So telecom, which again is is an association of many US based telecommunication companies can work out among themselves, exactly how that call came into the US, what tower and hop to what was the next hour the next hour to the consumer. So, they can report back through US telecom on the history of a given call, and how that call moved from outside the United States into some defined US point of entry, and then hopped across towers through a series of other phone providers to the consumer. So once we became aware of US point of entry investigation began. Yes, it sounds complicated, but kind of in simple terms. Why hasn't anybody thought of doing this in the past. I think that law enforcement efforts to address robo call scams have been evolving for years and are in a constant state of evolution. I think that this is just the right moment in time where US telecom is providing this capability to law enforcement law enforcement like our office is now aware of it, and can now take advantage of it. And we just the mold hadn't been broken. I should let some other folks in. Thank you. Thank you Pat. I have Jack Thurston from WECN. Hey Jack. Hello, can you hear me. We can hear you. TJ you spoke of this perhaps being a roadmap that that others may follow to take enforcement action. Have you, have you spoken about this with your other, you know attorneys general counterparts all across the country is their role in in doing elsewhere what you've seems to have accomplished here. Yeah, absolutely. Chris and Jamie to jump on this. We're part of a working group with some of our sister states on this issue. Look, I think as Senator Brock and Senator Sears and Greg Marshall and talked about this is not a Vermont issue this is a, this is an issue in every state in our country. But Jamie or Chris do you want to talk about kind of the nag working group. Sure. And just as a, you know, there's a presidential matter I mean this is this announcement today is announcing the terms of this resolution and I suspect there will be great interest across the country in this resolution as a framework or a template that others can look to to impose conditions on for years, with respect to robocalls so our hope is that this is helpful to our sister states. AG offices are always talking about, you know, issues that confront their citizens and their constituents, and robocalls are universally a problem for consumers all over the country so I think there will be great interest. I think that the other key here is a jack and answer your question is, I think this is important example of state and federal cooperation on investigation so our connection to the Social Security Administration. I have no doubt will serve as a model that it too can be translating to other jurisdictions as it tracks and monitors illegal robocalls relating specifically to the social security scam. Jamie anything you want to add. Thanks. And my only other question was about, by the way, you might want to work on that acronym I don't know if nag is the group is the best best name for your group. But Jamie, could you talk technically about what is what's keeping. What's keeping these gateway providers from just setting up some sort of loop where they can somehow remain invisible you know can't they route numbers to some other, you know shell computer somewhere. Have you found out a way to defeat that kind of rerouting. Well, I'm not sure that these players if they're participating in the US telecom network in terms of passing their calls forward to legitimate phone providers, who are then bringing those calls to us can hide, because they're invariably in a business relationship with the downstream provider who takes the call from them and passes the call forward to the next provider who passes it to the next provider as intermediaries who passes it then to Verizon or AT&T to send along to the consumer. So, I'm not sure they can hide in the context of a trace back. Excellent cool thank you I appreciate it. So those are the only two folks so far who have let us know that they want to be unmuted to ask a question. Lauren have any others. Email to use a left let us know that they need to ask a question. I haven't received any emails on folks have raising functions so if you want to quickly ask a question, feel free to raise your hand. Otherwise, I think we can wrap it up. I also say that you're, of course, always welcome to email Lauren or me if you have a question or want to talk to us about anything or get any more info. Just let us know. Great. Thank you all.