Attorney General Jeff Jackson has secured a win for North Carolinians frustrated with nonstop spam calls.
In response to a lawsuit filed by North Carolina and 7 other states, a court barred John Spiller, owner of several telemarketing agencies, from operating in the telecommunications industry. The court also ordered the prominent robocaller to pay more than $600,000 to offset the costs of the lawsuit to impacted states.
Officials say Spiller owned and operated several voice service providers that facilitated tens of millions of illegal robocalls to North Carolinians, including those who were on the Do Not Call Registry.
The court order prohibits Spiller from working with certain individuals who helped him engage in this conduct, bans him from making any deceptive representations using aliases in government filings, bars Spiller from starting any other telecommunication company, and requires that he pay for the legal fees and other costs to the states who joined in the litigation against him.
Officials say Spiller’s companies were responsible for more than 75 million robocalls to North Carolinians, including over 34 million to people on the Do Not Call Registry in 2019 and 2020 alone. The North Carolina Department of Justice, then under the leadership of current Governor Josh Stein, sued Spiller in 2020 over these unlawful robocalls. The lawsuit ordered Spiller to shut down several of his companies in 2023, but Spiller continued to operate anyway, leading North Carolina to sue again.
“This is a huge win that will help keep millions of people safe from phone scams and fraud,” said Jackson. “I’m grateful to the NCDOJ attorneys who led the team that got this done. Anyone who tries to hurt or rip off North Carolinians will run up against my office and be held responsible.”
