We're here today to provide an update on into our
investigation on the AI generated robocalls that were made to
New Hampshire voters in the days leading up to the
New
Hampshire Presidential primary on January 21st.
Just over 2 weeks ago and just two days before
the primary,
numerous New Hampshire voters received robocalls that played a recorded
message in what is believed to be an AI generated
clone of President Biden's voice.
The robocalls encouraged recipients not to participate in the primary.
Specifically, the message included the statement quote
It's important that you save your vote for the November
election.
End Quote and also the statement quote.
Your vote makes a difference in November,
not this Tuesday. End Quote.
The robocalls illegally spoofed their caller ID information to appear
to come from a number belonging to a former chair
of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
The recorded message also instructed recipients to call that number
to ask that person to be removed from future calls.
The individuals or entities who place these calls face potential
civil and criminal penalties under multiple New Hampshire laws,
including New Hampshire
RSA 65940, paragraph 2, which prohibits voter suppression,
and also potential penalties under federal laws such as the
Truth and Caller ID Act of
2009. This law prohibits any anyone from transmitting inaccurate Caller
ID information with the intent to defraud,
cause harm or wrong, wrongly obtain anything of value.
In addition, any person that knowingly facilitates the transmission of
illegal robocalls may be liable under the Telephone Consumer Protection
Act,
which is a federal statute.
After we received multiple multiple reports and complaints on the
day these calls were made and the day after these
calls were made,
my office immediately opened an investigation.
We have worked with the Anti Robocall Multi State Litigation
Task Force Task Force,
which is made-up of a bipartisan coalition of 50 state
attorneys General across the country,
and we have also worked with the Federal Communication
Commission's Enforcement Bureau
as part of our investigation.
And by working with the FCC,
we were able to trace the journey of a select
group of these phone calls through the telecom system
by using the services of the industry.
Trace Back group. This is a private consortium of US
telecom companies that provides trace back services to the private
sector and to law enforcement
industry. Trace Back Group is able to trace calls from
a recipients voice provider back through each chronologically proceeding network
origin until the originating service provider and originating party for
those specific calls are identified.
We worked with industry Trace Back group and requested trace
backs for a select group of these calls.
After looking at these trace backs and reviewing the information
received,
we have have identified the source of these calls to
be Life Corporation,
which is a Texas based company owned by an individual
named Walter Monk.