Bonta's Robocall 'Fix' Is a Big Government Power Grab

Your phone buzzes again. Another robocall promising lower credit card rates or threatening utility shutoffs. It’s relentless, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta wants you to believe he’s riding to the rescue. On April 9, 2025, he joined 51 attorneys general to slap warning letters on nine telecom companies, accusing them of piping scams straight to your ear. All Access Telecom, Lingo Telecom, and others got the sternly worded memo, part of a flashy Anti-Robocall Task Force flex. Sounds like a win, right? Hold the applause. This is less about protecting you and more about government flexing its muscles where it doesn’t belong.

Let’s be real, these calls aren’t just annoying, they’re a financial gut punch. The FTC pegged scam losses at $158 billion in 2024, with seniors over 60 coughing up $61.5 billion alone. Bonta’s press release crows about shielding consumers from Medicare fraud and fake utility disconnects. Fair enough, those are real threats. But the tough-guy act falls flat when you peek behind the curtain, it’s a distraction from a simpler truth: government isn’t the fix here, it’s part of the mess.

Bonta’s coalition leans hard on legal threats, warning telecoms to stop ‘unlawful call traffic’ or face the wrath of state and federal law. They’ve even tattled to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, hoping fines and lawsuits will scare these companies straight. It’s classic big-government playbook: regulate first, think later. But rewind to 1991, when the Telephone Consumer Protection Act kicked off this crusade. Decades later, robocalls aren’t fading, they’re morphing, thanks to AI voice cloning and deepfake trickery. Scammers now mimic your grandma or even President Trump to swindle you. The FCC’s latest TCPA tweak, effective today, demands opt-outs honored in 10 days, with $23,000 fines per violation. Impressive on paper, useless in practice.

Meanwhile, telecom giants like Verizon and AT&T have rolled out STIR/SHAKEN, a call authentication system that’s cut spoofing by verifying 95% of traffic between major carriers. Smaller players lag, sure, but that’s where market pressure, not government edicts, shines. The robocall mitigation market’s set to balloon to $22 billion by 2035, driven by AI spam filters and voice biometrics, innovations bureaucrats didn’t dream up. Companies are racing to protect customers because it’s good business, not because some task force waved a finger.

Here’s where it gets dicey. AI’s turned robocalls into a sci-fi nightmare. Scammers clone voices to fake kidnappings or impersonate Biden, and 73% of Americans are freaked out about it, per recent polls. Bonta’s crew sent a comment letter to the FCC whining about AI’s risks, but their solution? More rules. Contrast that with telecoms deploying AI-driven defenses, like real-time call blockers that sniff out fakes with eerie precision. The FCC banned unsolicited AI robocalls under TCPA, but scammers don’t care, they’re already offshore or hiding behind VoIP loopholes. Regulation chases shadows while private ingenuity builds walls.

History backs this up. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act of 1978 shielded consumers from bank fraud, but it didn’t stop telemarketing scams, enter the TCPA. Fast-forward to 2019’s TRACED Act, which piled on penalties and tech mandates. Yet fraud soared. Why? Government’s too slow, too clunky. In the UK, banks now repay scam victims up to £85,000 fast, no task force required. Here, only 12% of Zelle scam victims got cash back in 2023. The lesson? Let markets sort it out, telecoms and banks can innovate faster than any attorney general’s pen.

Bonta’s crusade isn’t all wrong, he’s right to hate robocalls. But his fix reeks of overreach. Threatening lawsuits against companies like Telcentris or ThinQ Technologies ignores the real culprits: scammers gaming the system, not the networks they ride. Telecoms aren’t perfect, smaller carriers still run outdated tech ripe for exploitation. Yet the FCC’s own data shows STIR/SHAKEN’s rollout slashed spoofed calls where it’s active. The fix isn’t more warning letters, it’s competition. Let customers ditch lousy providers for ones that block scams cold. Reward the Verizons and punish the laggards, no bureaucracy needed.

Look at Avid Telecom, sued by 49 attorneys general in 2023 for billions of illegal calls. That’s a bad apple, not the orchard. Painting all telecoms as villains dodges the truth: government can’t keep up. Canada and the EU are pushing STIR/SHAKEN too, proving global markets get it. Bonta’s task force sounds noble, but it’s a photo op. Real protection comes from tech and choice, not a stack of letters mailed from Oakland.