John,

When the phone rings these days, it's rarely a call we'd want to take: if it's not a robocall or an outright scammer, it's likely someone trying to sell us something we didn't want in the first place, on the other end.

It's easy enough to hang up on a robocall from halfway around the world, but what about local companies taking advantage of Oregonians with deceptive, unethical practices?

Recently we sued a local company here in the Northwest and alleged it had made millions of unwanted robocalls and advertised a cleaning service they had no intention of honoring. The argument we will make in court: This was a massive deception in violation of unlawful trade practices; an attempt to scam people into believing their services came at a pretty low rate when, in fact, they charged a lot more.

The point is that fraud like this needs to be stopped, and when businesses won't police themselves, it's time for our legal community to take action. That's why I am taking this company to court, and why I joined recently with state Attorneys General from across America in supporting legislation to combat incredibly annoying robocalls.

Here's the deal: if you deceive Oregon consumers with fraudulent marketing and maddening robocalls, we'll see you in court.

Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted!