Zoeller opposes student-loan debt collectors robocalling

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller (ZEHL'-ur) is urging Indiana members of Congress to work to restore a longstanding prohibition on student loan debt collectors from using robocalls to cellphones.

He said such calls pester people and run up consumers' cellphone bills. Among the biggest categories of consumer complaints his office receives are complaints about incorrect or harassing debt collection calls.

Zoeller says an obscure provision of the budget deal signed into law Monday amends a 1991 law through which Congress and the Federal Communications Commission long have banned the use of auto-dialer machines to call consumers without their permission. The provision grants an exception to the auto-dialer ban for debt collectors for federal student loans, permitting them to robocall cellphone numbers and play messages.