What is Grizzly Research's core allegation against Sinch AB?

Grizzly Research alleges that Sinch AB, through its subsidiary Inteliquent, has become one of the largest facilitators of scam calls and robocalls in the United States. The firm argues that weak compliance controls, years of ignored regulatory warnings, and the failure to disclose material legal risks to investors create meaningful downside risk to Sinch's revenue, profitability, and share price. Grizzly holds a short position and stands to benefit if the stock declines.

Does STIR/SHAKEN compliance protect Sinch from regulatory consequences?

Sinch frequently cites compliance with the STIR/SHAKEN framework introduced by the FCC in 2022. After consulting industry experts, Grizzly Research concludes that STIR/SHAKEN compliance does not shield Sinch from legal consequences and does not change the fact that it is within Sinch's power to police fraudulent traffic on its network. This conclusion reflects the views of the report's author and the experts it consulted — it is not a formal legal or regulatory determination.

What did scam-hunting group Demurrage find about Sinch?

Demurrage, a group of activist scam hunters, published a nearly 200-page report in December 2025 following a 2024 predecessor. The 2025 report said issues identified the prior year "remain unresolved," cited Sinch's reliance on a single fraud-reporting web form, and said Sinch did not respond when Demurrage emailed fraudoperations@sinch.com about a PayPal refund scam involving a Microsoft Teams number. When a response eventually came, Sinch said the number was associated with "a larger volume issue with a single customer." Demurrage contrasted Sinch's handling unfavorably with Lumen, which it said temporarily blocks reported numbers quickly and communicates with consumers.

What is Onvoy and how is it connected to the allegations?

Onvoy is a subsidiary or affiliate of Inteliquent and operates under Sinch following the 2021 acquisition. It is referenced repeatedly in scam-tracking community discussions and was named alongside Inteliquent in a 2022 class action lawsuit alleging failure to stop robocalls targeting federal student loan borrowers. That lawsuit alleged approximately 60% of all robocalls placed in the United States are delivered by the Onvoy network. The case was later voluntarily dismissed.

What is the broader context for scam-call losses in the U.S.?

Per FTC testimony in March 2026, fraud in the U.S. has grown into a nearly $16 billion industry, up from over $12 billion the prior year and approximately 430% above 2020 levels. Imposter scams — the category most directly tied to the robocall tactics described in the report — accounted for more than $3.5 billion, or 22% of total reported losses. Commsrisk data compiled from FTC figures put scam-related losses via phone calls and text messages at $540 million in the third quarter of 2025 alone.

Grizzly Research: Sinch AB's $1.1B Inteliquent Acquisition Made It One of the Largest Robocall Facilitators in the U.S., With Billions in Fraudulent Calls and Zero Investor Disclosure

Inteliquent drove roughly 76% of Sinch's post-acquisition revenue growth and transformed the Americas into its dominant segment, making any regulatory action against the subsidiary an existential financial threat. The compliance picture is stark: Grizzly found only 8 dedicated compliance staff at Sinch versus nearly 55 at Twilio, and a former Inteliquent employee said the standalone company had one or two people working on compliance. The regulatory trail stretches back to a 2022 FTC warning letter stating Inteliquent was "apparently routing and transmitting illegal robocall traffic knowingly," followed by an SSA OIG subpoena and settlement in 2023, and culminating in a December 2025 multistate AG notice ordering Inteliquent to stop relaying illegal traffic and estimating it facilitated approximately 450 million Amazon/Apple imposter calls and 1.425 billion SSA/IRS imposter calls. None of this has appeared in Sinch's investor filings.

Ticker: SINCH.ST (Sinch AB)
Research Firm: Grizzly Research
Report URL: https://grizzlyreports.com/sinch/?ref=shortreport.fyi
Position Disclosure: Grizzly Research discloses a short position in Sinch AB and states it stands to benefit financially if the share price declines.

Thesis

Grizzly Research alleges that Sinch AB, through its $1.14 billion acquisition of Inteliquent, became one of the largest facilitators of scam calls and robocalls in the Western Hemisphere — and that weak compliance controls, a pattern of ignored regulatory warnings, and a failure to disclose material legal risks to investors create significant downside to revenue, profitability, and valuation.

Transformative Acquisition: Sinch acquired Inteliquent in December 2021 for $1.14 billion, calling it the deal that "made Sinch the largest independent voice network in the United States." North America accounted for SEK 8.8 billion of the SEK 11.5 billion total revenue increase that followed — approximately 76% of all post-deal growth — and the Americas segment grew from roughly 37% to over 62% of total revenue.
Escalating Regulatory Scrutiny: The report alleges Inteliquent has faced a sustained pattern of regulatory action: an FTC warning letter in May 2022 stating Inteliquent was "apparently routing and transmitting illegal robocall traffic knowingly"; a 2023 SSA OIG subpoena and civil monetary penalty settlement via Operation Upstream Carrier Without a Paddle; and a May 2023 finding by Australia's ACMA that Sinch Australia Pty Ltd allowed SMS with text-based sender IDs without adequate legitimacy checks.
Multistate AG Investigation: The most serious current threat, per the report, is the Anti-Robocall Multistate Task Force led by the Attorneys General of Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio. A December 2025 notice to Inteliquent cited 9,712 traceback notices sent since 2019 — including at least 5,728 after August 2022 — and ordered it to stop relaying illegal traffic the task force said amounted to "billions of fraudulent robocalls."
Scale of Alleged Imposter Robocalls: The December 2025 AG notice estimated Inteliquent facilitated over 900,700 of approximately 2 million sampled Amazon/Apple imposter robocalls between October 2021 and November 2024, extrapolating to roughly 450 million such calls nationwide. A separate estimate covering May 2020 to November 2024 attributed more than 2.85 million of 6.2 million sampled SSA/IRS imposter robocalls to Inteliquent, extrapolating to approximately 1.425 billion nationwide.
No Investor Disclosure: The report alleges Sinch has not disclosed any of these regulatory matters in its filings, including the December 2025 AG notice, despite the communication indicating Inteliquent had been in ongoing dialogue with the task force.
Inadequate Compliance Staffing: A LinkedIn Sales Navigator search cited in the report found only 20 Sinch employees with titles related to fraud, KYC, or compliance, with the apparent dedicated compliance team numbering around 8 people and no comparable Inteliquent employees identified. A former Inteliquent employee said the standalone company had only one or two people working on compliance. By comparison, Twilio — Sinch's largest competitor — had 149 employees in related roles, including a nearly 55-person dedicated compliance team. (Compliance headcount comparisons are drawn from LinkedIn data and are circumstantial.)
Profiting From Illicit Traffic: The report argues, circumstantially, that Inteliquent's compliance gaps are not accidental — that limited controls may persist because illicit and gray-area traffic is profitable, with Inteliquent appearing to sell blocks of phone numbers to bad actors and route the calls they generate.
Consumer and Industry Evidence: Searches across scam-reporting platforms including Scammer.Info, ScamWarners.com, and ScamSurvivors.com returned over 800 results tied to Sinch and subsidiaries versus approximately 450 for Twilio. A December 2025 activist report by scam-hunting group Demurrage, described as nearly 200 pages, said issues identified in its 2024 predecessor "remain unresolved," cited non-responsiveness from Sinch's fraud operations channels, and contrasted Sinch unfavorably with Lumen. (Complaint-volume comparisons are circumstantial and not adjusted for total call traffic.)

Notable Details

The day after the 2024 U.S. election, a post on X alleged that Onvoy's system was used to send racist text messages to Black individuals — an example the report uses to illustrate how abuse on the network extends beyond financial scams.
When scam-hunting group Demurrage eventually received a response from Sinch's fraud operations team after reporting a PayPal refund scam involving an MS Teams number, Sinch said the number was associated with "a larger volume issue with a single customer" — language the report presents as suggesting the company was already aware of a problematic customer relationship rather than an isolated bad actor.
A 2022 class action lawsuit against Inteliquent and Onvoy alleged that "approximately 60% of all robocalls placed in the United States are delivered by the Onvoy network." The case was later voluntarily dismissed. Applied to YouMail's estimate of 52.8 billion U.S. robocalls in 2024, that figure would imply over 23 billion annual fraudulent calls on Inteliquent's network — though this extrapolation is the report's own inference from a dismissed complaint, not a regulatory finding.
Inteliquent's Better Business Bureau page carries a 1.04-out-of-5 rating, with consumer complaints characterizing it as a major source of scam calls and referencing the National Do Not Call Registry.
Per FTC testimony in March 2026, fraud in the U.S. has become a nearly $16 billion industry — up from over $12 billion the prior year and approximately 430% above 2020 levels — with imposter scams alone accounting for more than $3.5 billion, or 22% of total reported losses.

"Sinch AB has evolved into one of the largest facilitators of scam calls in the Western Hemisphere through its ownership of Inteliquent."

— Grizzly Research, closing statement of the report

FAQs

What is Inteliquent and why does it matter to Sinch?

Inteliquent is a U.S. wholesale voice communications provider that Sinch acquired in December 2021 for $1.14 billion. Sinch described the deal as making it "the largest independent voice network in the United States." Per the report, North America accounted for approximately SEK 8.8 billion of the SEK 11.5 billion total revenue increase that followed the deal — about 76% of all post-acquisition growth — and the Americas segment has since grown to over 62% of Sinch's total revenue. Grizzly calls Inteliquent Sinch's "golden goose."

What is the Anti-Robocall Multistate Task Force and what has it found about Inteliquent?

The Anti-Robocall Multistate Task Force is a bipartisan group led by the Attorneys General of Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio. In December 2025, the task force sent Inteliquent an eight-page notice warning that it was transmitting "billions of fraudulent robocalls" and ordering it to stop relaying illegal traffic. The notice cited 9,712 traceback notices sent to Inteliquent since 2019, including at least 5,728 after August 2022 — after the task force had already raised concerns — and alleged Inteliquent was responsible for nearly half of U.S. robocall traffic.

How many scam robocalls is Inteliquent alleged to have facilitated?

The December 2025 AG notice estimated that between October 2021 and November 2024, Inteliquent facilitated over 900,700 of roughly 2 million sampled Amazon and Apple imposter robocalls, extrapolating to approximately 450 million such calls reaching U.S. consumers. A separate estimate covering May 2020 to November 2024 attributed more than 2.85 million of 6.2 million sampled SSA/IRS government imposter robocalls to Inteliquent, extrapolating to approximately 1.425 billion nationwide. These are the task force's estimates and are described as allegations.

Has Sinch disclosed these regulatory investigations to investors?

Grizzly Research alleges Sinch has not disclosed any of the regulatory matters documented in the report — including the FTC warning letter, the SSA OIG subpoena and settlement, the ACMA findings in Australia, or the December 2025 AG task force notice — in its investor filings. The report notes the AG communication itself indicates Inteliquent had been in ongoing dialogue with the task force, making the absence of disclosure more notable, in the firm's view.

What prior regulatory actions has Inteliquent faced?

The FTC sent Inteliquent a warning letter in May 2022 stating that prior traceback notices from USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group indicated Inteliquent was "apparently routing and transmitting illegal robocall traffic knowingly." In 2023, the SSA Office of the Inspector General subpoenaed Inteliquent as part of Operation Upstream Carrier Without a Paddle and reached a civil monetary penalty settlement. Also in May 2023, Australia's ACMA found that Sinch Australia Pty Ltd allowed SMS with text-based sender IDs to be sent without sufficient legitimacy checks.

How does Sinch's compliance staffing compare to peers like Twilio?

A LinkedIn Sales Navigator search cited in the report found only 20 Sinch employees with job titles related to fraud, KYC, or compliance, with the dedicated compliance team appearing to number around 8 people. No comparable Inteliquent employees were identified in the search. A former Inteliquent employee separately told the report's author that the standalone company had only one or two people working on compliance. By comparison, Twilio reportedly had 149 employees in fraud, KYC, and compliance-related roles, including a nearly 55-person dedicated compliance team. These figures are drawn from LinkedIn data and are characterized as circumstantial by the report.

What are the key financial risks Grizzly sees for Sinch?

Grizzly Research identifies several potential financial catalysts for Sinch: enforcement actions from the multistate AG task force, orders requiring Inteliquent or Onvoy to stop relaying illegal traffic, and the revenue and margin impact of any required compliance upgrades or customer terminations. Because North America — driven largely by Inteliquent — now accounts for over 62% of Sinch's total revenue, regulatory action targeting that business would, in the firm's view, have an outsized impact on overall financial performance.

Disclaimer: This summary is not primary research and does not constitute investment advice. It is a brief overview of a detailed equity research report authored by the firm, organization, or source referenced in this article or at https://grizzlyreports.com/sinch/?ref=shortreport.fyi, which contains extensive evidence, regulatory filings, and analysis; readers are encouraged to review the full report there for a comprehensive understanding. The content provided in this publication is not authored or originated by us — we act solely as a distributor and do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. This publication is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Always conduct independent due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions based on the information contained herein. We disclaim all liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on third-party content, and the views expressed are solely those of the respective source and do not necessarily reflect our own.