Led by U.S. Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Grace Meng (D-NY) and Joe Barton (R-TX), a bipartisan group of Congressmen reintroduced The Anti-Spoofing Act on Thursday, legislation to stop a national caller ID scam defrauding millions of Americans.
Spoofing is a scheme in which con artists mask their phone numbers, making it appear that they are calling from a bank, police department, government agency, credit card company, pharmacy or hospital. When the victims answer the phone, the scammers concoct a scheme to ask for their Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or other personal or financial information, later using it fraudulently.
“The problem of caller ID spoofing has gotten out of control,” Meng, Barton and Lance said in a joint statement. “Millions of Americans continue to get ripped off by con artists and scammers who perpetrate this despicable crime, many losing thousands of dollars.”
One of the more popular spoofing scam recently is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scam, in which the caller ID shows the call is originating from the IRS. The caller says they are an IRS agent and threatens to storm the victim’s home and place them under arrest unless back taxes are paid immediately via a debit card or electronic transfer.
The new bill would fight spoofing by bolstering the already existing Truth in Caller ID Act.
The measure would: broaden the law to prohibit spoofing by foreigners; broaden the law to include new Internet-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services that enable callers to make outgoing-only calls from computers and tablets to mobile and landline phones, a practice that has contributed significantly to the spoofing problem; and broaden the law to include text messaging, a spoofing method that fraudsters use with increased regularity.
The House passed the bipartisan Meng/Barton/Lance bill last Congress, but it did not move in the Senate. This legislation is expected to be referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
“It is way past time to reign in this disgraceful practice and this legislation would go a long way toward accomplishing that critical goal,” the group added. “We call on the House and Senate to pass our bill as soon as possible.”