On November 15, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing on the Preventing Harassment through Outbound Number Enforcement (PHONE) Act (H.R. 5304). The bill would make it illegal for anyone to knowingly modify caller identification (ID) information with the intent to mislead the recipient of the telephone call. Violators would be subject to up to five years imprisonment, fines up to $250,000, or both.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), said, “Congress has repeatedly tried to prevent identity theft. Unfortunately, with new technology comes new risks and new opportunities for criminals to skirt the law. One of these technologies used by thieves is the practice of ‘call spoofing,’ or caller ID fraud, where one masks their identity by altering their outbound caller ID number in order to mislead the call recipient. Some may describe call spoofing as a way to maintain caller privacy. But it is nothing less than fraud.” He continued saying, “This bill is particularly necessary to protect American families, the elderly and businesses, because illegally using another person’s phone number could have limitless unlawful applications. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how dangerous this practice could be for unlawful people: an ex-spouse could harass a former wife or husband who has blocked calls from the ex-spouse’s phone line. A pedophile could stalk a child by stealing a school phone number or the phone number of a friend of the child. A sexual predator could use a doctor’s office phone number.”
Also testifying were: Phil Kiko, chief of staff and general counsel of the House Judiciary Committee, on his experience as a victim of spoofing; Barry Sabin, deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, on the need for criminal penalties; and James Martin, president of the 60 Plus Association, on the need to protect seniors.
