Senate pressured to take up anti-‘spoofing’ bill

The lawmaker behind new legislation to stop caller ID scams is asking the Senate to pass her bill in the few days remaining on this year’s congressional calender.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), whose Anti-Spoofing Act easily passed the House in September, sent leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee a letter on Tuesday asking their help in getting the bill across the finish line.

{mosads}The bill aims to combast “spoofing,” in which people scramble the identifiying phone numbers of incoming phone calls and text messages.

“I know of no reason for opposition to the legislation,” Meng wrote in Tuesday’s letter to the Senate. “But it is very unclear that there would be another opportunity to pass these reforms in the next Congress.”

“Therefore, Senate inaction… would directly and clearly contravene the public interest.”

Staffers for Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who introduced the bill along with Meng, have also been in touch with the Senate and have pushed them to try and enact the bill this year, a spokesman said. 

Their bill would update a 2009 law that prohibits caller ID fraud to get rid of loopholes that she says allows scammers to trick millions of people into answer phone calls or responding to texts. Telemarkets and others can use the ploy to get people to give up their personal or even financial details.  

“It is plaguing the most vulnerable among us all across the country,” Meng wrote.

The bill would broaden the law to prevent spoofing from foreigners and extend it to text messages and computer and tablet-based calls, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Meng and barton introduced the bill along with Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) almost exactly one year ago. 

—Updated at 1:05 p.m. on Dec. 10.