Californians, Rejoice! New Robocall Bill Introduced in California State Senate
This month, California State Senator Ben Hueso proposed a bill that aims to stop “neighbor spoofing” robocall scams. “Neighbor spoofing” is a tactic whereby criminals change their caller ID to a local number so that the recipient will be more likely to pick up the call.
Neighbor spoofing is a fairly new tactic that became popular among scammers in 2018. New technology makes it easy for nearly anyone and everyone to hide the number that they are really calling from. That’s how a scam artist can dial from Africa and trick you into thinking that he’s your next door neighbor.
“Scammers use spoofing as a means of ensuring that consumers will answer their calls,” Senator Hueso said in a statement to KUSI News in San Diego. “While consumers may answer these calls expecting to speak with a friend, family member, or local business, they frequently receive an automated message from a robocall system attempting to defraud them and steal personal information.”
Luckily for Californians, the new robocall bill, if passed, will set a deadline by which telecommunications providers must develop ways to crack down on these illegal robocalls. Senate bill number 208 seeks to add to add Section 2893.5 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to communications.
The bill states that it will “require a telecommunications service provider, on or before July 1, 2020, to implement specified protocols or similar standards to verify and authenticate caller identification for calls carried over an internet protocol network.”
Unfortunately, however, this bill won’t solve the growing problem of robocalls for good. It’s a step in the right direction, but millions of Americans are still exposed to scam calls on a daily basis.
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