[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 190 (Tuesday, December 15, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H14946-H14947]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE PHONE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Tim Murphy) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise to speak about 
H.R. 1110, the PHONE Act, which stands for Preventing Harassment 
through Outbound Number Enforcement. It will be voted on tomorrow. This 
bill addresses the growing and serious problems of caller ID fraud that 
allows the caller to hide their true identity to obtain personal 
information for use in identity theft and scams.
  Answering your phone is like answering your door, you're letting 
someone into your home and you need to know that whoever that person 
says they are is true. Caller ID was originally designed to give you 
that information so you could decide to answer your phone and have the 
confidence that you were not taking a call that is unwanted, unsafe, or 
unknown. That is why I worked across the aisle with Representative 
Bobby Scott in introducing H.R. 1110, which was first introduced in the 
109th Congress. Representative Scott took the lead in the 110th 
Congress, and now we are again working together in the 111th Congress 
to pass this very important bill. I thank Representative Scott for his 
leadership and teamwork in passing this public safety bill.

[[Page H14947]]

  The legislation is aimed at preventing and prohibiting caller ID 
spoofing. Spoofing is made available with Internet services that will 
provide false numbers and even disguise your voice so you can easily 
fool the person on the other end of the phone. Criminals coax victims 
into giving up sensitive personal information by making it appear that 
a call is coming from a legitimate institution, such as a bank, 
doctor's office, government office, or even a family member.
  Misleading caller ID information also allows the spoofer to cause a 
victim to accept a call they would otherwise avoid, leading to 
harassment. Even more serious potential dangers exist. A pedophile 
could stalk a child by stealing a school phone number or the phone 
number of a friend or child. A sexual predator could use a doctor's 
office phone number to call their victim.
  The problems with caller ID spoofing are very real. Let me give you a 
few examples.
  There are cases where criminals using stolen credit card numbers call 
a service such as Western Union. They program the caller ID to appear 
to originate from the cardholder's home and use the credit card number 
to order cash transfers.
  Seniors have been misled into believing they missed jury duty. It 
appeared the local courthouse was calling and victims were asked for 
Social Security numbers to prevent prosecution. The calls seemed 
legitimate because the telephone number of the local courthouse showed 
up on caller ID.
  In another example, a SWAT team surrounded a building after it 
appeared a call came from within stating that a woman was being held 
hostage when, in fact, the call was coming from another location. The 
SWAT team showed up expecting to face an armed perpetrator. Luckily, no 
one was hurt in this one instance, but one can easily imagine what 
could have happened if an unsuspecting bystander happened to be at that 
location; a series of misunderstandings could have ended up in tragedy. 
Unfortunately, this process called ``swatting'' has occurred dozens of 
times.
  And just this month, there have been two serious cases of caller ID 
fraud in the news. In Columbia, Maryland, a teenager was arrested for 
making terrorist phone calls to his former school, calling in a bomb 
scare and telling school officials there was a student on campus with a 
gun. The teen used spoofing to make the phone number appear to be 
coming from Texas. Fortunately, the police were able to subpoena the 
phone records and arrest the teen.
  In Brooklyn, New York, a woman used caller ID fraud to exact revenge 
on her husband and his pregnant girlfriend's newborn baby. She 
illegally obtained a prescription that would induce labor early and 
called the girlfriend, using spoofing, to make it appear that her 
obstetrician was calling. The woman, thinking she was under doctor's 
orders, took the medication and the baby was delivered 2 months 
premature. Police were able to track down the woman when she tried to 
deliver a poisonous mixture to the hospital disguised as milk, 
allegedly intending to kill the baby. The police arrested the woman, 
avoiding a devastating, tragic, and potentially fatal outcome that 
originated by using caller ID fraud. This could have been avoided if 
the caller had not used a fraudulent caller ID or if the police could 
have tracked down the perpetrator sooner.
  This bill will make the act of caller ID fraud a felony, and 
criminals could see fines of up to $250,000 and jail time up to 5 years 
if convicted of using caller ID fraud in perpetrating another crime.
  I urge all my colleagues to pass this PHONE Act, H.R. 1110, because 
criminals must know they cannot use this technology loophole to escape 
the law and cause further harm to our citizens.

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