Political robocalls ‘spoof ’ woman’s phone number

Starkey couldn’t explain it. Her 86-year-old mother lives in an apartment building in the Akron suburb of Cuyahoga Falls with other senior citizens. The mother and daughter do not share a cellphone account. And Starkey didn’t know a thing about the message, which told recipients to vote against moving Akron’s primary elections from September to May, a move supported by Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan.

“I finally called Verizon, and they couldn’t do anything for me,” said Starkey. “So I had to change my number.”

Starkey said several of the callers were concerned that a woman with an old-fashioned name like Mildred might be caught up in a modern scam. Robocalls often go after unsuspecting victims’ personal financial information. To evade detection or lend themselves credibility, scammers often “spoof” another person’s phone number, masking their true identity with a familiar or official phone number, perhaps one with the same first digits as the number being called or even a number belonging to the Internal Revenue Service.

The automated message hitting Akron asks voters to say no to the proposed charter amendment. The message might violate election law that requires the creators or funders of political ads to identify themselves.

The Federal Communications Commission has similar rules against withholding identities in robocalls, or failing to give citizens the option to block names and numbers that constantly hassle them.

This time, it was Starkey’s old phone number — 330571-5655 — and her mother’s name on the caller ID.

A woman in Akron named Jennifer — who asked not to use her last name for fear of also being spoofed — watched her husband take a call and argue with a woman named Mildred.

“I said, ‘Was that a person?’ He said, ‘No, but I was mad.’”

Meanwhile, officials in Horrigan’s office say they have been slammed with phone calls from residents who are asking how they can add their signatures to the 4,200 needed to put the issue on the November ballot. The Summit County Board of Elections says moving the primary to May would save the city money and make it possible to send out complete absentee ballots to voters abroad — including active military members — ahead of the November election.

Opponents of a May primary say incumbents such as the mayor and council members would benefit from a shorter primary season in a city where general elections in November are usually won by the Democrat who earned the party nomination.